Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c15: Chapter VI. Vihâras, or Monasteries.

History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c15

Language
English

Contents

Chapter VI. Vihâras, or Monasteries.

v1.c15.2

CONTENTS. Structural Vihâras—Bengal Caves—Western Vihâra Caves—Nâsik, Ajantâ, Bâgh, Dhamnâr and Kholvi, Elûrâ, Aurangâbâd and Kudâ Vihâras.

Structural Vihâras.

v1.c15.s1.1

A VIHÂRA,¹ properly speaking is a residence or dwelling, whether for a monk or an image; and a group of apartments for a community of monks is, strictly speaking a Sanghârâma or monastery. The word Vihâra, however, like Dâgaba, came from Ceylon, where it was used to designate not only a cell but also any monastic establishment,² and this extended application has come to be generally understood by us; and with this explanation we employ it.

v1.c15.s1.2

¹ As immediately to be explained, "Vihâras" is applied only to monasteries, the abodes of monks or hermits. It was not, however, used in former times in that restricted sense only. Hiuen Tsiang calls the Great Tower at Bodh-Gayâ a vihâra, and describes similar towers at Nâlanda, 200 and 300 ft. high, as vihâras. The 'Mahâwansa' also applies the term indiscriminately to temples of a certain class, and to residences. The name was used to distinguish them from stûpas or towers, which were relic shrines, or erected as memorials of persons or events, and never were residences or simulated to be such, or contained images, till the last gasp of the style as at Kholvi. Strictly speaking, the monasteries ought to be called Sanghârâmas, but, to avoid multiplication of terms, vihâra is used in this work as the synonym of monastery.

v1.c15.s1.3

² So also in Nepal it is applied to monasteries.—Oldfield's 'Sketches from Nepal,' vol. ii. pp. 275ff.

v1.c15.s1.4

We are almost more dependent on rock-cut examples for our knowledge of the Vihâras or monasteries of the Buddhists than we are for that of their Chaityas or churches; a circumstance more to be regretted in this instance than in the other. In a chaitya hall the interior is naturally the principal object, and where the art of the architect would be principally lavished. Next would come the façade. The sides and apse are comparatively insignificant and incapable of ornament. The façades and the interior can be as well expressed in the rock as when standing free; but the case is different with the vihâras. A court or hall surrounded with cells is not an imposing architectural object. Where the court has galleries two or three storeys in height, and the pillars that support these are richly carved, it may attain an amount of picturesqueness we find in our old hostelries, or of that class of beauty that prevails in the courts of Spanish monasteries. Such was, I believe, the form many of the Indian structural vihâras may have taken, but which could hardly be repeated in the rock; and, unless some representations are discovered among the paintings or sculptures, we shall probably never know, though we may guess, what the original appearances may have been.

v1.c15.s1.5

There was, however, I believe, another form of Vihâra even less capable of being repeated in the rock. It was pyramidal, and is the original of all the temples of southern India. Take, for instance, a description of the Sanghârâma mentioned both by Fah Hian and Hiuen Tsiang,¹ though neither of them, it must be confessed, ever saw it, which accounts in part for some absurdities in the description:—"The building," says Fah-Hian, "has altogether five storeys. The lowest is shaped with elephant figures, and has 500 stone cells in it; the second is made with lion shapes, and has 400 chambers; the third is made with horse shapes, and has 300 chambers; the fourth is made with ox shapes, and has 200 chambers; and the fifth is made with dove shapes, and has 100 chambers in it"—and the account given of it by Hiuen Tsiang is practically the same. At first sight, and especially in the earlier translations, this looks wild enough; but if we understand by it that the several storeys were adorned with elephants, lions, horses, etc., we get a mode of decoration which began at Kârlê where a range of elephants adorns the lower storey, and was continued with variations to Halebîd, where, as we shall see further on, all these five animals are, in the 13th century, superimposed upon one another exactly as here recounted.

v1.c15.s1.6

¹ Beal's 'Buddhist Records,' vol. i. Introd. p. 69, and vol. ii. pp. 214f.; conf. Julien's 'Mémoires,' tome ii. p. 102. This monastery was probably at Srî Sailam, on the Krishnâ river. The present Hindû temple will be noticed at the end of Book III., chapter iv., p. 408.

v1.c15.s1.7

The woodcut (No. 89) on next page, taken from one of the raths at Mâmallapuram or "Seven Pagodas," probably correctly represents such a structure, and I believe also the form of a great many ancient vihâras in India. The diagram (No. 90) is intended to explain what probably were the internal arrangements of such a structure. As far as it can be understood from the rock-cut examples we have, the centre was occupied by halls of varying dimensions according to height, supported by wooden posts above the ground-floor, and used as the common day-rooms of the monks. The sleeping-cells (Woodcuts Nos. 91, 92) were apparently on the terraces, and may have been such as are frequently represented in the bas-reliefs at Bharaut and from Gandhâra. Alternately they seem to have been square and oblong, and with smaller apartments between. Of course we must not take too literally a representation of a monastery, carried out solidly in the rock for a different purpose, as an absolutely correct representation of its original.

v1.c15.s1.8

89. Dharmarâja Rath at Mâmallapuram. (From a Photograph.)

v1.c15.s1.9

90. Diagram explanatory of the arrangement of a Buddhist Vihâra of Four Storeys in Height.

v1.c15.s1.10

91. 92. Square and oblong Cells from a Bas-relief at Bharaut.

v1.c15.s1.11

The importance, however, of this form, as explaining the peculiarities of subsequent Buddhist and Dravidian architecture, is so great that it is well worth quoting here, though this will be more evident in the sequel than it can be at present. In construction the breadth, in a structural building, would probably have been greater in proportion to the height than in this example, but that is of little consequence for our present purposes.

