The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c16.20.1

v2.c16.20.1

Now studying the monuments themselves, we may note that although some archaeologists have connected the style of the rock-hewn shrines of the Deccan with the architecture of the rock-hewn tombs of Egypt and Persia, yet the idea of dwelling in caves, in the primitive period for personal safety and later, in a stage of intellectual and spiritual advancement, for contemplation and enlightenment, has been inherent in man in the East as well as in the West. The natural caverns may have acquired sanctity as the abode of *rishis*, for whose comfort their devoted disciples may have removed the irregular features of the habitats of such pious *gurus* by dressing the walls and ceilings and levelling the floors. This process would have developed in course of time and a conventional style arisen of building shrines and replicas of tombs (*stūpas*) by cutting the rock. The cave temples of the Deccan are therefore indigenous in regard both to their origin and to their development and their architecture seems to have been copied from earlier, or contemporary, wooden or brick and stone structures. The influence of wood architecture is apparent not only in the shape of the pillars and their inward inclination,¹ but also in the presence of semi-circular rafters of wood in the ceilings of the early *chaitya*-caves at Kārle, Kondāṇe, and Ajanta, which are actually redundant in rock-hewn shrines but would have been an essential feature of the ceiling of a wooden building.