The Age of the Imperial Guptas c9.147

c9.147

Bagh is situated to the north of the Narmada but to the south of the Vindhyan ranges, a few miles north of Kukshi on the road from Dhar to Khandesh. It lies more than sixty miles due east of Maheshwar, the ancient Māhishmatī, once the capital of the Holkars. Such figures as are still preserved in the Bagh caves show that they are exact replicas of the series of caves of Western India beginning with Poladungar and Dhamnar in the north, and ending with the later caves in the Poona and Satara districts of the Bombay Presidency. Thus the free-standing columns of cave No. I remind one very strongly of the later cave called Jogesvari, near Andheri in the Thana district of Bombay.² Some however are fluted but with spirals.³ In the majority of cases the cruciform bracket capitals are ornamented with the “wing” patterns so profusely used in all three wings of the great cave or Cave No. I at Gharapuri or Elephanta, off Bombay.⁴ The later date, than the Gupta period proper, is proved, in the case of all caves at Bagh by the total rejection of the apsidal form in *Caitya-Gharas* such as Cave No. I.¹ The only pure Gupta motif is that of the *Caitya*-window with circular medallion in the centre of Cave No. IV.² So, also, the three Buddhas and Bodhisatvas on the right and left walls of the vestibule of Cave No. II and the two Bodhisatvas in the same cave³ are of the same type as those at Montpezir or Mandapeśvara near Borivli in the Thana district of Bombay and the mediæval caves at Ajanta. The facades of caves No. II, IV, and V⁴ are exactly like the smaller caves at Gharapuri or Elephanta.⁵ Therefore, the Bagh Caves, though they are to the north of the Narmadā, cannot be taken to be specimens of Northern Cave temples. Sir John Marshall’s opinion on the style of the paintings leave no doubt about their southern origin: “On the other hand, as far as their artistry is concerned, there is little to choose between the pictures of Bagh and Ajanta. Both exhibit the same broad handling of their subjects, the same poetry of motions, the same wonderful diversity in the poses of their figures, the same feeling for colour and the same strong yet subtle line-work. In both, decorative beauty is the key-note to which all else is at-tuned, and both are as free from realism as they are from stereotyped convention”.⁶