Indian Antiquary Vol 03

SR No.: 032495
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 420
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
by the numbers attached to them by Mr. Fergusson, beginning at the eastern end of the series, or that farthest down the stream. The first cave is about 80 feet above the river, and faces WSW.; Nos. X. and XIII. are from 60 to 70 feet up the cliff, and both face south; and No. XXVI. is nearly 100 feet up, and faces ENE N. Caves XXVIII. and XXIX. are inaccossible: the first is an unfinished Viharathe verandah only having been fashioned out, with six rough-hewn pillars and two pilasters; the other is a Chaitya of which nothing but the upper portion of the great arch of the window has been completed. Chaitya caves are places of worship, and at Ajanțâ are usually about twice as long as they are wide, the back or farther end being almost always circular. The roofs are lofty and vaulted. Some of them have been ribbed with wood, and in others the stone has been cut in imitation of wooden ribs. A colonnade runs round each, dividing the nave from the aisles. The columns in the most ancient caves are plain octagonal shafts without bases or capitals, but in the more modern ones they have both capitals and bases with highly ornamented shafts. Within the circular end of the nave stands the Dahgoba-a solid mass of rock, in its simplest form, consisting of a cylindrical base supporting a cupola or dome (garbha) generally somewhat higher than a hemisphere, which is surmounted by a square capital (toran) or tce. Both on the base and cupola of the more enriched forms, sculptures are introduced, generally of Buddha and cherubs, with small arched recesses and rows of frets; whilst over the capital was placed a large wooden umbrella, as at Karlà, Beḍsa, Bhaja, and elsewhere, and as was probably also the case in Caves IX. and X. here; but in Caves XIX. and XXIV. three small hemispherical canopies or umbrellas rise over one another, the uppermost uniting with the roof at the junction of the ribbings of the apse of the cave.
The front of the cave is formed by a wall or screen rising to the level of the top of the entablature over the columns inside. It is pierced by three doors, or a door aud two win
[OCTOBER, 1874.
dows, the larger and central opening entering the nave, and the two smaller ones being at the ends of the aisles. Springing from the top of the screen is a large open arch having a span usually of one-third the total width of the cave. There is a verandâ in front of one of the Chaityas (No. XXVI.), and a portico in front of another (No. XIX.), over which are terraces not quite so high as the bottom of the great arch; from the terrace springs a second and outer arch, somewhat larger than the inner one, which then has at the foot of it a parapet wall from three to four feet high. These terraces may perhaps have been for musicians.
The Vihá ra caves were monasteries containing griḥas or cells, and are usually square in form, supported by rows of pillars either running round them and separating the great central hall or shalú from the aisles, or disposed (as in Cave No. VI.) in four equidistant lines. Opposite the entrance is the sanctuary, almost invariably occupied by a figure of Buddha seated on a sinhasana or kind of throne. In front of the shrine there is generally an ante. chamber, having on each side a pilaster and two pillars in a line with the back of the cave. In the back wall and in each of the side walls are cells for the cloistered inmates. All the Viharas have verandâs in front with cells at the ends; and some consist of a verandâ only with cells opening from the back of it.
Very few of the caves seem to have been completely finished; but every part of nearly all of them appears to have been painted,walls, ceilings, and pillars, inside and out; even the sculptures have all been gorgeously coloured.
Beautiful and varied sculpture covers the whole façade of Cave I., but, with this exception, the sculptures in the vihâras are found chiefly round the doorways and windows and about the entrances to the sanctuaries, and are almost exclusively restricted to representations of conjugal endearment, with beautiful frets and scrolls. As a specimen of these doors, that of Cave I. is given in the illustration :† it will give
a clearer idea of their general character than any description, however detailed, could convey.
Dahgoba, written also Daghopa, Dehgop, &c. is derived from the Sanscrit deh 'the body,' and gup to hide, or from dhatugarbha-the holder of a relic or elementary principle. They seem meant for cenotaphs in imitation of the monumental receptacles built over the relics of Buddha.
†The drawing is to a scale of half an inch to the foot, and was made by Mr. J. Smeaton of the Bombay Dock. yard, during a visit I paid to Ajanțâ in May 1873.