Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c13.s2.14

c13.s2.14

A few of the single cells of the Orissan group are of a very primitive character, and one known as the Bagh Gumpha, or Tiger Cave, is a fanciful production indicative of a somewhat morbid imagination (Plate XXXII, Fig. 4). Carved out of a shoulder of rock projecting from the hill side, the exterior is shaped like the mask of a tiger, the antechamber simulating the gaping mouth, and the cell door within this, the gullet. On the door-jambs, which slope inwards, are pilasters with winged creatures as capitals, and pots for bases The interior consists of a room only 3½ feet high, but some six feet deep and nearly eight feet wide. Over the doorway is an inscription in characters anterior to the Christian era, stating that it was the abode of an anchorite named Sabhuti, who, reclining in this narrow cell resembling a tiger's maw, seems to have passed his life literally in the jaws of death