Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s19.10

c12.s19.10

Chronologically the latest and architecturally the best of the series is undoubtedly the Lomaśa Ṛiṣi⁴ which though bearing no inscription may be taken to belong to the Maurya period. In ground plan and general design it is much like the Sudāmā, and consists similarly of a rectangular antechamber with barrel-vaulted roof entered by the long side through a doorway with sloping jambs ; this antechamber is connected at the end through a central doorway with a separate cell which is oval and not round as in the Sudāmā. But the most interesting architectural element in the Lomaśa Ṛiṣi is its facade which is frankly an exact translation of the gable end of a wooden structure in the language of stone. The carpenter's handiwork has been copied in stone in every little detail. From this facade can easily be reconstructed the wood-built structural *chaityas* of this period¹. The finial that surmounts the gable of the facade also seems to be translated from either terracotta originals or from wooden copies of them.