Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/156

 126 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. BOOK VI. After all, however, the subject is one more suited to the purposes of the mythologist and the sculptor than to the architect. Like all rock-cut examples, except the Dravidian, the caves have the intolerable defect of having no exteriors, and consequently no external architectural form. The only parts of them which strictly belong to architectural art are their pillars, and though a series of them would be interesting, they vary so much, from the nature of the material in which they are carved, and from local circumstances, that they do not possess the same historical significance that external forms would afford. Such a pillar, for instance, as this one from the cave called Lanke^vara on the side of the pit in which the Kailas stands (Woodcut No. 326), though in exquisite taste as a rock - cut example, where the utmost strength is apparently re- quired to support the mass of rock above, does not afford any points of comparison with structural examples of the same age. In a building it would be cumbersome and absurd ; under a mass of rock it is elegant and appropriate. The pillars in the caves at Mamallapuram fail from the opposite fault : they retain their structural form, though used in the rock, and look frail and weak in consequence ; but while this diversity in practice prevailed, it prevents their use as a chronometric scale being appreciated, as it would be if the practice had been uniform. As, however, No. 3 at Badami is a cave with a positive date, A.D. 578, it may be well to give a plan and section (Woodcuts Nos. 327 and 328) to illustrate its peculiarities, so as to enable a comparison to be made between it and other examples. Its details will be found fully illustrated in the first volume of the Survey of Western India. Though not one of the largest, it is still a fine cave, its verandah measuring 70 ft, with a depth of 50 ft, beyond which is a simple plain cell, containing the altar for the image. At one end of the verandah is the Narasinha Avatara ; at the 326. Pillar in Kailas, Elfira. (From a Drawing by the Author.)