Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/153

 CHAP. III. BRAHMANICAL ROCK-CUT TEMPLES. 123 whilst the larger figures are mostly Vaishnava, the others are largely vSaiva, and the vedis or altars in the middle of both shrines may properly be supposed to have supported the emblem of 5iva. The Das Avatara(No. 15) at Elura, is a two-storeyed cave, very similar in its architectural details to the Buddhist Don Thai and Tin Thai, but the sculptures are all Brahmanical. At first sight it seems as if the excavation had been made by the Buddhists, and appropriated and finished by their successors. But on examination it appears that we owe it entirely to the 325. Plan of the Upper Floor of the Das Avatara Cave at Elura, Scale 50 ft, to i in. 1 Brahmans. It is, perhaps, the earliest Brahmanical temple here ; and it is natural to suppose that when the vSaivas attempted to rival their antagonists in cave-temples they should follow the models that already existed, merely appropriating them to their own worship. The circumstance, however, that makes this most probable is the existence of a pseudo-structural mandapa, or shrine of the Nandi, in the courtyard (Woodcut No. 324) ; this evidently must have been a part of the original design, or the rock would 1 Reduced from ' Cave Temples of India,' plate 74.