Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c13.s1.t4: Pītalkhorā
Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c13.s1.t4
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Pītalkhorā
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The ancient name was Piṭaṅgalya. There is a group of 13 caves at this site on two sides of a hilly ravine, nine in one face of the scarp and four on the other. They are excavated on the Satamala range on the northern fringe of Aurangabad in east Kandesh on the road connecting Aurangabad with Chalisgaon. As the crow flies, the caves lie 50 miles to the west-south-west of Ajanta and 23 miles to the north-west of Ellora. The caves lay on an ancient caravan route (*Sātthavāha-patha*). Caravans from the Govardhana countries (Nasik region) and from Śūrpāraka crossed the Indhyādri hill close to where these caves are situated in order to reach their destination, Pratiṣṭhāna, the capital of the Sātavāhanas and a great commercial centre a few centuries before and after the Christian epoch. The route almost followed the present-day Chalisgaon Aurangabad-Paithan road; Ellora which the later Buddhists chose as the site for their rock-cut monasteries, was also on the route.
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The Mahāmāyūrī Buddhist Texts mention the Yaksha Śaṅkarin at Pitaṅgalya, Khaṇḍaka at Pratiṣṭhāna, Sundara at Nāsikya and Asaṅga at Bharukachchha which nearly supply a perimeter on this highly important region in which trade and commerce accompanied with religious activity flourished at their best. The architectural activity at Pitalkhora began in 2nd century B. C. and of that period we have a Vihāra and a Chaitya hall. The place was deserted after about a couple of centuries and then renovated with sculptures in the Vihāra and Buddhist paintings in the Chaitya hall similar to those in the Ajanta caves. Thus Pitalkhora very naturally shared in the two phases of Hinayāna and Mahāyāna architectural and art activity in northern Deccan as were witnessed at Ajanta also.
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The Vihāras had wooden screens with mortice holes in the rock for the uprights and excavated cells in the interior, each cell being furnished with a bed.
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Cave 3 is a Chaitya hall, 35 ft. wide and 86 ft. long with an apsidal end. Originally there were in all 37 octagonal (aṭṭāṃsika thabha) rock-cut pillars separating the aisle from the hall of which only twelve now stand in tact in their original form, with their paintings of about the fifth century and two early inscriptions of the time when the cave was excavated, recording the gift of citizens from Pratiṣṭhāna. All the pillars have an inward inclination like those at Bhājā. The aisles are 4 ft. 11 in. wide and have stone ribs in the ceiling but the vaulted roof of the nave or main maṇḍapa was once provided with wooden ribs which have now disappeared leaving traces behind of their positions. The square spaces between the wooden ribs were once decorated with painting on plaster, of which a few traces of panels with lotuses exist. The other paintings surviving on the walls and pillars of Buddha and Bodhisattva figures deserve to be studied separately as examples of Mahāyāna phase during Vākāṭaka time.
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The circumference of the Stūpa at the base is 36 ft. and it is wanting in its dome portion which seems to have been of masonry. Crystal reliquaries were discovered within the drum of the Stūpa in oblong sockets specially chiselled for the purpose, and covered with plugged stones. This was a practice also observed at Bhājā but there the crystal reliquaries which are such a feature at Pitalkhora were wanting.
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Another feature is a flight of eleven steps. On each side of them on the rock surface is a very vigorous sculptured panel in low relief depicting a prancing winged horse and two corpulent Yakshas with upraised hands, goggle eyes, thick lips and cloven ears, wearing a cluster of bored rings. These Yaksha figures bear a family-resemblance to the Atlante dwarfs placed in similar positions at Sanchi and Karle. They seem to have been styled as *Kinkaras* or *Guhyakas* and as supporting the assembly hall of Vaiśravaṇa to produce an effect of its floating in the sky (Sabhā Parva, 10. 33, 25 where they are mentioned as Rākshasas with tipped ears (*sukti-karṇa*), *ghora* and *mahā-kāya*). [Fig 118].
