Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/166

 132 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I- 56. Lomas Rishi Cave- smaller purlins. Over these lies the roof, apparently formed of three thicknesses of plank, or probably two of timber planks laid reverse ways, and one of metal or some other substance externally. The form of the roof is something of a pointed arch, with a slight ogee point on the summit to form a weather- ing. The door, like all those of this series, has sloping jambs l a peculiarity arising, as we shall afterwards see, from the lines of the openings following, as in this instance, those of the supports of the roof. The interior, as will be seen from the annexed plan (No 56), is quite plain in form, and does not seem to have been ever quite completed. It consists of a hall 33 ft. by 19 ft, beyond which is an apartment of nearly circular form, forming a shrine, as in the Sudama cave. Three quarters of a mile to the north- east of these, in a ridge of granite, known as the Nagarjuni hill, are three more caves, each bearing an inscription of Da^aratha, the supposed grandson and successor of A^oka, about B.C. 220, dedicating them also to the Ajivikas. The largest is the Gopika or " Milkmaid's Cave," which is a hall 46 ft. 5 in. long, with circular ends, and 19 ft. 2 in. wide, with one door in the centre of the south side. The walls are 6| ft. high, and the vault of the roof rises to io| ft. in the middle. The whole interior is polished, but quite plain, and we can only conjecture that it was formed for a refectory or Dharmas-ala. The remaining two, called the Vahiyaka 2 and the Vadathika caves, are so small as hardly to deserve notice. They are on the north side of the ridge. The first is entered from the end, and consists of a single chamber 16 ft. 9 in. in length by 11 ft. 3 in. wide, and io ft. high at the middle of the vault, with highly polished walls. The Vadathika cave is also entered from the end, and is of about the same size. 3 Judging from the inscriptions on these caves, the whole 1 Gen. Cunningham ('Archaeological Reports,' vol. i. p. 45) and others have called this an Egyptian form. This it certainly is not, as no Egyptian doorway had sloping jambs. Nor can it properly be called Pelasgic. The Pelasgi did use that form but derived it from stone con- structions. The Indians only obtained it from wood. Conf. Foucher, ' L'Art Greco-Bouddhique du Gandhara,' tome i. pp. 107, 108, 130 ; Simpson, in ' Trans- actions of the Royal Institute of British Architects,' vol. xxx. (1879-1880), p. 56. 2 By an error in reading the inscription, this cave was formerly called Vapiyaka or " Well Cave " ; but the epigraph reads " Vahiyaka." ' Indian Antiquary,' vol. xx. p. 364 note. 3 Gen. Cunningham, ' Archaeological Reports,' vol. i. p. 50, states the width of this cave as 4 ft. 3 in., but the small drawing on plate 19 measures about ioi ft. ; it is it ft. 3 in. 'Jour. Asiat. Soc. Bengal,' vol. xvi., plate at p. 408.