Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/201

CHAP. V. WESTERN CHAITYA HALLS. 167 fallen away. Inside this is a cell open to the front, in which is a cross-legged seated figure of Buddha, showing an approach to the Hindu mode of treating images in their temples, which looks as if Buddhism was on the verge of disappearing. The same arrangement is repeated in the only excavation here which can be called a chaitya hall. It is only 26 ft. by 1 3 ft. internally ; but the whole of the dagaba, which is 8 ft. in diameter, has been hollowed out to make a cell, in which an image of Buddha is enshrined. The dagabas, in fact, here there are three standing by themselves have become temples, and only distinguishable from those of the Hindus by their circular forms. 1 It is probably hardly necessary to say more on this subject now, as most of the questions, both of art and chronology, will be again touched upon in the next chapter when describing the viharas which were attached to the chaityas, and were, in fact, parts of the same establishments. As mere residences, the viharas may be deficient in that dignity and unity which characterises the chaityas, but their number and variety make up to a great extent for their other deficiencies ; and altogether their description forms one of the most interesting chapters in our history. GUNTUPALLE. At Jilligerigudem near Guntupalle in the Godavari district, about 20 miles north from Elor, are a dozen or more buried stupas, and there are caves at five or six different places. These were surveyed by Mr A. Rea in 1887, when he partly excavated one of the mounds which contained a stone stupa having a drum 18 ft. in diameter and about 7 ft. high, with a dome of about 1 5 ft. diameter, of which the upper part only seemed to have been disturbed. Near by were the broken shafts of what probably had been a large pillared hall or mandapa. Two groups of the caves here have been destroyed by hewing away the partition walls between them. Of the others the largest group contains a number of cells of quite limited dimensions 5 to 6 ft. by 7 or 8 ft. They face south-east, and at the south-west end are four cells opening from a verandah v/ith a vaulted roof, one cell being at the left end and three behind the central one being set 4^ ft. farther back than the other two. Close to these is another verandah with a vaulted roof and two cells opening off it and a vaulted 1 The particulars of the architecture of these caves are taken from Gen. Cunning- ham's report above alluded to, vol. ii. pp. 280-288.