The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

Il6 THE EARLY CLASSIC PERIODS
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a continuation of the arrangement of the lats of
the Maurya Period; the fluted shafts probably
rested in a form suggesting the Brahmin waterbottle
or lota. The erection of such shafts at the
entrance of the temple has many precedents in
ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, and must be
accepted as yet another survival of early Indian
contacts with western Asia. The Karli chaitya
differs from others of the type in that the facade
screen is of carved stone, with the exception of
the lotus window, which consists of the usual
teakwood framework. The sculpturing of this
entrance wall is extraordinarily rich and colourful.
The whole structure appears to rest on the
backs of elephants that were originally fitted
with metal ornaments and ivory tusks. A few
reliefs in this narthex are centuries later than the
dedication of the cave in a.d. 120 and belong to
a period when the sanctuary was converted to
Mahayana worship. (Recent research by Dr
Walter Spink of the University of Michigan
reconsidering the historical, epigraphical, and
numismatic evidence for the date of the Andhra
Dynasty suggests that a date off. 32 B.C. marked
the beginning of this era. Accordingly, the dates
of the earliest and latest chaitya-halls at Bhaja
and Karli should be revised to c. 50 B.C. and
a.d. 120.
x
)
The interior [63] of this largest of the
rock-cut temples is one hundred and twentyfour
feet in length by forty-six and a half feet in
width, and the vault rises forty-five feet above
the floor; so that the scale of the shrine is that
of a Gothic church. The basilican plan persists
with the usual rock-cut stupa located in the circumference
of the ambulatory. Only in the ambulatory
of the apse do the plain octagonal shafts
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61. Karli, chaitya-hall, facade