Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c12.29

c12.29

It was however at Karli that the Hinayana type of chaitya hall reached its culmination, as this example is a most impressive production The exterior, owing either to a flaw or fall in the rock face is now unsymmetrical, as much of the right side of the facade has become completely obscured, but no doubt as first conceived it was a well balanced composition of somewhat the same style and massive proportions as Bedsa. But at Karli the two large columns, which are the main feature of its form of frontage, were differently disposed, not comprising part of the "construction" so to speak, as they were wholly detached. They were therefore free-standing pillars, one on each side of the facade and slightly in advance of the entrance, which with their lion capitals they appear to guard. The plan of raising two pillars in front of a temple is a very ancient one—before that of the moon god at Ur, 3000 B.C., two wooden columns were raised, and it was probably the same thought that moved the Egyptians to erect a pair of obelisks at the entrances to their temples, while in the porch of Solomon's temple at Jerusalem two pillars of brass were set up as objects of veneration¹ The pillars at Karli appear to have been the result of the same belief, their great size striking the imagination of the worshipper and filling his soul with reverence and awe. Seen from the ample terrace facing them made up of the debris obtained from the excavation, these colossal columns and their symbolic superstructure formed an imposing introduction to the wonders beyond. Each pillar stood on a wide cylinder of rock and with its campaniform capital and group of addorsed lions supporting a large wheel possibly of metal, it was at least fifty feet in height, equalling that of the Asokan column at Sarnath by which the entire conception was certainly inspired. The addition of the base, the sixteen sides to the shaft, the fluted abacus above the capital with its *harmika* forming a square pedestal for the lions, are however all deviations from the original model and indicate a further Indianization of the Persepolitan prototype