Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c22.5

c22.5

It was early in the seventh century, when the activities of the Mahayana Buddhists on this site were drawing to a close, that the Hindu hierarchy began in their turn to prepare a series of columned halls in much the same architectural style as the Buddhist, but adapted to suit their own ritualistic needs The Brahmanical group at Ellora extends along the west face of the hill for about half a mile, and consists of sixteen excavations numbered 13 to 29 (Plate XXV). The principal examples are : (No. 14) Ravana-ka-Khai or Abode of Ravana, the demon king of Lanka (Ceylon) ; (No. 15) Das Avatar, or the Ten Incarnations of Vishnu ; (No 16) the Kailasa or Siva's Paradise ; (No. 21) Rameswara, or "Lord of Rama", (No. 29) Dumar Lena, sometimes called Sita's Nani, or Bath of Sita. These resolve themselves as follows, into four different types, most of them apparently taking their various shapes in order to conform to the changing requirements of the creed : (*a*) the most primitive, and evidently owing much to the Buddhist vihara, being merely a pillared portico with a cella beyond, as for example the Das Avatar (No. 15). (*b*) Similar to the preceding but with the cella isolated by means of a passage round it, as in the Ravana-ka-Khai, (No 14) and Rameswara (No. 21). (*c*) Another style in which the shrine is isolated but standing in the centre of a cruciform hall, the whole having more than one entrance, as in the Dumar Lena (No. 29), (The temple at Elephanta, and also the Jogeswara in Salsette are of this type) (*d*) The culmination of the rock-cut method taking the form not of an excavated series of galleries as in each of the previous examples, but one in which a structural temple is copied in all its detail, as in the monolithic temple of Kailasa (No. 16).