v1.c15.s1.12

It is, of course, always difficult, sometimes impossible, to realise the form of buildings from verbal descriptions only, and the Chinese Pilgrims were not adepts at architectural definitions. Still Hiuen Tsiang's description of the great Nâlanda monastery is important, and so germane to our present subject that it cannot well be passed over.

v1.c15.s1.13

This celebrated monastery, which was the Monte Casino of India for the first five centuries of our era, was situated at the modern Barâgâon, 34 miles south-south-west of Pâtna, and 7 miles north of the old capital of Râjagriha. If not founded under the auspices of the celebrated Nâgârjuna about the 1st century A.D., he at all events resided there, introducing the Mahâyâna or "great translation," and making it the seat of that school for Central India. After his time six successive kings had built as many vihâras on this spot, when one of them surrounded the whole with a high wall, which can still be traced, measuring 1600 ft. north and south, by 400 ft., and enclosing eight separate courts. Externally to this enclosure were numerous stûpas or tower-like vihâras, ten or twelve of which are easily recognised, and have been identified, with more or less certainty, by General Cunningham, from the Pilgrim's description. The general appearance of the place may be gathered from the following:—“In the different courts the houses of the monks were each four storeys in height. The pavilions had pillars ornamented with dragons, and had beams resplendent with all the colours of the rainbow—rafters richly carved—columns ornamented with jade, painted red and richly chiselled, and balustrades of carved open work. The lintels of the doors were decorated with elegance, and the roofs covered with glazed tiles of brilliant colours, which multiplied themselves by reflection, and varied the effect at every moment in a thousand manners.” Or as he enthusiastically sums up:—“The Sanghârâmas of India are counted by thousands, but there are none equal to this in majesty or richness, or the height of their construction.”¹

v1.c15.s1.14

¹ ‘Hiouen Thsang,’ tome i. p. 151; or Beal’s ‘Life of Hiuen Tsiang,’ p. 111.

v1.c15.s1.15

From what we know of the effects of Burmese monasteries at the present day this is probably no exaggeration; and with its groves of Mango-trees, and its immense tanks, which still remain, it must have been, as he says, “an enchanting abode.” Here there resided in his time—within and without the walls—10,000 priests and neophytes, and religion and philosophy were taught from a hundred chairs, and here consequently our Pilgrim sojourned for five years, imbibing the doctrines of the Law of Buddha. What Cluny and Clairvaux were to France in the Middle Ages, Nâlanda was to Central India, the depository of all true learning, and the foundation from which it spread over all the other Buddhist lands; but still, as in all instances connected with that strange parallelism which existed between the two religions, the Buddhists kept five centuries in advance of the Roman Church in the invention and use of all the ceremonies and forms common to both religions.

v1.c15.s1.16

It would indeed be satisfactory if the architecture of this celebrated monastery could be restored and its arrangements made clear. Something has been done by Cunningham² towards this, and excavations were made by Mr. Broadley and Captain Marshall. The former, it is feared, destroyed more than he restored, and his drawings are so imperfect as to be utterly unintelligible. The latter did not publish his discoveries. Nothing, however, would probably better repay a systematic exploration than this celebrated spot, if undertaken by some one experienced in such researches, and qualified to make detailed architectural drawings of what is found.

v1.c15.s1.17

² ‘Archæological Reports,’ vol. i. pp. 28-36, plate 16.

v1.c15.s1.18

If, however, it should turn out, as hinted above, that the whole of the superstructure of these vihâras was in wood, either fire or natural decay may have made such havoc among all that remains of them, as to leave little to reward the labours of the explorer. What has been done in this direction certainly affords no great encouragement to hope for much. At Sultânganj, near Monghyr, a large vihâra was cut through by the railway, but except one remarkable bronze statue of Buddha¹ nothing was found of importance. The monastery apparently consisted of two large courtyards surrounded by cells. What was found, however, could only have been the foundations, as there were no doorways to the apartments or means of communication between each other or with the exterior.²

v1.c15.s1.19

¹ In private hands in Birmingham in 1876.

v1.c15.s1.20

² 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. xxxiii. pp. 361 *et seqq.*

v1.c15.s1.21

The vihâra excavated by Captain Kittoe and Mr. Thomas, at Sârnâth, seems certainly to have been destroyed by fire. All that remained was a series of some twenty cells and four larger halls surrounding a pillared court 50 ft. square. On one side were three cells evidently forming a sanctuary, as is frequently found in the later rock-cut examples.³

v1.c15.s1.22

³ 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. xxiii. pp. 469 *et seqq.*

v1.c15.s1.23

The excavations conducted by General Cunningham, at the same place, were hardly more satisfactory in their result. The two buildings he explored seem to bear the relation to one another of a vihâra 60 ft. square over all, and the temple of little more than half these dimensions with a projecting porch on each face.⁴ Only the foundation of these buildings now remains, and nothing to indicate how they were originally finished. The like is doubtless the condition of the extensive excavations made by the Archæological Survey during the last four years at Kasiâ in Gorakhpur district as well as at Sârnâth. But no detailed account of the results has yet been made available, and short notices, without plans, are very unsatisfactory, if not occasionally unintelligible. Foundations of numerous temples, stûpas and other buildings, we learn, were laid bare, and interesting sculptures and inscriptions discovered.⁵

v1.c15.s1.24

⁴ For this and the other Sârnâth remains see Cunningham's 'Archæological Reports,' vol. i. pp. 114 *et seqq.*, plates 32-34.

v1.c15.s1.25

⁵ 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' 1907, pp. 995ff. See Note below, p. 207.

v1.c15.s1.26

We may eventually hit on some representation which may enable us to form definite ideas on this subject, but till we do this we probably must be content with the interiors as seen in the rock-cut examples.

