Photo 1000/31(3203)

Genre: Architectural Photography

View looking along the length of the chaitya hall towards the votive stupa at the far end. The hall is lined on either side with columns surmounted by elephants ridden by embracing couples. India Museum no. 1445. Received from Captain Lyon, 7 February 1871. Duplicate print at Photo 1001 (3203).

'554. - The interior of this cave as here shown resembles to a very great extent an early Christian Church. It consists of a nave and two side aisles terminating in a semi dome, round which the aisles are carried. The dimensions are 126 ft from the entrance to the back wall by 45 ft 7, in width, of which the central nave is 25 ft 7, and the aisles only 10 ft each including the thickness of the pillars. The height is about 45 ft from the floor to the apex. The nave is separated from the aisles by fifteen pillars on both sides, each of which has a tall base, an octagonal shaft, and ornamental capital, on which kneel two elephants, each bearing either a man and woman or two women. The roof is decorated even at this day by a series of wooden ribs, coeval with the excavation in all probability. In about the same place as the altar stands in a Christian Church, stands the Dagoba, in this instance a plain dome on a circular drum, the only ornament being the Buddhist rail and the Tee before alluded to in describing a Tope, while above this again are the remains of an umbrella in wood, very much decayed and distorted by age.'