[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods)](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.brown-1942) › c19.24 # Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c19.24 Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c19.24 - **Language:** English ### [c19.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.brown-1942.c19.24) Although contemporary, and, in a direct line only some sixty miles distant, it is possible to detect in the Buddhist rock-architecture at Ellora, a slight difference in character from the corresponding series at Ajanta. Both monastic establishments being more or less self-contained, each may have had its own particular system, or doctrine, which reflected in the style. Moreover there is a difference in the terrain of the two places, a circumstance which no doubt affected their architectural treatment. For instead of the almost vertical cliff as at Ajanta, the halls of Ellora are excavated out of a ridge of low hills, pushed up from the vast plateau of the Deccan. At Ellora the Buddhists were the first of the three great religious communities to occupy this site, so that their monasteries are in the most favourable position, being at the southern end of a scarp of the plateau, where it throws out a horn to the west. Here they practised their religion for some two centuries, from A D. 450 to 650 during which period the group of twelve rock-cut halls belonging to the Buddhist creed were produced. This series may be resolved into two sub-groups, Nos. 1 to 5 known as the "Dhedwada group", and a group slightly later in date consisting of Nos. 6 to 12. Each sub-group comprises a prayer-hall and its attached monasteries. In the case of the earlier examples, the monks appear to have conducted their principal worship in the large pillared hall known as the Mahanwada (No. 5), an unusual type, as it consists of a combination of prayer-hall and monastery. In the later group the religious ceremonies were probably more according to convention, and performed in the chaitya hall No. 10 Save for the great hall of the Mahanwada, which is of a special character the monasteries of the earlier group differ very little from those at Ajanta. They are single-storied excavations, entered through a verandah, with a large central hall having a shrine-chamber or cella beyond. Of this type No. 2 is the most noteworthy, as it has a square hall of 48 feet side, with a colonnade of twelve massive pillars forming an aisle all round. Where it is exceptional is that in place of the usual series of cells leading out of this hall, a side gallery has been added, formed by a supplementary row of four pillars, a plan which has produced, on each side of the hall, a kind of iconostasis, with its back wall divided into compartments containing groups of statuary in bold relief. Such a departure in the interior arrangements of the monastery, is further evidence of the conversion of the hostel with its residential cells into a house of prayer, brought about by the changes effected in the creed. - [Previous: c19.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.brown-1942.c19.23) - [Next: c19.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.brown-1942.c19.25) - [Up: c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.brown-1942.c19) ## Linked texts (1) - [Viswakarma Cave](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.viswakarma-cave) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.brown-1942.c19.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.brown-1942.c19.24) · Pramāṇa