The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c33.37

v1.c33.37

Among the earlier *chaitya* halls of Western India the finest examples are those at Bhājā, Koṇḍāne, Pitalkhorā, Ajaṇṭa, Bedsā, Nāsik, and Kārli. The plan and general design of these halls is approximately the same, and the description of one will suffice for all. The finest example, undoubtedly, is the hall at Kārli (Pl. XXV, 67, 68), which is at once the largest, the best preserved, and most perfect of its type. It measures 124 feet 3 inches long by 45 feet 6 inches wide and is of the same apsidal plan as the contemporary structural *chaityas* referred to above. Between the nave and the aisles is a single row of thirty-seven columns, of which those round the apse are of plain octagonal form, while the remainder, to the number of fifteen on either side of the nave, are provided with heavy bases and capitals of the bell-shape type surmounted by kneeling elephants, horses, and tigers, with riders or attendants standing between. Above these figures and rising to a height of 45 feet at its apex, springs the vaulted roof, beneath the soffit of which is a series of projecting ribs, not carved out of the stone itself, but constructed of wood and attached to the roof. At the apsidal end of the hall the vault terminates in a semi-dome, beneath which, and hewn like the rest of the hall out of the solid rock, is a *stūpa* of familiar shape with a crowning umbrella of wood above. At the entrance to the hall is a screen pierced by three doorways, one leading to the nave, the others to the side aisles; this screen rose no higher than the tops of the pillars within the hall, and the whole of the open space above it was occupied by a great horse-shoe window, within which there still remains part of its original wooden centring. It was through this window that all light was admitted into the hall, the nave and the *stūpa* being thus effectively illuminated, but the side aisles left in comparative darkness. In front of the entrance to the hall was a porch 15 feet deep by about 58 feet high, and as wide as it was high, closed in turn by a second screen consisting of two tiers of octagonal columns, with a solid mass of rock between, once apparently decorated with wooden carvings attached to its façade.