Pending a more complete investigation, which I hope may be undertaken before long, I would propose the following as a tentative chronology of the far-famed series of caves at Ellora:—
| Buddhist:—Viswakarma to Das Avatara | A.D. 500-600 | |
| Jaina:—Indra, Juganât, Subhas, &c. | 550-650 | |
| Hindu:—Rameswara to Dhumnar Lena | 600-750 | |
| Dravidian:—Kylas | 725-800 |
The cave at Elephanta follows of course the date here given for the Dhumnar Lena, and must thus date after the middle of the 8th century.[451]
These dated caves and buildings have also rendered another service to the science of archæology, inasmuch as they enable us to state with confidence that the principal caves at Mahavellipore must be circumscribed within the same limits. The architecture there being so lean and poor, is most misleading, but, as hinted above, I believe it arose from the fact that it was Dravidian, and copied literally from structural buildings, by people who had not the long experience of the Buddhists in cave architecture to guide them, for there seems to have been no Buddhists so far south. But be that as it may, a comparison of the Hindu sculptures at Badami with those of Ellora on the one hand, and Mahavellipore on the other, renders it almost absolutely certain that they were practically contemporary. The famous bas-relief of Durga, on her lion, slaying Mahasura, the Minotaur,[452] is earlier than one very similar to it at Ellora; and one, the Viratarupa,[453] is later by probably a century than the sculpture of the same subject in cave 3 at Badami.[454] Some of the other bas-reliefs are later, some earlier, than those representing similar subjects in the three series, but it seems now impossible to get over the fact that they are practically synchronous. Even the great bas-relief, which I was inclined to assign to a more modern period, probably belongs to the 7th or 8th century. The great Naga king, whom all the world are there worshipping, is represented as a man whose head is shaded by a seven-headed serpent-hood, but also with a serpent-body from the waist downwards. That form was not known in the older Buddhist sculptures, but has now been found on all the Orissan temples (for instance Woodcut No. 236), and nearly as frequently at Badami.[455] This difficulty being removed, there seems no reason why this gigantic sculpture should not take the place, which its state of execution would otherwise assign to it—say A.D. 700—as a mean date, subject to subsequent adjustment.
In a general work like the present it is of course impossible to illustrate so extensive a group as that of the Brahmanical caves to such an extent as to render their history or affinities intelligible to those who have not by other means become familiar with the subject. Fortunately, however, in this instance the materials exist by which any one may attain the desired information with very little difficulty. Daniell’s drawings—or rather Mr. Wales’—made in 1795, have long made the public acquainted with the principal caves at Ellora; Sir Charles Malet’s paper in the sixth volume of the ‘Asiatic Researches;’ Seely’s ‘Wonders of Ellora,’ published in 1820, and numerous other works, with the photographs now available, supply nearly all that can be desired in that direction. The same may be said of Elephanta, which has been exhaustively treated by Mr. Burgess in the work above referred to. Chambers’ paper in the second volume of the ‘Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ supplies, with Dr. Hunter’s photographs, a vast amount of information regarding the Mahavellipore antiquities; and Mr. Burgess’s recent report on the Dharwar caves completes, to a great extent, the information wanted to understand the peculiarities of the group. Notwithstanding this, it is well worthy of a monograph, insomuch as it affords the only representation of the art and mythology of the Hindus on the revival of their religion, which was commenced by the Guptas A.D. 318-465, but really inaugurated by the great Vicramaditya, A.D. 495-530, and which, when once started, continued to nourish till the great collapse in the 8th century.
242. Pillar in Kylas, Ellora.
(From a Drawing by the Author.)
After all, however, the subject is one more suited to the purposes of the mythologist and the sculptor than to the architect. Like all rock-cut examples, except the Dravidian, the caves have the intolerable defect of having no exteriors, and consequently no external architectural form. The only parts of them which strictly belong to architectural art are their pillars, and though a series of them would be interesting, they vary so much, from the nature of the material in which they are carved, and from local circumstances, that they do not possess the same historical significance that external forms would afford. Such a pillar, for instance, as this one from the cave called Lanka, on the side of the pit in which the Kylas stands ([Woodcut No. 242]), though in exquisite taste as a rock-cut example, where the utmost strength is apparently required to support the mass of rock above, does not afford any points of comparison with structural examples of the same age. In a building it would be cumbersome and absurd; under a mass of rock it is elegant and appropriate. The pillars in the caves at Mahavellipore fail from the opposite fault: they retain their structural form, though used in the rock, and look frail and weak in consequence; but while this diversity in practice prevailed, it prevents their use as a chronometric scale being appreciated, as it would be if the practice had been uniform. As, however, No. 3 at Badami is a cave with a positive date, A.D. 579, it may be well to give a plan and section (Woodcuts Nos. [243] and [244]) to illustrate its peculiarities, so as to enable a comparison to be made between it and other examples. Its details will be found fully illustrated in Mr. Burgess’s report.