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An exterior view of the great cave at Karle. It is the only view in this volume that is not copied from a sketch of my own, made with the camera lucida, and I cannot therefore quite answer for the correctness of the proportion; but Mr. Salt’s large plate, from which it is taken, is so unusually correct, as to supply all the details that are required for comparison. When at Karle I had this view in my possession, and finding it so perfect, I contented myself with making a few notes and corrections, as, owing to the great crowd at the fair, and the noise and confusion, it would have been by no means an easy task to make a detailed drawing myself.
A general view of the latest caves at Ajanta, showing their position and size relatively to the rock in which they are cut; in which respect these caves have a decided advantage over all others I am acquainted with, and on the plate they appear of even more importance than in reality. They are also those situated highest in the rock. The series of caves slopes on the right hand of the drawing, almost to the bed of the stream.
Represents the verandah of one of the most modern caves at Ajanta, (which) belongs to a cave of considerable pretension and richness (description considerably abbreviated as it compared a plate I am unable to reproduce).
An exterior view of cave No. 7. Externally one of the most elegant Viharas at Ajanta; it has, however, no internal hall, in which respect it differs considerably from most of those in this place, and looks more like the Brahmanical caves at Ellora, than a Buddhist Vihara. Its architecture is interesting, as the pillars have the same cushion capitals as are found at Elephanta, at Ellora (see no 10 below), and though something like them is found in the buildings of the south of India, nothing of the sort exists, that I am aware of, in any structural building to the north of the Nerbudda.
The oldest Chaitya cave at Ajanta, and, excepting perhaps the one at Karle, perhaps in India. The wood work of the roof has entirely disappeared, leaving only the marks on the plaster where it has been, but the stone ribbing in the side aisles shows its form and disposition. It is difficult to understand how the broad belt over the pillars has been ornamented, as no trace of plaster remains on it, though it is still tolerably entire both in the pillars below, and roof above this part: so that it probably was either covered with tapestry or wood work, as probably also was the dagopa, which shows the same denuded, unfinished appearance, except the tee on the summit.
(These) represent the interiors of the two finest Vihara or monastery caves at Ajanta, Nos. 16 and 17. The first view is taken from the doorway, the second within the first colonnade, immediately behind the pillar, in both instances looking inwards towards the sanctuary. Taken together they may serve to give a very tolerable idea of the architecture of these two beautiful caves, but my drawings were not sufficiently detailed to admit of my attempting to do justice to the frescoes, which owing to the imperfection of the light cannot easily be sketched from the same spot, but must have been drawn separately and afterwards transferred to the drawing; the position of one, however, is seen in the left-hand corner, as distinctly as the light would allow me to draw it with the camera lucida.
Taken together, these will, I trust, serve to illustrate the form and disposition of one of the most perfect, though far from being one of the most splendid, Chaitya caves in India: in this instance every detail is cut in the solid rock, and there does not appear to have been a single wooden ornament on any part, either external or internal, so that we now see the cave nearly as it was left when first excavated. The dagopa in particular is the most perfect I know of, and the only one that has the tee with the three umbrellas in stone; and enables us to supply several deficiencies not only in other caves, but in the great structural dagopas, which generally are shorn of this appendage, which however existed in all, and is the origin of the three and nine-storied towers of China, as I shall show elsewhere.
As the caves of Ellora have been so often drawn, this and the previous are the only examples of this interesting series I have thought it necessary to introduce in these Illustrations. As the present view was carefully taken with the camera lucida, it will I believe be found more correct than any hitherto published, and it is so interesting an example, that the illustrations would not be complete without it, though its whole interest cannot be appreciated without the contemporary examples from the north and south of India, being placed in juxtaposition with it, so as to show the difference of style from those around it, as well as its striking similarity with the great temples of the Carnatic.
I have introduced this plate not only that I might include a specimen of a Hindu cave, but because it has been singularly overlooked by those who have published illustrations of Ellora, though its architecture is as fine as that of any similar cave of the series. The difference between this example and a Buddhist Vihara, will be seen in the pillars standing all over the floor, at equidistant, or at least similar, distances from one another, not round a hall as in the others; in their being almost all dissimilar, and in the details being boldly sculptured, and not trusting to painting for their decoration, as at Ajanta.
The exterior view of the great Chaitya cave at Kannari, does not present the same means of comparison as that of Karle, for as all the ornaments of its front were in wood, and not one architectural detail executed in the rock, we have only the form of the coring by which to judge of their similarity.
(This) is the Durbar cave, which though the finest Vihara at Kannari, is low in the principal story, and poor in its decoration, when compared with the great examples at Ajanta and elsewhere.
(This) is a small Vihara higher up on the hill, and interesting as a type of all that series, and also as a means of comparison with those at Ajanta, Elephanta, and elsewhere, as I mentioned when describing Cave 7 above, when alluding to those possessing the cushion-shaped capitals.
(This) will serve as a type of all the excavated caves at Mahabalipur. The leanness of the pillars shows how complete the spirit of cave architecture had degenerated into a copy of structural buildings, and the addition of the structural vimana on the top of the rock, adds another incongruity to its appearance; its pillars, however, show that remnant of the Elephanta cushion-form, which is still found in the Carnatic. It is altogether, however, an interesting example of the decline of the style which these plates are meant to illustrate.
