Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c47.31

c47.31

Architectural details of this nature may possibly throw some light on the general history of the time. It is, I think, reasonable to suppose that, once the use of the "vase and foliage" capital had emerged from its experimental stage at Ajanta, the place of its origin, its general adoption on a larger scale as a prominent architectural feature would take place almost simultaneously at Ajanta and the other Buddhist centres in the immediate neighbourhood of that place. As might have been expected, we find this form of capital in use in a number of the caves at Ellora and Aurangabad. These caves are certainly later in style than any of the completed caves at Ajanta. In fact, they seem to continue the development of Buddhist cave-architecture from the point it had reached when the excavation of Cave XXIV at Ajanta ceased.