The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c20.6

c20.6

he should go forth into the world as a mendicant and spend the rest of his life in wandering from one sacred tîr Râma and Sîtâ in exile, others the last journey of the Pândava heroes; or to visit the birthplace of character within one very well defined type. At Ellora, which was and is a place of pilgrimage for all India, the imagination of the artist had wider scope; and there could hardly be a grander opportunity for sculpture on a titanic scale than the cliffs of Ellora afforded. So far as archæological investigation goes, the group of monasteries and an important chaitya-house, now known as the Visvakarma jhôprâ, at the south extremity of the line, are assumed to be the earliest in date, because they are Buddhist; but the system of chronology based upon the hypothesis that Brahmanical architecture is derived from the Buddhist is wholly unreliable. There is very little doubt that Ellora was a resort for devotees of all sects from a remote antiquity—Buddhists, Jains, and sâdhus and sannyâsins of the orthodox schools living side by side, worshipping together the aspect of the Divine manifested in the wonderful natural phenomena which attracted them to the place, but every sect representing a different philosophical school or a different theory of the divine nature.