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Cave 4 was the magnificent Vihāra once adorned with a sculptured façade which once had at its top Chaitya window ornamentation. Of what remains we have a row of six Chaitya windows with the interior decorated with the recessed window pattern and animal figures between the semi-circular rock-cut Vedikā pattern. Below this is the sculpture of a *mithuna*. On the pilasters of the back cells of this cave there are sculptures and on the pillars are winged sphinx and animal capital and also decorations on the Chaitya window arches over the doorway of the cells. There are seven cells in the interior of the hall and a verandah on the out side which has figures of Dvārapāla guardians on the two sides of a very ornate doorway and its high plinth is decorated with a row of beautiful elephant figures half projecting forward with the mahāut standing in front. The entrance doorway (5 ft 4 in. × 2 ft 6 in.) has its jambs ornamented with beautiful designs of half-lotuses and the *triratna*. On the two sides are two figures of Dvārapālas in dignified pose wearing a *dhotī*, a close fitting tunic and a heavy turban, and ponderous ear-pendants. They hold a javelin in one hand and a shield in the other which are oblong in shape. Both these sculptures are remarkable for their very realistic modelling and vigorous musculature of their bodies as well as the smiling expression of the face which is a rare feature of such figures in early art. Over the head of each Dvārapāla is an elephant in profile. Set within these two elephants and above the doorway was an oblong panel of Gaja-Lakshmī (now fallen from its original position) seated on a lotus and holding in two hands raised lotus stalks and being bathed by two elephants holding inverted water-jars; the whole being a delightful representation of this motif in early art. [Fig. 119].
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Beyond the elephants on the right side is an almost life-size sculpture of a horse with a figure of a male in front and a chowrie-bearer behind. This unique sculpture, with an inscribed record giving the name of the donor over it was very likely installed later during the second phase of restoration as a prop to the overhanging rock. This seems to be the scene of *Mahābhinishkramaṇa*.
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There are several short epigraphs in this cave in the script of 2nd century B. C.
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Caves 5 to 9 are all Vihāras, the ninth being of large size with a façade supported on four pillars and two pilasters leading into a portico (26 ft x 5 ft 9 in.) with a central doorway. Inside the maṇḍapa are cells alround with a fine berm with the Vedikā pattern on the architrave running alround the wall-surface above the cell dome. [Fig. 120].
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In group two, Cave 10 was a Chaitya hall with vaulted roof and a Stūpa in the apsidal portion and similar were caves 11, 12 and 13. The vaulted ceiling of Chaitya hall in Cave 12 has rock-cut ribs intercepted by rock-cut rafters which thus produce eight compartments between each two ribs, the ribs themselves projecting 7 in. from their surface. Cave 13 also is a Chaitya hall. The apsidal hall is 27 ft 10 in. deep, 15 ft wide and 15 ft high. There are two rows of pillars in the hall going round the Stūpa in apsidal end, thus dividing the hall into a central nave and side aisle, respectively 7 ft and 1 ft 11 in. wide. There were ten pillars in two rows in the front portion and four more in the apsidal end; all of them are, however, decayed and have only their stems in tact. The vaulted roof over the nave and the Stūpa have stone ribs and rafters of the same type as in Cave 12.
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Thus, from the point of view of art we find the Pitalkhora caves sharing in full all the architectural features of Vihāra and Chaitya hall rock-excavation marking the early Hīnayāna phase with Vedikā pattern portico on pillars, inclining jambs, vaulted roofing with stone and wooden ribs and the general plan of the nave, apse and aisle. The evidence about sculpture is quite full showing sculptured figures of great size and beauty in which Dvārapālas, animal figures of horses and elephants, royal couples with attendants, Śrī-Lakṣmī, Nāgarāja, Atlante dwarfs, musicians, Mithunas, etc. have been found.
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Near the cistern of Cave 7 was found a hoard of pottery including the well known sprouted sprinkler resembling the Roman and other red wares of Western Asia and indigenous imitations thereof in cruder fabric and with crackled red slip.¹
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¹ M. N. Deshpande: 'Rock-cut Caves of Pitalkhora in the Deccan', pp. 56-93. (Ancient India No. 15).
Cites (6)
- Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Mahāmāyūrī — Sanskrit
- Ancient India
- Pitalkhora
- Bhâjâ
- Ajanta