138 



DESCRIPTIVE REMARKS on 



families of Buddhist masons may very likely have stopped 

 here on their way to Ceylon. Buddhist forms are recognizable 

 in the form of the terraced roofs of the rock-cut shrines, with 

 their rows of cell ornaments ; in the shapes of the waggon- 

 roofed and apsidal monoliths Nos. 24, 42, and 41 ; in the 

 trUul ornaments that still surmount No. 24 ; and a few other 

 Buddhist fornis and ornaments, amongst which the preva- 

 lence of the lion and the elephant may be mentioned. 



Naga figures are to be seen, but not very frequently, 

 amongst the sculptures. Indeed in the great bas-relief No. 

 17, called Arjuna's Penance, a Naga-hooded couple (king and 

 queen), serpentine below the waist, with a simple Naga snake 

 below them again, occupy the centre cleft of the sculptured 

 rock, but as they are not integral, but are separate images, 

 set in places cut to hold them in the cleft, they may have 

 been put there subsequently to the original sculpture. On 

 the other hand, adjacent couples of Naga figures cut in the 

 rock on both sides of the cleft seem to show that they origin- 

 ally belonged there. 



I do not doubt but that there may be, probably must be 

 some succession in the antique architecture, but I am unable 

 to trace it ; and to my untutored eyes the cave facades, most 

 of the monoliths and even the structural temples, belong to 

 one style and were designed for the same devotional purpose. 

 But although I fail to see much evidence of succession in 

 the architectural style of the older works, I seem to see the 

 evidences of a religious revolution ; the supersession of the 

 Saivas by the Vaishnavas. The comparatively ruined and 

 desecrated state of the Saiva shrines, and the dispersion, over- 

 throw and destruction of the lingas, together with the unmo- 

 lested state of the Yaishnava shrines and symbols, suggest 

 strongly the violent overthrow of the Saiva by the Yaishnava 

 faith — of Sankaracarya by Ramanujacarya. 



I am inclined to think that the great rock-cut bas-relief 

 scenes are the oldest of the works of art here. , 



