Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/227

 CHAP. VI. AJANTA VIHARAS. 193 enough can be made out to show that they were excavated under kings of the Vindhyajakti race, one of whom, Pravarasena, whose name appears in the inscription on No. 16, married a daughter of a Maharaja Devagupta. And though, as yet, we cannot fix a definite date for these princes, we may place the inscriptions epigraphically about A.D. 500, or possibly a little earlier. 1 Hence we may approximately date these two caves in the end of the 5th century. They are thus considerably more modern than the Sri Yajna cave, No. 15, at Nasik, which is the result we would expect to arrive at from their architecture and the form of their sanctuaries. Their great interest, therefore, from a historical point of view, consists in their being almost unique specimens of the architecture and arts of India during the great Gupta period. Nos. 1 8, 19, and 20 succeed this group, both in position and in style, and probably occupied the first half of the 6th century in construction, bringing down our history to about A.D. 550. Before proceeding further in this direction, the cave-diggers seem to have turned back and excavated Nos. 8, 7, and 6. The last named is the only two-storeyed cave at Ajanta, and would be very interesting if it were not so fearfully ruined by damp and decay, owing to the faulty nature of the rock in which it is excavated. No. 7 has a singularly elegant verandah, broken by two projecting pavilions. Internally, it is small, and occupied by a whole pantheon of Buddhas. 2 It resembles somewhat No. 1 5 at Nasik, with which it is perhaps nearly contemporary. There still remain the first five caves at the south-east end, and the six last at the western : one of these is a chaitya, the other ten are viharas of greater or less dimensions. Some are only commenced and two Nos. 4 and 24 which were intended to have been the finest of the series, are left in a very incomplete state : interesting, however, as showing the whole process of an excavation from its commencement to its com- pletion. Xo. 4 is a 28-pillared cave, of which the hall is about 87 ft. square, and except the cells it is nearly finished ; but No. 24, though the next largest, is planned with 20 pillars and a hall 73-^ ft. wide by 75 ft. deep but inside, only the front aisle has been advanced towards completion, the pillars in the back and sides being only roughly blocked out. The verandah, however, had been sculptured in a style showing 1 ' Archaeological Survey of Western India,' vol. iv. pp. 53, 128. 2 ' Rock-cut Temples,' plate 8. For a fuller account and illustrations, see ' Cave Temples of India,' pp. 299 - 300, and plate 31; 'Archaeological Survey of Western India,' vol. iv. p. 52, and plates 27 and 28, fig. I. VOL. I. N