Bengal Caves.

v1.c15.s2.1

None of the Bihâr caves can, properly speaking, be called vihâras, in the sense in which the word is generally used, except perhaps the Son-bhandar cave, which was probably a Jaina or Âjîvika excavation. It is a plain rectangular cave, 33 ft. 9 in. long by 17 ft. wide, and 11 ft. 7 in. to the springing of the curved roof (Woodcuts Nos. 93 and 94). It has one door and one

v1.c15.s2.2

[Figure: 93. Plan of Son-bhandar Caves. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]

v1.c15.s2.3

[Figure: 94. Section of Son-bhandar Cave. Scale 25 ft. to 1 in.]

v1.c15.s2.4

window, but both—like the rest of the cave—without mouldings or any architectural features that would assist in determining its age. The jambs of the doorway slope slightly inwards, but not sufficiently to give an idea of great antiquty. In front there was

v1.c15.s2.5

95. Front of Son-bhandar Cave. (From a Photograph.)

v1.c15.s2.6

a wooden verandah, the mortice holes for which are still visible in the front wall, as shown in the woodcut No. 95. Such wooden verandahs were probably common, as they were attached to many of the caves at Kanheri. As mentioned above, if the inscription is as early as the excavation, it may be several centuries later than the Barâbar caves; the cave may, however, be earlier than the inscription.¹

v1.c15.s2.7

¹ A detailed account of these Bengal caves is given in Gen. Sir A. Cunningham's 'Archæological Reports,' vol. i. pp. 25-27, 40-53, and vol. iii. pp. 140-144; but his drawings are on too small a scale, however, and too rough to show all that is wanted.—'Cave Temples of India,' pp. 37-46.

v1.c15.s2.8

The other Son-bhandar cave is about 30 ft. to the right of the larger one, and is in all respects similar, except that its dimensions are only 22 ft. by 17 ft., and the roof has fallen in. Between the two a mass of rock is left in order to admit of a stair being cut in it leading to the surface of the rock above; but what stood on the platform there has not been investigated.

v1.c15.s2.9

The other caves, at Barâbar and Nâgârjuni, if not exactly chaityas in the sense in which that term is applied to the western caves, were at least oratories, places of prayer and worship, rather than residences. One Âjîvika ascetic may have resided in them, but for the purpose of performing the necessary services. There are no separate cells in them, nor any division that can be considered as separating the ceremonial from the domestic uses of the cave, and they must consequently, for the present at least, be classed as chaityas rather than vihâras.

v1.c15.s2.10

The case is widely different when we turn to the caves in Orissa, which are among the most interesting, though at the same time the most anomalous, of all the caves in India. With possibly one or two exceptions belonging to other sects, they were evidently excavated for the Jains. Till comparatively recently, however, they were mistaken for Buddhist, but this they clearly never were; hence they must be described in a subsequent section of this work (Book V. chapter ii., in Vol. ii.).

Western Vihâra Caves.

v1.c15.s3.1

[Figure: 96. Plan of small Vihâra at Bhâjâ. (From a plan by Mr. H. Cousens.) Scale 25 ft. to 1 in.]

v1.c15.s3.2

The oldest cave in western India is probably a small vihâra to the west of the Bhâjâ group, which is unique of its kind. It faces north and consists of a verandah 17½ ft. in length by 7 ft. wide at the east end and 9½ ft. at the west, with a hall, also of somewhat irregular form, 16 ft. deep by 16 ft. 7 in. across, exclusive of a bench 21 in. broad along the east side. The accompanying plan (Woodcut No. 96) will show the arrangement of the four cells entering from the hall and one from the verandah, in three of which are stone beds; *besides*, there are three cells, or cubicles, with a separate entrance outside the verandah to the left, each with its stone bed—usually an indication of early date.

v1.c15.s3.3

97. Capital of Pilaster at Bhâjâ. Scale about 1/16th.

v1.c15.s3.4

The notable feature, however, are the sculptures of the cave: a pillar and pilaster in the east end of the verandah have the bell-shaped quasi-Persepolitan capitals we find on some of the Asoka lâts, and which became more Indianised in detail at Bedsâ, Kârlê, and elsewhere; the figures that surmount these are here of exceptional form, being human female busts on bovine bodies (Woodcut No. 97). The jambs of the cell doorways slope inwards, and the walls above and between them are ornamented with the chaitya window pattern. On each wall are three deep niches roofed by three chaitya arches; and between those on the east side, corresponding to the cell doors opposite, are two panels containing standing figures or guards, each with a staff or spear and peculiar head-dresses. In the verandah are three others in very unusual and elaborate costumes and head-dresses; one holding two arrows and another a bow. And on the west end of the verandah is a large sculpture, divided by the cell door. On one side we have Sûrya and his two wives, in his chariot drawn (as in the Greek mythology) by four horses, and apparently accompanied by two guards on horseback, with what may be meant for demons of darkness below the horses; the other half represents two large figures on an elephant, with many smaller ones below and around, and two sacred trees. In the verandah of the Ananta Gumphâ at Khandagiri and at Bodh-Gayâ are also found representations of Sûrya, and on the Lahul lotâ both parts of this sculpture are represented with but slight differences.¹ Are these traces of the Sûryopâsakas or Saurapâtas, the sun-worshippers, who were long an influential sect in India,² or how are we to account for such sculptures?

v1.c15.s3.5

¹ This cave has been pretty fully illustrated in 'Cave Temples,' pp. 513-517, and plates 96-98; 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. iv. pp. 3-6, and plate 6; and in Le Bon's 'Les Monuments de l'Inde,' p. 42.

v1.c15.s3.6

² The five orthodox divisions of Hindûs are the Saivas, Vaishnavas, Sâktis, Saurapâtas, and Gânapatyas, but the last two are of very limited extent, though sun-worship is still found among the Kâthis and other tribes in Gujarât.—'Archæological Survey Western India,' vol. ix. pp. 72ff; Beal, 'Buddhist Records,' vol. i. p. 223; vol. ii. pp. 188, 274; Al-Beruni's 'India,' Sachau's trans. vol. i. pp. 116, 121, 298; and 'Bombay Gazetteer,' vol. ix. part i. pp. 257, 393.

