Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c11.37

c11.37

Barabar Cave Dwellings—Sixteen miles north of Gaya are several granite hills with Buddhist remains. There are three caves in Barabar (= Pravaragiri), four in the Nagarjuni group, together known as Sāt-ghar. These were the gift of Aśoka and his grand son Daśaratha to the Ājīvaka monks. In Barabar the first is Karṇa-chopar (33½ ft. × 14½ ft. × 6 ft.), the second Sudāmā Cave excavated in the year twelve of Aśoka having two chambers, one circular (19 ft. 11 in. in diameter with a hemispherical domed roof) and an outer apartment (32 ft. 9 in. × 19 ft. 6 in. × 6 ft. 9 in. with a vaulted roof having a total height of 12 ft. 3 in.). Both the roof and walls of the two caves are finished with a bright enamel-like polish. This shows that the basic plan of a Chaitya-Ghara with a rectangular Maṇḍapa and an apse at its inner end was evolved in Aśoka's time which later on received a complex development in the numerous Chaitya Halls about 1200 in number and ranging in date over about a 1000 years.