Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/221

 CHAP. VI. NASIK VIHARAS. 187 105. Sri Yajna Cave, No. 15 at Nasik. (From a Plan by J. Burgess.) Scale 50 ft. to i in. only from its size, but from its ordinance and date (Woodcut No. 105). The hall is 61 ft. in depth by 37^ ft. wide at the outer end, increasing to 44 ft. at the inner, and with eight cells on each side. Originally it seems as if it had been only 40 ft. in depth, but at a later period was extended perhaps by the lady Vasu, mentioned in the inscription in the veran- dah. The addition forms its most marked peculiarity, which is that it has a regular sanctuary at its inner end, with two richly carved pillars in front (Woodcut No. 106), and within, a colossal figure of Buddha, seated, with flying and standing attendants, dwarpals, dwarfs, and all the accompaniments usually found in the third and subsequent centuries belonging to the Mahayana school of Buddhism. Fortunately we have in this cave an inscription containing a well-known name. It is said to have been completed by Vasu, wife of the commander-in-chief of the king .Sriyajna ^"atakarni, in that king's seventh year, after it had been excavated many years before by Vopaki, an ascetic, but had remained unfinished. We are not able to fix the exact year to which this date refers, but it does not seem doubtful that this king reigned in the last quarter of the 2nd century, and we consequently have in this cave a fixed point (about A.D. 185) on which to base our calculations for the period about that time. Further, over the doorway of the first cell on the left side is a short inscription, in letters of the 5th or 6th century, intimating the gift of a cave perhaps only the cell by a lay devotee Mamma. 1 Beyond this there is still another excavation, No. 17 it can hardly be called a vihara of very irregular shape, and covered with sculpture of a date perhaps four centuries more modern than that of the cave last described. Buddha is there represented in all his attitudes, standing or sitting, accompanied by chauri bearers, flying figures, dwarfs, etc. On one side is a colossal recumbent figure of him attaining Nirvana, which is a sign of a comparatively modern date. Besides these, there are 1 'Archaeological Survey of Western India,' vol. iv. pp. 114 and Il6; ' Epi- graphia Indica,' vol. viii. pp. 93, 94.