Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/53

 CHAP. III. GIRNAR. Old Fort A^oka, B.C. 250, carved a copy of his celebrated edicts. 1 On the same rock about A.D. 150, Rudradaman, the Kshatrapa king of Saurashtra, carved an inscription, in which he boasted of his victories over the 5atakarni, king of the Dekhan, and recorded his having repaired the bridge built by the Maurya A^oka and restored the Sudanrana lake. 2 The embankment of the lake again burst and carried away the bridge, but was again repaired by Skandagupta, the last of the great Guptas, in the year A.D. 457, and an inscription on the same rock also records this event. 3 A place where three such kings thought it worth while to record their deeds or proclaim their laws must, one would think, have been an important city or place at that time ; but what is so characteristic of India occurs here as elsewhere. Few material remains are found to testify to the fact. Full four centuries of Moslim rule have obliterated most of the traces of antiquity. Still in the east of the town is a group of very early caves, but the quarry opened close behind them has probably destroyed numbers of them. None of them are large, but they are of primitive forms and the carving quite archaic, whilst a fragment of a Kshatrapa inscription of about A.D. 185 found among them in 1874, indicates that they belonged to the Jains. 4 There is also an excavated hall and cell near the north wall of the town, with two pillars in front, and other two inside that have had richly carved bases and capitals. And in the (Jparkot or old citadel a complicated and very interesting rock-excavation was discovered about thirty-five years ago, the most striking feature of which was the extraordinary richness of the carving on the bases and capitals of the pillars in the lower storey ; nothing could exceed the elaboration of the carving on the bases of these. There is no trace of distinctively Buddhist symbolism here, and like the others, they were probably of Jaina origin. 5 At the foot of Mount Girnar a stupa was excavated in 1889, but no inscription was found with the relics to indicate whether it was Jaina or early Buddhist. 6 When Hiuen Tsiang visited the province, about A.D. 640, he says there were fifty monasteries here, mostly belonging to the Sthavira school of the Mahay ana teaching ; and one monastery he says was on the top of Girnar with cells and galleries excavated in 1 See ante, vol. i. p. 56 note. 2 ' Indian Antiquary,' vol. vii. pp. 257ff. ; ' Archaeological Survey of Western India,' vol. ii. pp. 128-130. 3 Fleet, ' Gupta Inscriptions/ pp. 5^-65 ; 'Journal Bombay B. Asiat, Soc.,' vol. xviii. pp. 47-55. 4 ' Archseological Survey of Western India,' vol. ii. pp. 139-141, and plates 16-20. 5 Ibid. pp. 141-144, and plates 21-24. 6 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. Ix. p. 18.