Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/38

 i8 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. BOOK V. capitals of the Persepolitan type, and the facade over these is sculptured as a long ridged roof with pointed spikes, comparable with representations found at Bharaut (Woodcut No. 273). Under this is a frieze of five-barred railing with elephants carved at each end, and the tympana are flanked by birds, a peacock, and a hare, and within are filled with carved ornaments. But it is of special interest that the walls have once been covered with a coating of fine plaster. On the middle of the back wall are sculptures of the sun and moon, on each side of which a long inscription once extended of which remains still exist written on the plaster with a red pigment 1 Space forbids more detail of these interesting caves, and until we have a scientific survey of the whole inclusive of many that only await clearing of the earth in which they are buried made in the full light of all the knowledge we now possess, it is impossible to do them justice from archaeological and historical aspects. Great light was thrown on the history of Jaina excavations by the discovery of a Jaina cave at Badami, 64 miles south of Bijapur, with a fairly ascertained date. 2 There is no inscrip- tion on the cave itself, but there are three other Brahmanical caves in the same place, one of which has an inscription with an undoubted date, vSaka 500 or A.D. 579 ; and all four caves are so like one another in style that they must have been excavated within the same century. The Jaina cave is probably the most modern ; but if we take the year A.D. 650 as a medium date, we may probably consider it as certain within an error of twenty years either way. The cave itself is small, only 31 ft. across and about 16 ft. deep, and it is hardly doubtful that the groups of figures at either end of the verandah are integral. The inner groups, however, are certainly of the age of the cave, and the archi- tecture is unaltered, and thus becomes a fixed standing-point for comparison with other examples ; and when we come to compare it with the groups known as the Indra Sabha and Jagannath Sabha at Elura, we cannot hesitate to ascribe them to more than a century later. With these we may here mention that at Aihole, besides a Brahmanical cave, there is also a Jaina one of somewhat larger dimensions than that at Badami. The verandah has four pillars in front, is 32 ft. in length and 7 ft. 3 in. wide, and has a care- fully carved roof. The hall is 17 ft. 8 in. wide by 15 ft. deep, 1 No satisfactory tracing of this has been made ; and the verandah of the cave has now been supported by two piers of Public Works construction. 3 Burgess, 'Archaeological Survey of Western India', vol. i. (1875), P- 2 5 plates 36 and 37.