v1.c15.s3.7

Besides this, among the Buddhist caves of western India there are at least six or seven vihâras which we know for certain were excavated before the Christian Era. There are possibly forty, but the evidences are not so clear as to enable us to feel confident in affixing dates to them. The few that are known are those attached to the chaityas at Bhâjâ and Bedsâ (Woodcuts Nos. 58, 63), the two oldest at Ajantâ, Nos. 12 and 13, and those at Nâsik, Pitalkhorâ, and Kondâne. Those at Kârlê also, but they have been altered and enlarged, and are much destroyed by the rock falling away, so that it would be difficult to describe them;¹ they are excavated in two or three storeys, and the earlier portions are without ornamentation, but almost certainly coeval with the chaitya itself. At Junnar there are several, which are very old, and at Sânâ, Junâgadh and Tâlâjâ, in Gujarât, there are numbers of very ancient date.²

v1.c15.s3.8

¹ For a detailed account and plans of these vihâras, see 'Cave Temples,' pp. 240f., and plate 9; and 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. iv. p. 25, and plate 13.

v1.c15.s3.9

² At Sânâ, about 20 miles north-east of Diu, are sixty-two caves, of which three are chaitya temples; and at Tâlâjâ, 30 miles south of Goghâ, are about thirty more. They are all very plain, with scarcely any sculpture, and are probably as early as any in western India.—'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. ii. pp. 147-150.

v1.c15.s3.10

One of the oldest of these is that attached to the chaitya at Bhâjâ (*ante*, Woodcut No. 58). It is five-celled; three of these have single stone beds in them, one is double-bedded, and one is without that uncomfortable piece of furniture. In front of these are two long stone benches at either end of a hall 33 ft. in length. It is not clear whether this hall was always open as at present, but, if it was closed, it was by a wooden screen like the chaitya beside it, which is undoubtedly of the same age. They are indeed parts of one design. The same may be said of the Bedsâ vihâra, though placed a little further apart. In this case, however, there are three cells with stone beds in the verandah of the chaitya, and a fourth was commenced, when apparently it was determined to remove the residence a little further off, and no instance, I believe, occurs afterwards in which they were so conjoined, till at least a very late date, as, perhaps, at Dhamnâr (Woodcut No. 86), all the parts got again confounded together. As will be seen from the plan (Woodcut No. 63) it is exceptional in form, being apsidal like the chaitya itself. It is not clear whether this is a copy of any existing wooden erection, or whether it was that, being the first attempt at an independent vihâra in the rock, they thought it ought to resemble a chaitya in plan. My impression is that the latter is the true explanation; such an arrangement in a freestanding structure intended for a residence would be absurd, but we are here assisting at the "incunabula" of the style, and must not be surprised at anomalies.

v1.c15.s3.11

No. 12 at Ajantâ is a square hall, measuring 36 ft. 8 in. each way. It has no pillars, and its only ornament consists of horseshoe arches over the doors of the twelve cells, with a band of connecting rail-pattern and pairs of smaller arches over recesses between. The cells have each two stone beds, and altogether this vihâra bears so close a resemblance to the one at Bhâjâ, as also to the smaller one, No. 14 at Nâsik, and to that at Kondânê as to assign it to a very early place among those here, and coeval with the chaitya No. 10. Unfortunately, the rock over its front has given way, and carried with it the façade, which probably was the most ornamental part of the design.

v1.c15.s3.12

Close to No. 12 is cave 13, which may be as old as anything at Ajantâ, but its front also has fallen away, and we have left only a hall 13½ ft. wide by 16½ ft. surrounded by seven cells—in all of which are the stone couches or beds characteristic of the cells of an early age. No decorative feature appears on its walls.

v1.c15.s3.13

The most marked characteristic of the early vihâras on the western side of India—if we except the Sûrya cave at Bhâjâ, which is not Buddhist—is that, unlike their eastern Jaina contemporaries, they are wholly devoid of figure-sculpture: no bassi-rilievi, not even an emblem, relieves the severity of their simplicity. Over the doorways of the cells there are the usual horse-shoe arches, copied from the windows of the great chaityas, and the invariable Buddhist rail repeated everywhere as a stringcourse, with an occasional pillar or pilaster to relieve the monotony.

v1.c15.s3.14

The curious difference between the exuberance of figure-sculpture in the east and its total absence in the west in the pre-Christian Era caves, can only be ascribed to the different religions to which they respectively belong. Looking, however, at the progress made of late years in these subjects, there may possibly be further reasons for this difference which, when analysed, will throw fresh light on the early history of Jainism and Buddhism. Meanwhile, it may be worthy of remark, that the only living representation that is common to both sides of India, is the presence of the three-headed Nâga on the façade of the Nâsik chaitya (Woodcut No. 66), and its appearance in a similar position on the Chulakama or Sarpa and Ananta caves at Udayagiri in Orissa. It points to a prominent feature in early Buddhist and Jaina mythology, which was probably encouraged by cognate or identical legends respecting Sâkyamuni and Pârsvanâth. Besides this the three, five, or seven-headed Nâga occurs so frequently at Bharaut, Sânchi and elsewhere, that his presence here cannot be called a distinctive peculiarity.

v1.c15.s3.15

Cave No. 11 at Ajantâ is much in advance of Nos. 12 and 13, there being four pillars in its centre (Woodcut No. 98). It has seven cells inside, but the sanctuary is so arranged as to suggest that a cell in the back had been cut through to make [Figure: 98. Cave 11 at Ajanṭâ.

v1.c15.s3.16

room for it—and thus it may be of much later date than the cave; the sculptures in the verandah also are not of an early age. A small cell is excavated high up in the side wall of the shrine—an arrangement not found in any other of the caves here. The hall is 37 ft. by 28, and 10 ft. high; the four octagonal columns are of unusually clumsy style, from which it has been inferred that this was one of the earliest examples of the introduction of pillars into vihâras; and the close proximity to the early chaitya No. 10 was thought to countenance this. On further consideration, however, it appears that this cave, in its present form, must be placed considerably later than caves 12 and 13, and dating after the Christian Era.

