Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/214

 i8o BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. shoe arches over the doors of the twelve cells, with a band of connecting rail-pattern and pairs of smaller arches over recesses between. The cells have each two stone beds, and altogether this vihara bears so close a resemblance to the one at Bhaja, as also to the smaller one, No. 14 at Nasik, and to that at Kondane as to assign it to a very early place among those here, and coeval with the chaitya No. 10. Unfortunately, the rock over its front has given way, and carried with it the facade, which probably was the most ornamental part of the design. Close to No. 12 is cave 13, which may be as old as anything at Ajanta, but its front also has fallen away, and we have left only a hall 13^ ft wide by i6| ft. surrounded by seven cells in all of which are the stone couches or beds characteristic of the cells of an early age. No decorative feature appears on its walls. The most marked characteristic of the early viharas on the western side of India if we except the Surya cave at Bhaja, which is not Buddhist is that, unlike their eastern Jaina contemporaries, they are wholly devoid of figure-sculpture : no bassi-rilievi, not even an emblem, relieves the severity of their simplicity. Over the doorways of the cells there are the usual horse-shoe arches, copied from the windows of the great chaityas, and the invariable Buddhist rail repeated everywhere as a stringcourse, with an occasional pillar or pilaster to relieve the monotony. The curious difference between the exuberance of figure- sculpture in the east and its total absence in the west in the pre-Christian Era caves, can only be ascribed to the different religions to which they respectively belong. Looking, however, at the progress made of late years in these subjects, there may possibly be further reasons for this difference which, when analysed, will throw fresh light on the early history of Jainism and Buddhism. Meanwhile, it may be worthy of remark, that the only living representation that is common to both sides of India, is the presence of the three-headed Naga on the facade of the Nasik chaitya (Woodcut No. 66), and its appearance in a similar position on the Chulakama or Sarpa and Ananta caves at Udayagiri in Orissa. It points to a prominent feature in early Buddhist and Jaina mythology, which was probably encouraged by cognate or identical legends respecting Sakyamuni and Parrvanath. Besides this the three, five, or seven-headed Naga occurs so frequently at Bharaut, Sanchi and elsewhere, that his presence here cannot be called a distinctive peculiarity. Cave No. n at Ajanta is much in advance of Nos. 12 and 13, there being four pillars in its centre (Woodcut No. 98). It has seven cells inside, but the sanctuary is so arranged as to suggest that a cell in the back had been cut through to make