Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/197

CHAP. V. WESTERN CHAITYA HALLS 163 of this cave can only be looked upon as an exceptional anomaly, the principles of whose design are unlike anything else to be found in India, emanating probably from some individual caprice, the . origin of which we may never now be able to recover. The fact, however, that it was undertaken by two laymen, who may have found the undertaking more expensive than they had anticipated, or who may have died before it was finished, may account for its degraded style: the inferior quality of the rock, and the inexperience of the workmen of the period, under direction of " the reverend Bodhika " as overseer, may also have contributed to the result. Internally the roof was ornamented with timber rafters, and though these have fallen away, the wooden pins by which they were fastened to the rock still remain ; and the screen in front has all the mortices and other indications, as at Karle, proving that it was intended to be covered with wooden galleries and framework. What is still more curious, the figures of the donors with their wives, which adorn the front of the screen at Karle, are here repeated with necessary variations ; and the rock at this spot being pretty close-grained, they are the best carved figures in these caves. They are probably also the only sculptures of the age of the cave. The occurrence of such figures here is the more strange as it belonged to an age when their place was reserved for figures of Buddha, and when, perhaps at Karle itself, they were cutting away the old sculptures and old inscriptions, to introduce figures of Buddha, 84. Rail in front of the Chaitya Cave, Kanheri. (From a Dra wing by Mr. H. Cousens.) either seated cross-legged, or borne on the lotus, supported by Naga figures at its base. 1 1 A tolerably correct representation of these sculptures is engraved in Langles's 'Monuments anciens et modernes de l'Hindostan,'tom. ii. p. 81, after Niebuhr. The curious part of the thing is, that the Buddhist figures of the Karle fa?ade are not copied here also. ' Archaeological Survey of Western India,' vol. iv., plates 4, and 39-41.