v1.c15.s3.17

The next step after the introduction of four pillars to support the roof,¹ as in cave No. 11 at Ajanṭâ (Woodcut No. 98), was to introduce twelve pillars for this purpose, there being no intermediate number which would divide by four, and admit of an opening in the centre of every side. This arrangement is shown in the Woodcut (No. 99), representing the plan of the cave No. 2 at Ajanṭâ. Before this stage of cave architecture had been reached, the worship had degenerated considerably from its original form; and these larger caves always possess a sanctuary containing an image of Buddha. There are sometimes, besides this, as in the instance under consideration, two side chapels, like those in Catholic churches, containing images of subordinate saints, or probably of donors or benefactors.

v1.c15.s3.18

¹ Among the very early caves (probably Jaina) at Junâgadh are examples of a cave with four, and of another with one pillar supporting the roof. — ‘Archæological Survey of Western India,’ vol. ii. pp. 139-140, and plate 17.

v1.c15.s3.19

[Figure: 99. Cave 2 at Ajanṭâ. (From a Plan by the Author.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]

v1.c15.s3.20

The next and most extensive arrangement of these square monastery-caves is that in which twenty pillars are placed in the floor, so as to support the roof, six on each side, counting the corner pillars twice. There are several of these large caves at Ajantâ and elsewhere; one at Bâgh, in Mâlwâ, measuring 82 ft. by 80, represented in the woodcut (No. 100), has, besides the ordinary complement, four additional pillars in the centre; these were introduced evidently in consequence of the rock not being sufficiently homogeneous and perfect to support itself without this additional precaution; and there is a Jaina cave at Dhârâsimvâ in the Dekhan, which has, in the centre, a square of twelve additional pillars.¹

v1.c15.s3.21

¹ 'Cave Temples,' pp. 503ff. and plate 93; 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. iii. pp. 4-9, and plate 2.

v1.c15.s3.22

100. Cave 3 at Bâgh. (From a Plan by the Editor.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.

v1.c15.s3.23

These — which might be classed, according to the terms used in Greek architecture, as astyle, when having no pillars; distyle, when with two pillars in each face; tetrastyle, with four; and hexastyle with six—form the leading and most characteristic division of these excavations, and with slight modification are to be found in all the later series.

v1.c15.s3.24

101. Darbâr Cave, Salsette. (From a Plan by Mr. A. A. West.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.

v1.c15.s3.25

The forms, however, of many are so various and so abnormal that it would require a far more extended classification to enable us to describe and include them all. In many instances the great depth of the cave which this square arrangement required was felt to be inconvenient; and a more oblong form was adopted, as in the so-called Darbâr cave at Kanheri (Woodcut No. 101), where, besides, the sanctuary is projected forward, and assists, with the pillars, to support the roof. In some examples this is carried even further, and the sanctuary, standing boldly forward to the centre of the hall, forms in reality the only support. This, however, is a late and Brahmanical arrangement, and must be considered more as an economical than an architectural improvement. Indeed by it the dignity and beauty of the whole composition are almost entirely destroyed.

Nâsik Vihâras.

v1.c15.s4.1

The two most interesting series of caves for the investigation of the history of the later developments of the Vihâra system, are those at Nâsik and Ajantâ. The latter is by far the most extensive, consisting of twenty-six first-class caves, four of which are chaityas. The former group numbers, it is true, seventeen excavations, but only six or seven of these can be called first-class, and it possesses only one chaitya. The others are small excavations of no particular merit or interest. Ajantâ has also the advantage of retaining a considerable portion of the paintings which once adorned the walls of all vihâras erected subsequently to the Christian Era, while these have almost entirely disappeared at Nâsik, though there seems very little doubt that the walls of all the greater vihâras there were once so ornamented. This indeed was one of the great distinctions between them and the earlier primitive cells of the monks before the Christian Era. The Buddhist church between Asoka and Kanishka was in the same position as that of Christianity between Constantine and Gregory the Great. It was the last-named pontiff who inaugurated the pomp and ceremonial of the Middle Ages. It might, therefore, under certain circumstances be expedient to describe the Ajantâ vihâras first; but they are singularly deficient in well-preserved inscriptions containing recognisable names. Nâsik, on the other hand, is peculiarly rich in this respect, and the history of the series can be made out with very tolerable approximative certainty.¹

v1.c15.s4.2

¹ These inscriptions were first copied by Lieut. Brett, and published with translations by Dr. Stevenson, in the fifth volume of the 'Journal Bombay Branch of the R. Asiatic Society,' pp. 39 *et seqq.*, plates 1 to 16. They were afterwards revised by Messrs E. W. and A. A. West, in the seventh volume of the same journal, pp. 37, *et seqq.*, and translated by Professor Bhandârkar in the 'Transactions of the International Congress of Orientalists,' 1874. A revised translation was made by Professor G. J. Bühler, and published in the 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. iv. pp. 98-116; and they have lastly been revised by Mons. É. Senart in 'Epigraphia Indica,' vol. viii. (1905), pp. 59-96, in which, however, he has adopted a different numeration of the caves from that in common use.

v1.c15.s4.3

The chaitya cave was, as above stated, commenced about 160 years before Christ, and the vihâra of the same age attached to it, is the small one (No. 14) close to it, and on a lower level than those now on each side of it, and consequently more likely to be what we are looking for than they are. It is a simple square hall measuring 14 ft. each way, with two square cells in three of its sides, the fourth opening on a verandah with two octagon pillars in front. The only ornament of the interior is a horse-shoe arch over each cell door, connected by a simple Buddhist rail. In every detail it is in fact identical with the two old vihâras Nos. 13 and 12 at Ajantâ, and it bears an inscription of Krishna Râja, who seems almost certainly to be the second of the Andhrabhritya race, and who probably ascended the throne about b.c. 170, and ruled for 18 years. The architectural details accord perfectly with those of the chaitya, and the age ascribed to it.

