History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c25.s8.42

v2.c25.s8.42

So far as I know, there is only one example where the Indo-Aryan architects attempted to rival the Dravidian in producing a monolithic exterior. It is at a place called Dhamnâr, in Rajputana, where, as already mentioned (*ante*, vol. i., pp. 165 and 200), there is an extensive series of Buddhist excavations. In order to mark their triumph over that fallen faith, the Hindûs, apparently late in the 8th century, drove an open cutting into the side of the hill, till they came to a part high enough for their purpose. Here they enlarged this cutting into a pit 97½ ft. by 67 ft., leaving a Vaishnava temple of elegant architecture standing in the centre, with seven small cells surrounding it, precisely as was done in the case of the Kailâs at Elûrâ. The effect, however, can hardly be said to be pleasing (Woodcut No. 332). A temple standing in a pit is always an anomaly, but in this instance it is valuable as an unaltered example of the style, and as showing how the small shrines of Sivâlayas²—which have too often disappeared—were originally grouped round the greater Saiva shrines. The value of this characteristic we shall be better able to appreciate when we come to describe the temples at Prambanan and other places in Java. The Buddhists had their cells for priests and ascetics; the Jains filled their residential cells with images