This page needs to be proofread.
THE ANCIENT ABBEY OF AJANTA [1]
I
Like the curves and columns of some great organ runs the line of stone arches and colonnades along the hillside that faces to the sunrise in the glen of Ajanta. Twenty-six caves there are in all, making one long level line, overhung by the rounded ridge of dark-blue stone that was undoubtedly chipped into shape and bareness long long ago to emphasize that balanced uniformity which gives to this ancient abbey so much of its solemnity and beauty. As we first see the caveS, from the boulder-strewn stream some hundreds of feet away, they appear 60
- ↑ * Chaitya — Building used by Buddhist monks for united worship;
strictly comparable to Christian churches, which resemble it to an
extraordinary degree even now. The differences between nave and aisles are exactly the same. A dagoba occupied the place of the altar. Ajanta has four chaityas.
Vihara — A Buddhist monastery. At first these consisted of a central space of irregular shape, with small cells opening into it. Afterwards it becomes a quadrangle or main court with a great sanctuary on its longest side containing an image of Buddha, pillared aisles, verandah, and cells, as in the earlier examples. There are twenty-two viharas, many unfinished, at Ajanta.
Dagoba — A stupa or tope erected over the ashes or relics of a great teacher. An open-air stupa is the Sanchi Tope. There are dagobas within all the four chaityas at Ajanta. Evidently the form was sacred.
