Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/159

 CHAP. V. CHAITYA HALLS 125 CHAPTER V. CHAITYA HALLS. CONTENTS. Structural Chaityas Bihar Caves Western Chaitya Halls, etc. ALTHOUGH, if looked at from a merely artistic point of view, it will probably be found that the rails are the most interesting Buddhist remains that have come down to our time, still, in an historical or architectural sense, they are certainly surpassed by the chaitya halls. These are the temples of the religion, properly so called, and the exact counterpart of the churches of the Christians, not only in form, but in use. Some twenty or thirty of these are known still to exist in a state of greater or less preservation, but with very few exceptions all cut in the rock. In so far as the interior is concerned this is of little or no consequence, but, were it not for one or two recent discoveries, we should not have been able to judge of their external form or effect, 1 and, what is worse, we should not have known how their roofs were con- structed. We know that, generally at least, they were formed with semicircular ribs of timber, and it is also nearly certain that on these ribs planks in two or three thicknesses were laid, but we could hardly have guessed what covered the planks externally. Till recently the only structural one known was that at Sanchi, which is shown in plan in the accompanying woodcut (No. 47). It did not, however, suffice to show us how the roofs of the aisles were supported externally. What it does show, which the caves do not, is that when the aisle which 1 It had previously been considered probable that a tolerably correct idea of the general exterior appearance of the buildings from which these caves were copied may be obtained from the Raths (as they are called) of Mamallapuram or Mahavellipore (described further on). These are monuments of a later date, and belonging to a different religion, but they correspond so nearly in all their parts with the temples and monasteries now under consideration, that we could scarcely doubt their being, in most re- spects, close copies of them, as we now discover that they really are. Curiously enough, the best illustrations of some of them are to be found among the sculptures of the Bharaut Rail.