Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/213

CHAP. VI. WESTERN VIHARA CAVES. 179 possibly forty, but the evidences are not so clear as to enable us to feel confident in affixing dates to them. The few that are known are those attached to the chaityas at Bhaja and Bedsa (Woodcuts Nos. 58, 63), the two oldest at Ajanta, Nos. 12 and 13, and those at Nasik, Pitalkhora, and Kondane. Those at Karle also, but they have been altered and enlarged, and are much destroyed by the rock falling away, so that it would be difficult to describe them ; l they are excavated in two or three storeys, and the earlier portions are without ornamentation, but almost certainly coeval with the chaitya itself. At Junnar there are several, which are very old, and at Sana, Junagadh and Talaja, in Gujarat, there are numbers of very ancient date. 2 One of the oldest of these is that attached to the chaitya at Bhaja (ante, Woodcut No. 58). It is five-celled ; three of these have single stone beds in them, one is double-bedded, and one is without that uncomfortable piece of furniture. In front of these are two long stone benches at either end of a hall 33 ft. in length. It is not clear whether this hall was always open as at present, but, if it was closed, it was by a wooden screen like the chaitya beside it, which is undoubtedly of the same age. They are indeed parts of one design. The same may be said of the Bedsa vihara, though placed a little further apart. In this case, however, there are three cells with stone beds in the verandah of the chaitya, and a fourth was commenced, when apparently it was determined to remove the residence a little further off, and no instance, I believe, occurs afterwards in which they were so conjoined, till at least a very late date, as, perhaps, at Dhamnar (Woodcut No. 86), all the parts got again confounded together. As will be seen from the plan (Woodcut No. 63) it is exceptional in form, being apsidal like the chaitya itself. It is not clear whether this is a copy of any existing wooden erection, or whether it was that, being the first attempt at an independent vihara in the rock, they thought it ought to resemble a chaitya in plan. My impression is that the latter is the true explanation ; such an arrangement in a free- standing structure intended for a residence would be absurd, but we are here assisting at the " incunabula " of the style, and must not be surprised at anomalies. No. 12 at Ajanta is a square hall, measuring 36 ft. 8 in. each way. It has no pillars, and its only ornament consists of horse- 1 For a detailed account and plans of three are chaitya temples ; and at Talaja', these viharas, see 'Cave Temples,' 30 miles south of Gogha, are about thirty pp. 24of., and plate 9; and 'Archseo- more. They are all very plain, with logical Survey of Western India,' vol. iv. J scarcely any sculpture, and are probably p. 25, and plate 13. i as early as any in western India. 2 At Sana, about 20 miles north-east i ' Archaeological Survey of Western of Diu, are sixty-two caves, of which India,' vol. ii. pp. 147-150.