History of Indian and Eastern ArchitectureFergusson, James
History
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture
Fergusson, James
Architecture -- India; Architecture, Asian
With one exception, no man or woman has any covering on their heads, and
the men generally have the hair cropped short, and with only very small
moustaches on the face. Some half-dozen are as dark as the Indians of
the present day. The rest are very much fairer, many as fair as
Spaniards, and nearly all wear coloured dresses.
We are not at present in a position to say, and may not for a long time
be able to feel sure, who the races are that are represented in these
frescoes or in those at Ajunta. Negatively we may probably be justified
in asserting that they are not the ancestors of the present inhabitants
of Rajputana, nor of any of the native races--Bhîls, Gonds, or such
like. Are they Sakas, Yavanas, or any of the trans-Indus tribes who, in
the first centuries of the Christian Era flowed into India across that
river, bringing with them their arts and religious forms? The style of
art, especially at Bagh, is very similar to that of Persia at about the
same date.
The date of this group of caves seems hardly doubtful. The earliest
could not well have been commenced much before A.D. 500; the date of the
latest, if our chronology is correct, could not well be carried down
beyond 650 or 700, unless it was, that the troubles that convulsed the
rest of India after that date did not reach those remote valleys in
Rajputana till some time afterwards.
SALSETTE.
One of the most extensive, but one of the least satisfactory of all the
groups of Indian caves, is that generally known as the Kenheri Caves on
the Island of Salsette in Bombay Harbour. The great chaitya cave there,
as mentioned above, is only a bad copy of the Karli cave, and was
excavated in the beginning of the 5th century, and none of the viharas
seem to be earlier. The place, however, must have had some sanctity at
an earlier date, for there seems no doubt that a tooth of Buddha was
enshrined here in the beginning of the 4th century, when these relics
were revolutionising the Buddhist world at least at two diametrically
opposite points of the coast of India, at Puri, and in this island.[195]
It may have been in consequence of the visit of this relic that the
island became holy, and it may have been because it was an island, that
it remained undisturbed by the troubles of the mainland, and that the
practice of excavating caves lasted longer here than in any series above
described. Be this as it may, the caves here go straggling on till they
fade by almost imperceptible degrees into those of the Hindu religion.
The Hindu caves of Montpezir, Kundoty, and Amboli are so like them, and
the change takes place so gradually, that it is sometimes difficult to
draw the line between the two religions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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