v1.c15.s4.4

Turning from these, which practically belong to the last chapter rather than to this, the interest is centred in three great vihâras, the oldest of which (No. 8) bears the name of Nahapâna (Woodcut No. 102), the second (No. 3) that of Gautamîputra, and the third (No. 15) that of Srî Yajna, — if our chronology is correct, their dates are thus fixed as about a.d. 100, 130, and 180.

v1.c15.s4.5

[Figure: 102. Nahapâna Vihâra, Nâsik. (From a Plan by J. Burgess.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]

v1.c15.s4.6

The two principal vihâras at Nâsik, Nos. 3 and 8, are so similar in dimensions and in all their arrangements, that it is almost impossible to distinguish between their plans on paper. They are both square halls measuring more than 40 ft. each side, without any pillars in the centre, and are surrounded on three sides by sixteen cells of nearly the same dimensions. On the fourth or front side is a six-pillared verandah, in the one case with a cell at each end, in the other with only one cell, which is the most marked distinction between the two plans. The architecture, too, is in some respects so similar that we can hardly hesitate in assuming that the one is an intentional copy of the other. It is in fact the problem of the great cave at Kanheri, being a copy of that at Kârlê repeated here.¹ Only the difference in age between the two chaityas being greater, the degradation in style is much greater than here, where it appears to be little more than a generation, and may be largely due to workmen from a different province.

v1.c15.s4.7

¹ *Ante*, p. 162. See also plate 11 of my folio work on the 'Rock-cut Temples,' where the pillars of the two caves are contrasted as here.

v1.c15.s4.8

The pillars in the verandah of cave No. 8 (Woodcut No. 103), are so similar to those in the great Kârlê chaitya, that we might hesitate to ascribe any very lengthened interval between them; indeed we find inscriptions at Kârlê of the same Ushavadâta and his wife Dakhamitrâ, the daughter of Nahapâna,

v1.c15.s4.9

103. Pillar in Nahapâna Cave, Nâsik. (From a Photograph.)

v1.c15.s4.10

104. Pillar in Gautamîputra Cave, Nâsik. (From a Photograph.)

v1.c15.s4.11

who give two cells in the verandah of this cave in the years A.D. 119-123;¹ and as the inscriptions chiefly record endowments, this cave may have been excavated, for aught we know, a century or more before these donations were made and recorded. There are also minor differences in the proportions of the pillars and the execution of the figure sculptures, that may be indications of some difference of age. On the other hand, no vihâra on this side of India has a façade more richly ornamented than this. Those at Bhâjâ and Bedsâ are quite plain, and those around Kârlê, though richer, are inferior to this, so that on the whole the architectural evidence tends to confirm the date as subsequent to the Christian Era; and if so, then Kârlê may be of somewhat later date than had been previously ascribed to it.

v1.c15.s4.12

¹ The dates in Ushavadâta’s inscriptions are 41, 42, and 45; and as Nahapâna, in a Junnar inscription, gives the date 46, the latter must have been alive at the earlier dates; and as the Kshatrapas use the *Saka* era, the Nâsik dates correspond to A.D. 119, 120 and 123.

v1.c15.s4.13

The pillars of the Gautamîputra cave No. 3, as will be seen from the last woodcut (No. 104), have lost much of the elegance of those last described. How far this difference is to be ascribed to the first cave having been constructed under a Mâlwâ architect, whilst the latter was probably executed by a Telugu or Dakhani, it is hard to say. Instead of the graceful bell-shaped Persian capitals, we have the pudding forms that afterwards became so prevalent. The shafts are straight posts, and have no bases, and the whole shows an inferiority not to be mistaken. The carved and sculptured doorway also belongs to a much less elegant style. Besides this, there are three things here which prove almost incontestably that it belongs to the same age as the Amarâvatî tope erected in the 2nd century—the rail in front, already given (Woodcut No. 37, p. 113), the pilaster at the end of the verandah, and the bas-relief of a dâgaba, which occupies the same position on the back wall in this cave that the Bhairava with the club now occupies in No. 8.¹ It has the same attendants, and the same superfluity of umbrellas, as are found there, so that altogether the age of the excavation can hardly be considered doubtful.

v1.c15.s4.14

¹ This is not original, but is a figure of Bhairava formed out of what was originally a dâgaba similar to that in cave 3.—'Cave Temples,' p. 270, and plates 19-23.

v1.c15.s4.15

Cave No. 12 is a small vihâra, the central hall being 32 ft. by 23 ft., and with only four cells on one side. It had never been finished, and considerable alterations have been attempted in its interior at some date long subsequent to its first excavation, apparently to adapt it to Hindû worship. Its verandah, however, consisting of two attached and two free-standing columns, is apparently of the same age as the Nahapâna cave No. 8. An inscription upon it states that it was excavated by "Îndrâgnidatta, the Yavana, a northerner from Dattâmitrî."² None of these names can be recognised, but they point to an age when foreigners, possibly of the Panjâb or Arakhosia, visited the Dekhan.

v1.c15.s4.16

² 'Epigraphia Indica,' vol. viii. p. 91.

