Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/151

 CHAP. III. BRAHMANICAL ROCK-CUT TEMPLES. 121 rendered this hypothesis extremely probable. Arguing on this basis, it was found that the one chaitya cave there, the Vijwa- karma, was nearly identical in style with the last of the four chaityas at Ajanta (No. 26), and that cave, for reasons given above, was placed at the end of the 6th century, say A.D. 600. The caves next it were assumed to occupy the 7th century, thus leading on to the Rame^wara group, about A.D. 700, and the Jaina group would then have occupied the gih century. The age of the Kailas or Dravidian group, being exceptional, could only be determined by extraneous evidence, and, as already pointed out, from its extreme similarity with the great temple at Pattadakal, belongs almost certainly to the 8th century ; and from a similar chain of reasoning the Jaina group is brought back to a slightly subsequent age. The inscription of the No. 3 cave at Badami is dated in the twelfth year of the reign of a well-known king, Kirtivarman I., in * the 5OOth year after the inauguration of the Saka king ' ; the date therefore is A.D. 578. Admitting, which I think its architecture renders nearly certain, that it is the earliest of the three, still they are so like one another, that the latest may be assumed to have been excavated within the limits of the next century, say A.D. 575-680. Comparing the architecture of this group with that known as the central or Rame^wara group at Elura, it is so nearly identical, that though it may be slightly more modern, it can hardly now be doubted they too, including perhaps the cave known as the Ravana-ka-khai, must have been excavated in the 7th century. Instead, therefore, of the sequence formerly adopted, we are forced to fall back on that marvellous picture of religious toleration described by the Chinese Pilgrim as exhibited at Allahabad in the year A.D. 643. On that occasion the King Harsha 5iladitya distributed alms or gifts to 10,000 priests (religieux the first day in honour of Buddha, the second of Aditya the Sun, and the third in honour of Irwara or 5iva ; x and the eighteen kings who assisted at this splendid quinquennial festival seem promiscuously to have honoured equally these three divinities. With this toleration at headquarters, we ought not to be surprised if we find the temples of different religions overlapping one another to some extent. As a reminiscence of the eclecticism of the time, it re- quires some experience in the antiquary to ascertain to what divinity a temple or cave, before the 8th century, was dedicated. In the Das Avatara and Ravan-ka-khai caves at Elura, for 1 ' Histoire de Hiouen Thsang,' p. 255 ; ' Vie et Voyages,' tome i. p. 280; or Beal's ' Buddhist Records,' vol. i. p. 233 ; and ' Life,' pp. i85f.