A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c9.s2.90

c9.s2.90

dating probably from the second century B. C., is supposed to be the most ancient. The cornice is supported by male figures used as caryatids, wearing waistcloths, large turbans, and much jewellery. The statues of the armed door-keepers are similarly clothed. The early date of the Pītalkhorā church cave is attested by two short inscriptions in script of the Maurya age or a little later. Two ugly little winged sphinxes on the back wall may be compared with the winged horse at Bhājā and similar creatures at Bodh-Gayā (*ante*, p. 67). At Bhājā the Persepolitan bell-capitals are surmounted by groups of queer sphinx-like figures without wings, having male or female busts with the bodies of oxen. At Kondānē, a statue labelled in characters of about the Maurya period as 'made by Baluka, the pupil of Kanha (Kṛishṇa)', is supposed to have been intended for a portrait of the excavator, but is so much mutilated that the skill of the sculptor can be judged only by the elaborate head-dress, most carefully chiselled.¹ The most interesting early sculptures of the western caves are the capitals of the two pillars in front of the Bedsā cave, which are surmounted by 'horses and elephants bearing men and women of bold and free execution'.²