v1.c15.s4.17

The great vihâra (No. 15) beyond the chaitya cave, and 12 ft. above its level, is one of the most important of the series, not [Figure: 105. Sri Yajna Cave, No. 15 at Nâsik. (From a Plan by J. Burgess.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]

v1.c15.s4.18

only from its size, but from its ordinance and date (Woodcut No. 105). The hall is 61 ft. in depth by 37½ ft. wide at the outer end, increasing to 44 ft. at the inner, and with eight cells on each side. Originally it seems as if it had been only 40 ft. in depth, but at a later period was extended — perhaps by the lady Vâsu, mentioned in the inscription in the verandah. The addition forms its most marked peculiarity, which is that it has a regular sanctuary at its inner end, with two richly carved pillars in front (Woodcut No. 106), and within, a colossal figure of Buddha, seated, with flying and standing attendants, dwârpâls, dwarfs, and all the accompaniments usually found in the third and subsequent centuries belonging to the Mahâyâna school of Buddhism.

v1.c15.s4.19

Fortunately we have in this cave an inscription containing a well-known name. It is said to have been completed by Vâsu, wife of the commander-in-chief of the king Srîyajna Sâtakarni, in that king’s seventh year, after it had been excavated many years before by Vopaki, an ascetic, but had remained unfinished. We are not able to fix the exact year to which this date refers, but it does not seem doubtful that this king reigned in the last quarter of the 2nd century, and we consequently have in this cave a fixed point (about A.D. 185) on which to base our calculations for the period about that time. Further, over the doorway of the first cell on the left side is a short inscription, in letters of the 5th or 6th century, intimating the gift of a cave—perhaps only the cell—by a lay devotee Mammâ.¹

v1.c15.s4.20

¹ 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. iv. pp. 114 and 116; 'Epigraphia Indica,' vol. viii. pp. 93, 94.

v1.c15.s4.21

Beyond this there is still another excavation, No. 17—it can hardly be called a vihâra—of very irregular shape, and covered with sculpture of a date perhaps four centuries more modern than that of the cave last described. Buddha is there represented in all his attitudes, standing or sitting, accompanied by chauri bearers, flying figures, dwarfs, etc. On one side is a colossal recumbent figure of him attaining Nirvâna, which is a sign of a comparatively modern date. Besides these, there are Dnyâni Buddhas, Bọdhisattwas, and all the modern pantheon of Buddhism, arranged in admired confusion, as in most of the modern caves.

v1.c15.s4.22

106. Pillar in Sri Yajna Cave.

v1.c15.s4.23

There is no inscription, but from its sculpture and the form of its pillars we may safely ascribe it to the last age of Buddhist art, say about the year 600 or later. The pillars approximate closely in style to those found at Elephanta, and in the Brahmanical caves at Elûrâ, which, from other evidence, have been assigned to dates varying from 600 to 800 years of our era.

v1.c15.s4.24

More has perhaps been said about the Nâsik caves than their architectural importance would seem at first sight to justify, but they are one of the most important of the purely Buddhist groups.¹ Their great merit, however, is that they belong to one of the most important of the older Indian dynasties, known as the Andhrabhrityas, Sâtakarnis, or Sâtavâhanas. Owing to their coinage being mostly of lead, this dynasty was for long overlooked by numismatists and others, and could only be rehabilitated by their inscriptions and their architectural work, on which these are found inscribed. And labour on these materials has been rewarded by very important chronological results.²

v1.c15.s4.25

¹ For further details, see 'Cave Temples,' pp. 263 to 279, and plates.

v1.c15.s4.26

² 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. iv. pp. 98-114; Bhandarkar, 'Early history of the Dekkan,' pp. 14-44.

Ajantâ Vihâras

v1.c15.s5.1

As before mentioned, the central group of the four oldest caves at Ajantâ forms the nucleus from which the caves radiate south-east and south-west—eight in one direction, and fourteen in the other. It seems, however, that there was a pause in the excavation of caves after the first great effort, and that they were then extended, for some time at least, in a south-west direction. Thus caves Nos. 14 to 20 form a tolerably consecutive series, without any violent break. After that, or it may be contemporaneously with the last named, may be grouped Nos. 8, 7, and 6; and, lastly, Nos. 21 to 26 at one end of the series, and Nos. 1 to 5 at the other, form the latest and most ornate group of the whole series.¹

v1.c15.s5.2

¹ The caves run in a semicircle along the north side of the Wâghorâ torrent, which, after falling over the cliff here, makes a bend to the north. They were numbered consecutively, like houses in a street, beginning at the south-east end, the first cave there being No. 1, the last accessible cave at the western end being No. 26. For a plan of the group, see ‘Archæological Survey of Western India,’ vol. iv. plate 21.

v1.c15.s5.3

As above explained, four in the centre are certainly anterior to the Christian Era. One, No. 10, is certainly the oldest here, and may consequently be contemporary with the gateways at Sânchi; and with it are associated Nos. 12 and 13. After this first effort, however, came the pause just alluded to, for Nos. 11, 14, and 15, which are the only caves we can safely assign to the next three centuries, are comparatively insignificant, either in extent or in richness of detail.

v1.c15.s5.4

107. Plan of Cave No. 16 at Ajantâ. (From a Plan by J. Burgess.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.

v1.c15.s5.5

Leaving these, we come to two vihâras, Nos. 16 and 17, which are the most beautiful here, and, taken in conjunction with their paintings, probably the most interesting vihâras in India.

v1.c15.s5.6

No. 16 is a twenty-pillared cave, measuring about 65 ft. each way (Woodcut No. 107), with sixteen cells and a regular sanctuary, in which is a figure of Buddha, seated, with his feet down. The general appearance of the interior may be judged of by the following woodcut (No. 108) in outline, but only a coloured representation in much greater detail could give an idea of the richness of effect produced by its decoration.² All the walls are covered with frescoes representing scenes from the Buddhist jâtakas, or from the legends of Buddha’s life, and the roof and pillars by arabesques and ornaments, generally of great beauty of outline, heightened by the most harmonious colouring.

v1.c15.s5.7

² In Mr. Griffiths’s ‘Paintings in the Buddhist Cave Temples of Ajantâ,’ plate 92, he gives a coloured view of the interior also of cave 1.

