History of Indian and Eastern ArchitectureFergusson, James
History
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture
Fergusson, James
Architecture -- India; Architecture, Asian
The excavations conducted by General Cunningham, at the same place, are
hardly more satisfactory in their result. The two buildings he explored
seem to bear the relation to one another of a vihara 60 ft. square over
all, and a temple of little more than half these dimensions with a
projecting porch on each face.[168] Only the foundation of these
buildings now remains, and nothing to indicate how they were originally
finished.
We may eventually hit on some representation which may enable us to form
definite ideas on this subject, but till we do this we probably must be
content with the interiors as seen in the rock-cut examples.
BENGAL CAVES.
None of the Behar caves can, properly speaking, be called viharas, in
the sense in which the word is generally used, except perhaps the Son
Bhandar, which, as before mentioned, General Cunningham identifies with
the Sattapanni cave, in front of which the first convocation was held
543 B.C. It is a plain rectangular excavation, 33 ft. 9 in. long by 17
ft. wide, and 11 ft. 7 in. to the springing of the curved roof.[169] It
has one door and one window, but both, like the rest of the cave,
without mouldings or any architectural features that would assist in
determining its age. The jambs of the doorway slope slightly inwards,
but not sufficiently to give an idea of great antiquity. In front there
was a wooden verandah, the mortice holes for which are still visible in
the front wall.
The other caves, at Barabar and Nagárjuna, if not exactly chaityas in
the sense in which that term is applied to the western caves, were at
least oratories, places of prayer and worship, rather than residences.
One Arhat or ascetic may have resided in them, but for the purpose of
performing the necessary services. There are no separate cells in them,
nor any division that can be considered as separating the ceremonial
from the domestic uses of the cave, and they must consequently, for the
present at least, be classed as chaityas rather than viharas.
The case is widely different when we turn to the caves in Orissa, which
are among the most interesting, though at the same time the most
anomalous, of all the caves in India. They are situated in two isolated
hills of sandstone rock, about twenty miles from Cuttack and five from
Bhuvaneswar. The oldest are in the hill called Udayagiri; the more
modern in that portion designated Khandagiri. They became Jaina about
the 10th or 11th century, and the last-named hill is crowned by a Jaina
temple, erected by the Maharattas in the end of the last century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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