Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v3.c12.15

v3.c12.15

The frescoes which are described and studied in this Part are to be found in seven caves, Nos. VI, VII, IX, X, XI, XVI, and XVII, the architectural features of which are on a par with their pictorial embellishment. Two of these caves, Nos. IX and X, are *chaityas* (cathedrals), which on account of their close resemblance to the caves at Bhaja, Bedsa, Kondane, and Karle may be assigned to the first or second century B.C. Fergusson has considered Cave IX to be the earlier of the two, but its façade has no porch, and moreover the curvilinear brackets of the doorway (Plate XIII), and the slender pillars of its front corridor are decidedly later features, so that the cave cannot be placed earlier than the first century B.C. The plan of this temple is rectangular (Plate XII), which is again a novel feature for a *chaitya*, as it always has an apsidal end. The dimensions of Cave IX in comparison with its prototypes mentioned above, or even Cave X at Ajanta, are much smaller, being 45 ft. in length, 22 ft. 9 in. in width, and 23 ft. 2 in. in height. The pillars are octagonal in form, plain in design but slightly decreasing in girth as they rise. Their total number is twenty-one, and each of them is 10 ft. 4 in. high. The *dāgoba*, carved near the end of the hall, has a cylindrical base 5 ft. high, while its dome rises only 4 ft. above it, but it is crowned by a square capital, representing a relic-box, and an abacus consisting of six fillets, each projecting over the one below. The abacus originally supported a wooden umbrella, as at Karle. The inner architecture of the cave is characterized by solemn dignity, befitting a place of worship. The façade of the cave is, however, richly decorated with Buddhist religious motifs, such as the berm-railing, the *chaitya*-window, and the lattice-frame. The colossal figures of the Buddha, carved in the rock along the sides of the cave, are later additions (Plate XIII), and may have been executed in the fifth or sixth century A.D., when the Mahāyāna doctrines of image-worship better appealed to the religious sentiment of the votaries.