Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c6.s3.157

c6.s3.157

The *Mahā-ummagga Jātaka*⁹ presents before us indeed a marvellous underground construction—a great engineering feat. The description of the construction of the great tunnel is indeed too realistic to be passed off unnoticed: the mouth of the tunnel was upon the Ganges’ bank; its entrance was in the city. It was provided with a door, eighteen hands high, fitted with machinery (*Yantayuttadvāra*) so that all were closed by pressing a peg (*āṇi*). On either side, the tunnel was built up with bricks (*iṭṭhikāhi*) and worked with stucco (*sudhākammam*); it was roofed over with planks (*padaracchanam*) and plastered with cement (*ullokamattikā*) and then whitewashed (*setakammam*). In all there were eighty great doors and sixty-four small ones, all of which closed by pressing one peg and opened by pressing another. On either side were some hundreds of cells for placing lamps (*dīpālayā*), and they also were provided with machinery, so that when one was opened, all were opened, and when one was shut, all were shut. On either side, there were one hundred and one bed-rooms (*sayanagabbhā*) for one hundred and one Khattiyas. In each of these was laid a variegated bed, as also a great couch shaded by a white umbrella, a throne placed near the couch and a statue of a woman of surpassing beauty. Also on either side of the tunnel, skilful painters made all sorts of paintings as described before. The floor was like a silver-plate being strewn with sand (*vālukā*). On the roof were full-blown lotus flowers (*ullo-kapadumāni*). On both sides were booths (*āpaṇe*) of all kinds; here and there were hung festoons of flowers and scented blooms. Thus they adorned the tunnel until it was like the divine hall of Sudhammā,¹⁰ A grand construction, this. The Ajaṇṭā and Ellorā caves, out of so many existing rock-cut structures, show that the above description is not simply an imaginative picture.¹¹