Nos. 18, 19, and 20 succeed this group, both in position and in style, and probably occupied the remaining half of the 5th century in construction, bringing down our history to about A.D. 500.
Before proceeding further in this direction, the cave-diggers seem to have turned back and excavated Nos. 8, 7, and 6. The last named is the only two-storeyed cave at Ajunta, and would be very interesting if it were not so fearfully ruined by damp and decay, owing to the faulty nature of the rock in which it is excavated. No. 7 has a singularly elegant verandah, broken by two projecting pavilions.[193] Internally, it is small, and occupied by a whole pantheon of Buddhas. It resembles, in fact, in almost every respect, No. 17 at Nassick, with which it is, no doubt, contemporary.
There still remain the five first caves at the northern end, and the six last at the southern: one of these is a chaitya, the other ten are viharas of greater or less dimensions. Some are only commenced, and two, Nos. 4 and 24, which were intended to have been the finest of the series, are left in a very incomplete state: interesting, however, as showing the whole process of an excavation from its commencement to its completion. Both these were intended to be 28-pillared caves, and the hall of No. 4 measures 84 ft. by 89 ft.
Caves Nos. 1 and 2 are among the most richly-sculptured of the caves. The façade, indeed, of No. 1 is the most elaborate and beautiful of its class at Ajunta, and with the corresponding caves at the opposite end conveys a higher idea of the perfection to which decorative sculpture had attained at that age than anything else at Ajunta. With the last chaitya, which belongs to this group, these caves carry our history down certainly into the 7th century. The work in the unfinished caves, I fancy, must have been arrested by the troubles which took place in Central India about the year 650, or shortly afterwards, when, I fancy, the persecution of the Buddhists commenced, and after which it is hardly probable that any community of that faith would have leisure or means to carry out any works, on such a scale at least, as these Ajunta viharas.
It is, of course, impossible, without a much greater amount of illustration than is compatible with the nature of this work, to convey to those who have not seen them any idea of the various points of interest found in these caves; but it is to be hoped that a complete series of illustrations of them may be one day given to the world. The materials for this nearly existed when the disastrous fire at the Crystal Palace, in 1860, destroyed Major Gill’s facsimiles of the paintings, which can hardly now be replaced.[194] A good deal, however, may be, and it is hoped will be, done, as they afford a complete series of examples of Buddhist art without any admixture from Hinduism, or any other religion extending from 200 years before Christ to 600 or 700 years after his era; and besides illustrating the arts and feelings of those ages, they form a chronometric scale by which to judge of, and synchronise other known series with which, however, they differ in several important particulars. For instance, at Ajunta there is no single example of those bell-shaped Persian capitals to pillars, with waterpot bases; nor is there any example of animals with riders crowning the capitals, such as are found at Bedsa, Karli, Nassick, Salsette, and elsewhere in the Ghâts. These differences seem to point to a western influence, Persian, Saka, or Scythian, or by whatever name we like to designate it, which did not penetrate so far inland as Ajunta or Ellora, but was confined to those regions where we know the foreign influence prevailed.
These, and many more ethnographic distinctions in architecture will, no doubt, be brought out by careful examination and comparisons, from which, when made, it can hardly be doubted that the most important results will be derived.
Bagh.
At a distance about 150 miles a little west of north from Ajunta, and thirty miles west of Mandu, near a little village of the name of Bagh, there exists a series of viharas only little less interesting than the later series at Ajunta. They are situated in a secluded ravine in the side of the range of hills that bounds the valley of the Nerbudda on the north, and were first visited or at least first described by Lieutenant Dangerfield, in the second volume of the ‘Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay.’ They have since been described more in detail by Dr. Impey in the fifth volume of the ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.’ Unfortunately the plates that were to accompany that paper were not published with it, but being deposited by the author in the library of the India Office, they are now before me, and from them and from this paper the principal details that follow have been gleaned.
The series consists of eight or nine viharas, some of them of the very first class, but no chaitya hall, nor does any excavation of that class seem ever to have been attempted here. On the other hand, the larger viharas seem to have had a shala or schoolroom attached to them, which may also have been employed for divine service. The fact, however, that the sanctuaries of the viharas generally have a dagoba in them, instead of an image of Buddha, points to a distinction which may hereafter prove of value. On the whole they are purer and simpler than the latest at Ajunta, though most probably of about the same age.
The plan of one has already been given, but it is neither so large nor architecturally so important as the great vihara, shown in plan, Woodcut No. 87. Its great hall is 96 ft. square, and would at Ajunta rank as a twenty-eight pillared cave, like No. 4 there, but inside this are eight pillars ranged octagonally; and at a later age, apparently in consequence of some failure of the roof, four structural pillars—shaded lighter—were introduced. It is not clear from Dr. Impey’s description how the central octagon was originally roofed. He seems to have believed that a dagoba originally stood in the centre, and having been destroyed brought down the roof with it. As, however, there is a dagoba in the sanctuary, this is hardly probable, and it seems much more likely that it was a copy of a structural octagonal dome, such as we find the Jains invariably employing a few centuries afterwards. If this is so, it would be highly interesting that it should be examined by some architect capable of restoring it constructively from such indications as remain. We have hundreds, almost thousands, of these domes supported on eight pillars after the revival in the 10th century, but not one before. If this is one, it might help to restore a missing link in our chain of evidence.