Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c19.32

c19.32

The Buddhist rock-cut monasteries of Aurangabad,¹ consist of three groups of excavations situated in a precipitous scarp of a hill about a mile north of that city. One of these groups contains a chaitya hall and four viharas, and another has four viharas, while a third has three "caves" of no particular significance. The viharas show by their style that they belong to the sixth and seventh centuries, being probably the latest of their kind, and are valuable as they are evidence of the manner in which Buddhist art, in this medium, was merging into that of the Hindus. On the other hand the style of the chaitya hall (No. 4) at Aurangabad is conflicting, as it displays certain characteristics that imply a very early date, possibly contemporary with the Hinayana group at Ajanta, and therefore not later than the third century A.D. If however it is an example of the Hinayana type, attached to it should be a vihara in the same early style, but none of the existing viharas on the site fulfil such conditions. This chaitya hall, which is much ruined, is a small example, as it measures 40 feet long by 22 feet wide, and the features which recall the previous movement are the [Figure: Fig. 2. Varāha Mandapa Mamallapuram: Mahendra Rock-cut Facades: c. A.D. 650]