DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27191#0240
204
BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE.
Book I.
The whole of the caves in this group resemble one another
so much in detail and execution that it is difficult to make out
any succession among them, and it is probable that they were
all excavated within the same century as the Vij’wakarma.
The two temples, north of the VDwakarma, are particularly
interesting to the antiquarian, as pointing out the successive
steps by which the Buddhistical caves merged into the forms of
the Brahmanical.
The first is No. u, the Don Tal or Dukhya-garh, a Buddhist
vihara of which the lower storey was long completely silted up
—hence its name of the ‘ two storeyed ’; but in 1877 the ground
floor was excavated, consisting of a verandah 90 ft. in length,
with a shrine and the commencement of two cells. Most of its
details are so similar to those above described that it may be
assumed to be, most probably, of the same age. It is strictly
Buddhist in all its details, and shows no more tendency
towards Brahmanism than what was pointed out in speaking
of the VUwakarma. All its three storeys have been left
unfinished.
The next, or Tin Tal (No. 12), is very similar to the last in
arrangement, but on a greatly enlarged scale, and its numerous
sculptures are all Buddhist, though deviating from the usual
forms by a large representation of the female divinities of the
Mahayana pantheon. Of its class, this cave is one of the most
important and interesting in India; nowhere else do we find a
three-storeyed cave temple—adapted for worship rather than as
a monastery—executed with the same consistency of design and
the like magnificence, so that there is a grandeur and propriety
in its conception that it would be difficult to surpass in cave
architecture. Its sculptures are of extreme interest, and the
delineation or photographing of the whole would be of the
greatest value to the antiquary as illustrative of Buddhist
iconography.1
It is not easy, in the present state of our knowledge, to
determine whether the Elura Buddhist group is later or earlier
than those of Dhamnar and Kholvi. It is certainly finer than
either, and conforms more closely with the traditions of the
style in its palmiest days ; but that may be owing to local
circumstances, of which we have no precise knowledge. The
manner, however, in which it fades into the Hindu group is in
itself sufficient to prove how late it is. If we take A.D. 600 as
the medium date for the VBwakarma and its surroundings, and
A.D. 750 as a time when Buddhism began to wane in Western
India, we shall probably not err to any great extent; but we
1 ‘Cave Temples,’ pp. 381-384, and plates 64, 65 ; ‘ Archseological Survey of
Western India,’ vol. v. pp. 16-22, and plates 14 fig. 2 ; 18 fig. 3 ; 19 ; and 20.
BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE.
Book I.
The whole of the caves in this group resemble one another
so much in detail and execution that it is difficult to make out
any succession among them, and it is probable that they were
all excavated within the same century as the Vij’wakarma.
The two temples, north of the VDwakarma, are particularly
interesting to the antiquarian, as pointing out the successive
steps by which the Buddhistical caves merged into the forms of
the Brahmanical.
The first is No. u, the Don Tal or Dukhya-garh, a Buddhist
vihara of which the lower storey was long completely silted up
—hence its name of the ‘ two storeyed ’; but in 1877 the ground
floor was excavated, consisting of a verandah 90 ft. in length,
with a shrine and the commencement of two cells. Most of its
details are so similar to those above described that it may be
assumed to be, most probably, of the same age. It is strictly
Buddhist in all its details, and shows no more tendency
towards Brahmanism than what was pointed out in speaking
of the VUwakarma. All its three storeys have been left
unfinished.
The next, or Tin Tal (No. 12), is very similar to the last in
arrangement, but on a greatly enlarged scale, and its numerous
sculptures are all Buddhist, though deviating from the usual
forms by a large representation of the female divinities of the
Mahayana pantheon. Of its class, this cave is one of the most
important and interesting in India; nowhere else do we find a
three-storeyed cave temple—adapted for worship rather than as
a monastery—executed with the same consistency of design and
the like magnificence, so that there is a grandeur and propriety
in its conception that it would be difficult to surpass in cave
architecture. Its sculptures are of extreme interest, and the
delineation or photographing of the whole would be of the
greatest value to the antiquary as illustrative of Buddhist
iconography.1
It is not easy, in the present state of our knowledge, to
determine whether the Elura Buddhist group is later or earlier
than those of Dhamnar and Kholvi. It is certainly finer than
either, and conforms more closely with the traditions of the
style in its palmiest days ; but that may be owing to local
circumstances, of which we have no precise knowledge. The
manner, however, in which it fades into the Hindu group is in
itself sufficient to prove how late it is. If we take A.D. 600 as
the medium date for the VBwakarma and its surroundings, and
A.D. 750 as a time when Buddhism began to wane in Western
India, we shall probably not err to any great extent; but we
1 ‘Cave Temples,’ pp. 381-384, and plates 64, 65 ; ‘ Archseological Survey of
Western India,’ vol. v. pp. 16-22, and plates 14 fig. 2 ; 18 fig. 3 ; 19 ; and 20.