A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c14.s2.3

c14.s2.3

'The caves extend for a distance of about 600 yards from east to west round the concave wall of amygdaloid trap which hems in the stream on its north or left side, and vary in elevation from about 35 to 100 feet above the level of the torrent.' The numbers by which authors have agreed to designate them begin at the east end. Four of the excavations, Nos. IX, X, XIX, and XXVI, are churches (the so-called 'chaityas'), the rest being monastic residences, the 'vihāras' of English writers. Some have never been completed. The principal works are elaborate architectural compositions, executed in the solid rock, the nature of which is very inadequately expressed by the term 'caves'.