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l62 BUDDtflST ARCHITECTURE BOOK I. the light to any desired extent. At Eliira, no screen could ever have existed in front, and wooden additions had long ceased to be used, so that it consequently became necessary to reduce the size of the opening. In the two later chaityas at Ajanta, this is effected by simply reducing their size. At Elura it was done by dividing it. If we had the structural examples in which this change was probably first introduced, we might trace its progress ; l but, as this one is the only rock example we have of a divided window, we must accept it as one of the latest modifications of the facades of these chaityas. Practically, it may be an improvement, as it is still sufficiently large to light the interior in a satisfactory manner ; but artisti- cally it seems rather to be regretted. There is a character and a grandeur about the older design which we miss in this more domestic-looking arrangement, though it is still a form of opening not destitute of beauty. Owing to the sloping nature of the ground in which it is excavated this cave possesses a forecourt of considerable extent and of great elegance of design, which gives its fagade an importance it is not entitled to from any intrinsic merit of its own. 2 KANHERI. One of the best known and most frequently described chaityas in India, is that on the island of Salsette, about 1 6 miles north of Bombay, and 6 north-west from Thana, known as the great Kanheri cave. In dimensions it belongs to the first rank, being 86 ft. 6 in. in length by 39 ft. 10 in. wide, and about 38 ft. high. In the verandah there is an inscription recording that a monk named Buddhaghosha dedicated one of the middle-sized statues in the porch to the honour of Bhagavat, i.e. Buddha. 3 This does not fix the age of the cave, but on the two front pillars of the same porch are inscriptions or rather fragments of such from which it is gathered that the chaitya was begun by two brothers, "the merchants Gajasena and Gajamitra," in the reign of Gautami- putra Siriyana 5atakarni, that is, about A.D. i8o. 4 This fixes its date some centuries before Nos. 19 and 26 at Ajanta, but much later than the great Karle chaitya, of which it is a literal copy, but in so inferior a style of art that the architecture 1 See the chaitya at Ter, ante, p. 126. 2 'Cave Temples,' pp. 377-379, and plates 62, 63 ; ' Archaeological Survey of Western India,' vol. v. pp. 9-13, and plates 3, and 16-18. 3 This and three other short inscrip- tions on the same verandah are in characters of about the 4th or 5th century A.D. 'Archaeological Survey of Western India,' vol. v. p. 77. 4 Loc. cit. pp. 75, 76 ; other inscrip- tions of the later Andhra kings occur at Kanheri in caves Nos. 5, 36, and 81, with more of the same age.