Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/239

UPON THE ARCHITECTURE OF WESTERN INDIA. 181 inscription, fig. 12, in the cave character, in the Sanscrit lan- guage, and of which the following is a translation : " A pious offering to the image of the Blessed, by the Shak3a mendicant, Buddh-Ghosh, inhabitant of the house of sweetest smells, the beloved disci- ple of the doctors and spiritual teachers for the imitation of the discipline of the blessed Buddh." This statue serves no architectural, no devotional object in the temple. It seems to have been merely the grateful offer- ing of a devotee, who has been enabled to place his gift in an unoccupied part of the vestibule. Such offerings would not have been made before the missionaries were quietly settled in their abode, and all which could satisfy the eye had been completed in the great temple. I'or these reasons the pilaster of Buddh-Ghosh must be considered posterior to the parabolic moulding fig. 1, and much more to the Early Buddhist work. But it seems to have been the very first of the balusti-ade order, for it diverges less from the Early Buddhist than any other. The transition from the ancient cushion capital to a water-pot, and the conversion of the vira-kantha into a phul- baiid with pendant foliage is pretty aud simple ; and this truly Buddhist conception affords a satisfactory explanation of the peculiarities of the other varieties of balustrade capitals and abaci. As the objects of the missions succeeded, and the neigh- bouring princes became converts, it became necessary to con- struct halls, and in these we find the order to be balustrade. AVhen the monastery had reached its maximum importance it was found necessary to excavate both a new hall and a new temple. Eollowing the natural direction in which the excava- tions had spread from around the first temple, these were opened at the extremities of the towu, the latter as near the original temple as possible, the hall in a beautifid, but rather remote s])ot, beyond the ancient artificial lake now occupied l)y an asoka grove. Unfinished as the colunuis in them are, VOL. V. B b