Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c12.19

c12.19

Of the two kinds of structure, the chaitya hall and the vihara that were copied in the rock-cut manner, the more important from every point of view was the chaitya hall. There are eight of these belonging to the Hinayana period as follows: Bhaja, Kondane, Pitalkhora, Ajanta (No. 10), Bedsa, Ajanta (No. 9), Nasik and Karli, probably executed in the order named. The two at Ajanta are part of that long series of both Hinayana and Mahayana monasteries all on one site comprising altogether as many as four chaitya halls and over twenty viharas, but this instance of grouping is exceptional and will be explained in due course. All the eight examples were excavated just previous to the Christian era, the first four in the second century, and the remainder in the first century B C. To these may be added two chaitya halls from a numerous and miscellaneous group at Junnar, one of which is small but complete while the other is unfinished, but they are both of the same type and date as that at Nasik. Finally, executed towards the middle of the second century A.D., is the chaitya hall at Kanheri on the island of Salsette adjacent to Bombay, which marks the end of the Hinayana movement as far as its rock architecture is concerned.