The Rock-cut Temples of India/The Caves of Ajunta/Chaitya Cave No. 10—Ajunta

CHAITYA CAVE No. 10.—AJUNTA.


INTERIOR view of the Chaitya Cave No. 10, rather more than twice the dimensions of the last, being 94 ft. 6 in. in depth, by 41 ft. 3 in. in width. There are twenty-nine pillars surrounding the nave, all plain octagons without bases or capitals, but covered with chunam and painted. Above these is the triforium belt, which was also painted, but very few traces of this remain. On the roof is still seen the markings of the timber framing that once adorned it. Being actually of wood they have perished, but having been copied in stone in the side aisles, they still remain there. The dagopa also shows marks of the wooden and plaster decorations that once ornamented it. The tee, or square relic casket, on its summit, being cut in the rock, still retains its original form, but the umbrella which once crowned it, being of wood, has perished, and nothing remains to tell of its existence here but the mortice into which it was originally stepped.