Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/218

 1 84 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. The chaitya cave was, as above stated, commenced about 1 60 years before Christ, and the vihara of the same age attached to it, is the small one (No. 14) close to it, and on a lower level than those now on each side of it, and consequently more likely to be what we are looking for than they are. It is a simple square hall measuring 14 ft. each way, with two square cells in three of its sides, the fourth opening on a verandah with two octagon pillars in front. The only ornament of the interior is a horse- shoe arch over each cell door, connected by a simple Buddhist rail. In every detail it is in fact identical with the two old viharas Nos. 13 and 12 at Ajanta, and it bears an inscription of Krishna Raja, who seems almost certainly to be the second of the Andhrabhritya race, and who probably ascended the throne about B.C. I/O, and ruled for 18 years. The architectural details accord perfectly with those of the chaitya, and the age ascribed to it. Turning from these, which practically belong to the last chapter rather than to this, the interest is centred in three great viharas, the oldest of which (No. 8) bears the name of Nahapana (Woodcut No. 102), the second (No. 3) that of Gautamiputra, and the third (No. 1 5) that of Sri Yajna, if our chronology is correct, their dates are thus fixed as about A.D. 100, 130, and 1 80. The two principal viharas at Nasik, Nos. 3 and 8, are so similar in dimensions and in all their arrangements, that it is almost impossible to distinguish between their plans on paper. They are both square halls measuring more than 40 ft. each side, without any pillars in the centre, and are sur- rounded on three sides by sixteen cells of nearly the same dimen- sions. On the fourth or front side is a six-pillared verandah, in the one case with a cell at each end, in the other with only one cell, which is the most marked distinction between the two plans. The architecture, too, is in some respects so similar that we can hardly hesitate in assuming that the one is an intentional copy of the other. It is in fact the problem of the great cave at Kanheri, being a copy of that at Karle repeated here. 1 Only the differ- ence in age between the two chaityas being greater, the degrada- tion in style is much greater than here, where it appears to be 102. Nahap&na Vihira, Nasik. (From a Plan by J. Burgess.) Scale 50 ft. to i in. 1 Ante, p. 162. See also plate 11 of my folio work on the 'Rock-cut Temples,' where the pillars of the two caves are contrasted as here.