DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27192#0039
Chap. II.
ORISSA CAVES.
i5
present purposes is that the first named is singularly classical
in design and execution, the latter wilder, and both in action
and costume far more purely Indian. Before the discovery
of the Bharaut sculptures, it is hardly doubtful that we would
have pronounced those in the Ganexa cave the oldest, as being
the most perfect. The Bharaut sculptures, however, having
shown us how perfect the native art was at a very early date,
have considerably modified our opinions on this subject; and
those in the Rani cave, being so essentially Indian in their
style, now appear to me the oldest. Those in the Ganej-a-
gumpha, as more classical, may have been executed at a
subsequent date, but still both long anterior to the Christian
Era. The other bas-reliefs in the Raj-Rani cave represent
scenes of hunting, fighting, dancing, drinking, and love-making
—anything, in fact, but religion or praying in any shape or form.
From the sculptures at Sanchi and Bharaut, we were
prepared to expect that we should not find any direct evidence
of Mahayana Buddhism in sculptures anterior to the Christian
Era ; but those at this place are not Buddhist but Jaina, and
till we are better acquainted with the Jaina legends than we
are at present, we cannot hope to determine what such sculptures
really represent. Besides these bassi-rilievi, there is in the Rani
cave a figure, in high relief, of a female (?) riding on a lion.
Behind him or her, a soldier in a kilt, or rather the dress of a
Roman soldier, with laced boots reaching to the calf of the leg
(Woodcut No. 264)—very similar, in fact, to those represented
on plate 28, fig. 1, of ‘Tree and Serpent Worship,’ as strangers
paying their addresses to a three-storeyed stupa—and behind
this,x again, a female of foreign aspect.
In another cave of the same group—the Jayavijaya, called by
Kittoe the Jodev-Garbha—and of about the same age, between
the two doorways leading to the cells, a sacred tree is being
worshipped by two men and two women with offerings. It is
surrounded by the usual rail, and devotees and others are
bringing offerings.1 The verandah has a male figure outside at
the left end, and a female at the right.
In yet another cave, in the Khandagiri hill, similar in plan
to the Gane^a cave, and probably older than either of the two
last-mentioned, called Ananta-garbha, are bassi-rilievi over the
doorways: one—on the right—is devoted, like the last, to Tree
worship, the other to the honour of Sri ('vide ante, vol. i. p. 50). She
is standing on her lotus, and two elephants, standing likewise on
lotuses, are pouring water over her.2 The same representation
occurs once, at least, at Bharaut, and ten times at Sanchi, and,
1 ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of I 2 ‘Tree and Serpent Worship,’ plate
Bengal,’ vol. vii. plate 42. | 100, p. 105; ‘ Cave'Temples,’ plate I.
ORISSA CAVES.
i5
present purposes is that the first named is singularly classical
in design and execution, the latter wilder, and both in action
and costume far more purely Indian. Before the discovery
of the Bharaut sculptures, it is hardly doubtful that we would
have pronounced those in the Ganexa cave the oldest, as being
the most perfect. The Bharaut sculptures, however, having
shown us how perfect the native art was at a very early date,
have considerably modified our opinions on this subject; and
those in the Rani cave, being so essentially Indian in their
style, now appear to me the oldest. Those in the Ganej-a-
gumpha, as more classical, may have been executed at a
subsequent date, but still both long anterior to the Christian
Era. The other bas-reliefs in the Raj-Rani cave represent
scenes of hunting, fighting, dancing, drinking, and love-making
—anything, in fact, but religion or praying in any shape or form.
From the sculptures at Sanchi and Bharaut, we were
prepared to expect that we should not find any direct evidence
of Mahayana Buddhism in sculptures anterior to the Christian
Era ; but those at this place are not Buddhist but Jaina, and
till we are better acquainted with the Jaina legends than we
are at present, we cannot hope to determine what such sculptures
really represent. Besides these bassi-rilievi, there is in the Rani
cave a figure, in high relief, of a female (?) riding on a lion.
Behind him or her, a soldier in a kilt, or rather the dress of a
Roman soldier, with laced boots reaching to the calf of the leg
(Woodcut No. 264)—very similar, in fact, to those represented
on plate 28, fig. 1, of ‘Tree and Serpent Worship,’ as strangers
paying their addresses to a three-storeyed stupa—and behind
this,x again, a female of foreign aspect.
In another cave of the same group—the Jayavijaya, called by
Kittoe the Jodev-Garbha—and of about the same age, between
the two doorways leading to the cells, a sacred tree is being
worshipped by two men and two women with offerings. It is
surrounded by the usual rail, and devotees and others are
bringing offerings.1 The verandah has a male figure outside at
the left end, and a female at the right.
In yet another cave, in the Khandagiri hill, similar in plan
to the Gane^a cave, and probably older than either of the two
last-mentioned, called Ananta-garbha, are bassi-rilievi over the
doorways: one—on the right—is devoted, like the last, to Tree
worship, the other to the honour of Sri ('vide ante, vol. i. p. 50). She
is standing on her lotus, and two elephants, standing likewise on
lotuses, are pouring water over her.2 The same representation
occurs once, at least, at Bharaut, and ten times at Sanchi, and,
1 ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of I 2 ‘Tree and Serpent Worship,’ plate
Bengal,’ vol. vii. plate 42. | 100, p. 105; ‘ Cave'Temples,’ plate I.