Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/222

 1 88 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. Dnyani Buddhas, Bodhisattwas, and all the modern pantheon of Buddhism, arranged in admired confusion, as in most of the There caves. modern is no inscription, but from its sculpture and the form of its pillars we may safely ascribe it to the last age of Buddhist art, say about the year 600 or later. The pillars approximate closely in style to those found at Elephanta, and in the Brahmanical caves at Eliira, which, from other evidence, have been assigned to dates varying from 600 to 800 years of our era. More has perhaps been said about the Nasik caves than their archi- tectural importance would seem at first sight to justify, but they are one of the most important of the purely Buddhist groups. 1 Their great merit, however, is that they belong to one of the most important of the older Indian dynasties, known as the Andhrabhrityas, Satakarnis, or Sata- vahanas. Owing to their coinage being mostly of lead, this dynasty was for long overlooked by numismatists and others, and could only be rehabilitated by their inscriptions and their architectural work, on which these are found inscribed. And labour on these materials has been rewarded by very important chronological results. 2 AjANTA VlHARAS As before mentioned, the central group of the four oldest caves at Ajanta forms the nucleus from which the caves radiate south-east and south-west eight in one direction, and fourteen 106. Pillar in Sri Yajna Cave. 1 For further details, see ' Cave Temples,' pp. 263 to 279, and plates. a ' Archaeological Survey of Western India,' vol. iv. pp. 98-114 ; Bhandarkar, ' Early history of the Dekkan,' pp. 14-44.