Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c15.7

c15.7

Of the two Vihāras the larger one is mostly ruined, but the smaller one consists of a number of cells scooped in the rock. The façade of the Vihāra has been recessed in the rock in order to provide a projecting shelter over it. The overhanging rock forms a portico (Mukhamanḍapa) to protect the cave-residence from sun and rain. The façade consisted of three doorways, each flanked by a window on either side. Each of the doorways led into a long hall, each of different size. The three walls of each hall were pierced by openings leading into cells and somewhat bigger rooms at the end which are not quite regularly placed. This type of Vihāra excavation shows the architecture in its rudimentary stage showing an absence of an overriding plan implying a unity of architectural activity, the chambers being hollowed out at will. In the façade the portion above the doorways and the windows is occupied by a series of horse-shoe arches terminating in a finial above and the spaces inside being filled by a blind chaitya-window with radiating spokes which are early attempts to imitate the wooden originals in rock-excavations. The style of every thing, viz. the cells, doorway openings, and arched arcading, is extremely simple and must have preceded the time when the earliest of the western Indian caves as at Bhājā came into existence.