Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c47.38

c47.38

It must be remembered that apparently during the latter half of the seventh century the work at Mahabalipuram was brought suddenly to a standstill and many ambitious projects which had been begun there were abandoned. At approximately the same time there seems to have been a resumption of constructional operations at Ellora and Aurangabad where the old traditions are followed and to some extent developed This was probably due to the restoration of the Deccan stone-masons and sculptors (or their descendents) to their former country. The non-resumption of work at Ajanta may possibly be explained by the fact that there was already sufficient accommodation there for ordinary monastic requirements and that the Chalukya-Pallava war may have prevented the further development of Ajanta as a seat of learning. The Buddhist settlements at Aurangabad and Ellora, on the other hand, seem to have been purely monastic institutions but very little progress could have been made in constructional work at either of these places before 642. At Ellora only Caves I, II, and V appear to have been completed by that date. If it be assumed that the use of the "vase and foliage" capital was adopted simultaneously on a large scale at Ajanta, Aurangabad and Ellora, it is probable that Cave III at Ellora, in which this form of capital first appears at that place, had reached about the same stage as Cave XXIV at Ajanta. Similarly at Aurangabad the completed work in 642 A.D., could only have consisted of the existing *chaitya* hall and a small remodelled *vihara*. The work on the other later *viharas* must have been in a very incomplete stage If monastic communities of any size existed at Ellora and Aurangabad, as seems to have been the case, further accommodation was clearly necessary and I am inclined to think that, from the time of the return of the stone-workers from the South about 674 A D., the work in the Buddhist caves temples at those places was continued from the point it had reached in 642. In some of the caves, however, the work was not resumed. This may have been due to want of funds or to be the reduction in the numbers of the monks since 642. For instance, no further work seems to have been done in Cave VII at Ellora and Cave I at Aurangabad. But, as regards the other caves which were unfinished in 642, (*e g.* Caves III and IV at Ellora and most of the Caves at Aurangabad) the work seems to have been continued until about 750 A D., when it may have been interrupted by the demand for large numbers of stone-workers in connection with the construction of the Kailasa Temple at Ellora.