Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/242

 184 THE INFLUENCE OF A PARABOLIC MOULDING, &C. balustrade shaft has more the appearance of a capital, and the pedestal of a shaft resting upon the ground, without the inter- vention of either base or pedestal. In some instances the figure of an animal is inserted below the fluted pedestal, and seems like a base similar to the vira-kanth under a shaft. Adjunta and Mehavellepore ; Eergusson. The above varieties of the balustrade order represent it in a state of degradation, and the effect of the balustrade shaft is destroyed by other ornaments. This may be considered as the third Buddhist order, and called the post-Kenneri balus- trade. Subsequently the balustrade shaft was entirely omit- ted, and thus a fourth order of Buddhist architecture was invented, whose varieties appear as follows : I. The pyramidal basement of the second variety of the post-Kenneri order remaining and cut octagonally, it imme- diately supported the cushion capital. Adjunta, No. 1 1 ; Fergus son. II. The cushion capital has disappeared. The polygonal pedestal has become a true shaft, which sometimes supports a plain square abacus and mouldings, (No. 17, Adjunta; Fer- gusson ;) in other cases there is a phul-band and a second ornamented abacus, besides rich mouldings, (No. 16, Adjunta ; Fergusson ;) and in other cases figures replace the foliage of the phul-band, which thus becomes a degraded vira-kanth, (No. 19, Adjunta; Fergusson.) In all these cases the pedestal stands upon a small base, similar to the upper part of the pedestal of Elephanta. Such are the changes which Buddhist architecture has undergone. It seems to have passed into Western India from some foreign land. Introduced there, however, it assumed in the second century a new form, owing to the invention of the para])olic moulding, and to the conformity of this with some mystical principles of Buddhist faith. Thus were originated the varieties of the Kenneri and post-Kenneri balustrade orders. In them human ingenuity vainly laboured to recon- cile the balustrade with principles of architectural beauty ; and after many efforts was at length constrained to reject this pecu- liarity altogether, and produced the post-balustrade order. This is in fact a return to some of the simple principles of beauty in the Early Buddhist. And yet it was not a satisfac- tory return ; nor has the Hindu architect ever since been able to recover the comparative excellencies of the Early Buddhist pillars in the Kenneri caves. a. b. orlebar.