The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c33.44.1

v1.c33.44.1

It is in the upper storey of this cave that the inscription of Khāravela's Queen is incised, while in the lower are short records stating that the main and side chambers were the works, respectively, of Vakradeva (Vakadepasiri or Kudepasiri), the successor, apparently, of Khāravela, and of Prince Vaḍukha. It may be presumed, therefore, that the upper storey is the earlier of the two. The rail pattern which once adorned the broad band of rock between the two storeys is now all but obliterated, but in the ground-floor verandah is a well preserved frieze which confirms by its style what the inscriptions might otherwise lead us to suppose: namely, that, next to the Hāthi Gumphā, this was the most ancient cave in the two groups. Some of the reliefs of this frieze are illustrated in Pl. XXVII, 74. Like most of the sculptures in this locality they are of poor, coarse workmanship, but in the depth of the relief and plastic treatment of the figures they evince a decided advance on the work of Bhārhut, and, unless it be that sculpture in this part of India had undergone an earlier and independent development (a supposition for which there is no foundation) it is safe to affirm that they are considerably posterior to the sculptures of Bhārhut. Next, in chronological sequence, comes the Ananta Gumphā—a single-storeyed cave planned in much the same way as the Manchapurī, which seems to have been the prototype of all the more important caves excavated on this site.