v1.c15.s5.8

108. View of Interior of Vihâra No. 16, at Ajanṭâ. (From a Sketch by the Author.)

v1.c15.s5.9

No. 17, which is very similar in plan, was long known as the Zodiac cave, from the figure of a Buddhist Bhava-chakra or ‘wheel of life’ painted at the left end of its verandah, which was mistaken by early visitors for a celestial emblem.¹ The general effect of its architecture internally may be gathered from Woodcut No. 109 (from a photograph), or from the next woodcut (No. 110) representing one of its pillars to a larger scale, from which the curiously wooden construction of the roof will be better observed than from the photograph. It is, in fact, the usual mode of forming flat or terraced roofs at the present day throughout India, and which consequently

v1.c15.s5.10

¹ ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ 1894, p. 370 and plate; ‘Man’ for January 1901. Dr. Bird peeled off many of the figures.—‘Cave Temples,’ pp. 309ffg.

v1.c15.s5.11

109. View in Cave No 17, at Ajantâ. (From a Photograph.)

v1.c15.s5.12

does not seem to have varied from the 5th century at all events. As may be gathered from these illustrations, the pillars in these caves are almost indefinitely varied, generally in pairs, but no pillars in any one cave are at all like those in any other. In each cave, however, there is a general harmony of design and of form, which prevents their variety from being unpleasing. The effect, on the contrary, is singularly harmonious and satisfactory. The great interest of these two caves lies, however, in their frescoes, which represent Buddhist legends on a scale and with a distinctness found nowhere else in India. The sculptures of Amarâvatî—which must be considerably earlier—are what most nearly approach them; but, as in most cases, painting admits of greater freedom and greater variety of incident than sculpture ever does, and certainly in this instance vindicates its claim to greater phonetic power. Many of the frets and architectural details painted on the roofs and pillars of these vihâras are also of great elegance and appropriateness,¹ and, when combined with the architecture, make up a whole unrivalled in India for its ethnographic as well as for its architectural beauty.

v1.c15.s5.13

¹ For excellent illustrations of these, mostly in colour, see Mr. Griffiths's 'Paintings in the Buddhist Cave Temples at Ajaṇtâ,' vol. ii.

v1.c15.s5.14

110. Pillar in Vihâra No. 17, at Ajaṇtâ. (From a Sketch by the Author.)

v1.c15.s5.15

Fortunately the age of these two caves is not altogether doubtful; there is a long inscription on each, much mutilated, it must be confessed, but of which enough can be made out to show that they were excavated under kings of the Vindhyasakti race, one of whom, Pravarasena, whose name appears in the inscription on No. 16, married a daughter of a Mahârâja Devagupta. And though, as yet, we cannot fix a definite date for these princes, we may place the inscriptions epigraphically about A.D. 500, or possibly a little earlier.¹ Hence we may approximately date these two caves in the end of the 5th century. They are thus considerably more modern than the Srî Yajna cave, No. 15, at Nâsik, which is the result we would expect to arrive at from their architecture and the form of their sanctuaries.

v1.c15.s5.16

¹ 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. iv. pp. 53, 128.

v1.c15.s5.17

Their great interest, therefore, from a historical point of view, consists in their being almost unique specimens of the architecture and arts of India during the great Gupta period.

v1.c15.s5.18

Nos. 18, 19, and 20 succeed this group, both in position and in style, and probably occupied the first half of the 6th century in construction, bringing down our history to about A.D. 550.

v1.c15.s5.19

Before proceeding further in this direction, the cave-diggers seem to have turned back and excavated Nos. 8, 7, and 6. The last named is the only two-storeyed cave at Ajantâ, and would be very interesting if it were not so fearfully ruined by damp and decay, owing to the faulty nature of the rock in which it is excavated. No. 7 has a singularly elegant verandah, broken by two projecting pavilions. Internally, it is small, and occupied by a whole pantheon of Buddhas.² It resembles somewhat No. 15 at Nâsik, with which it is perhaps nearly contemporary.

v1.c15.s5.20

² 'Rock-cut Temples,' plate 8. For a fuller account and illustrations, see 'Cave Temples of India,' pp. 299-300, and plate 31; 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. iv. p. 52, and plates 27 and 28, fig. 1.

v1.c15.s5.21

There still remain the first five caves at the south-east end, and the six last at the western: one of these is a chaitya, the other ten are vihâras of greater or less dimensions. Some are only commenced—and two—Nos. 4 and 24—which were intended to have been the finest of the series, are left in a very incomplete state: interesting, however, as showing the whole process of an excavation from its commencement to its completion. No. 4 is a 28-pillared cave, of which the hall is about 87 ft. square, and except the cells it is nearly finished; but No. 24, though the next largest, is planned with 20 pillars and a hall 73⁠1/4⁠ ft. wide by 75 ft. deep—but inside, only the front aisle has been advanced towards completion, the pillars in the back and sides being only roughly blocked out. The verandah, however, had been sculptured in a style showing that it was intended to be one of the most highly finished monasteries in the group. The pillars of the façade, with one exception, are all destroyed: only the capitals, still attached to the roof, testify to the beauty of design and life and finish of the work. The woodcut No. 111 represents one of these bracket capitals, carved in much the same pattern as the others. The true capital having overhanging leaves, analogous to the Ionic volutes, and which forms so marked a feature in subsequent Indian architecture, seems first to have been perfected about the time this cave was excavated. It is so like in details to those in cave No. 3 at Aurangâbâd¹ that there can be little hesitation in assigning them to the same age. The capitals, pillars, and pilasters in this and Nos. 1, 2, and 21 to 26, with the very similar ones at Aurangâbâd may be taken as the types of the last and most elaborate phase of Buddhist architectural decoration in Western India.

v1.c15.s5.22

¹ 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. iii. pp. 66, 69, and plates 44-47.

v1.c15.s5.23

111. Capital from Verandah of Cave 24. (From a Photograph.)

First 111 of 185 passages. Read on

Cites (36)