182 ON THE CAVE TEMPLES OF INDIA, 



In the Viharas we can trace the progress from the simple 

 cavern to the perfect monastery ; but these Chaitya caves seem at 

 once to have sprung to perfection, and the Karli cave, which is 

 the most perfect, is also considered the oldest in India. 



All these caves consist of an external porch, or music gallery, 

 an internal gallery over the entrance, a centre aisle, which I will 

 call the nave (from its resemblance to what bears that name in 

 our churches), which is always at least twice the length of its 

 breadth, and is roofed with a plain waggon-vault ; to this is 

 added a semi- dome, terminating the nave, under the centre of 

 which always stands a Dagoba, or chaitya. 



A narrow aisle always surrounds the whole interior, separated 

 from the nave by a range of massive columns. The aisle is 

 generally flat roofed, though sometimes, in the earlier examples, 

 it is covered by a semi-vault. 



In the oldest temples the Dagoba consists of a plain circular 

 drum, surmounted by a hemispherical dome crowned by a Tee, 

 which supported the umbrella of state. In the earlier examples 

 this was in wood, and as a general rule, it may be asserted, that in 

 these all the parts that would be constructed in wood in a struc- 

 tural building, are in wood in the caves ; but in the more modern 

 caves all those parts, such as the music gallery outside, the ribs 

 of the roof, the ornaments of the Dagoba, the umbrella of state, 

 &c., are repeated in the rock, though the same forms are preserved. 

 These two classes comprehend all the Buddhist caves in India. 



The third class consists of Brahminical caves, properly so 

 called. In form, many of them are copies of, and all a good deal 

 resemble the Buddhist Yihara, so much so as at first sight to 

 lead to the supposition that they are appropriations of Buddhist 

 caves to Brahminical purposes. On a more intimate acquaint- 

 ance, however, with them, many points of distinction are observed. 

 The arrangement of the pillars, and the position of the sanctuary, 

 is in no instance the same as in a Vihara. They are never sur- 

 rounded by cells, as all Viharas are, and their walls are in- 

 variably covered, or meant to be, with sculpture ; while the 

 Viharas are almost as invariably decorated by painting, except 

 the sanctuary. The subjects of the sculpture, of course, always 

 set the question at rest. 



