Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/159

 CHAP. III. BRAHMANICAL ROCK-CUT TEMPLES. 129 earlier and later date it has come to be considered the typical capital of early Indian architecture. It may be compared to the Doric order of classical art as, in the same way, the vase with foliage falling over it, as exemplified in the Rame^wara cave and elsewhere, may be regarded as an Oriental type of the Ionic order. This ribbed cushion form of capital also reminds us of the amala^ila crown to Hindu nkharas 1 though we may be unable to say from what it has been derived, we can hardly escape the conviction that in their origin they are akin. So far as I know, there is only one example where the Indo-Aryan architects attempted to rival the Dravidian in producing a monolithic exterior. It is at a place called Dhamnar, -o, i 331. Pillars and corner of the Shrine at Elephanta. in Rajputana, where, as* (From a Photograph.) already mentioned (ante> vol. i., pp. 165 and 200), there is an extensive series of Buddhist excavations. In order to mark their triumph over that fallen faith, the Hindus, apparently late in the 8th century, drove an open cutting into the side of the hill, till they came to a part high enough for their purpose. Here they enlarged this cutting into a pit gj ft. by 67 ft, leaving a Vaishnava temple of elegant architecture standing in the centre, with seven small cells surrounding it, precisely as was done in the case of the Kailas at Elura. The effect, however, can hardly be said to be pleasing (Woodcut No. 332). A temple standing in a pit is always an anomaly, but in this instance it is valuable as an unaltered example of the style, and as showing how the small shrines of Sivalayas 2 which have too often disappeared were originally grouped round the greater Saiva shrines. The value of this characteristic we shall be better able to appreciate when we come to describe the temples at Prambanan and other 1 Ante, vol. i. p. 323. VOL. II. 2 Ante, vol. i. p. 336.