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Notes on babu Rájendralála Mitra's Paper on the Age of the Caves at Ajantá
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
When this paper was first presented to the Council in July last, I objected to its being received, inasmuch as it contained a vast amount of irrelevant matter, and personalities, which I should regret to see introduced into any discussion in this Society. Since then Mr. Grote, in the exercise of a discretion given him by the author, has cut it down to about one-half its original length, and now presents it in a form to which I personally can have no possible objection. I would only, however, like to observe, that the title now given to it is a little misleading. It would hardly be worth while, if an attempt to fix their dates were all the paper contained, to print a disquisition on the age of the Caves at Ajantá by a person who has never visited them, and who, though eminent as a Sanskrit scholar, has hitherto shown no aptitude for, or knowledge of, archaeological subjects.
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1880
References
page 141 note 1 It is hardly worth while saying much about the argument derived from the “Pillars,” which the Babu would never have brought forward, had he ever visited the Western Caves, or even studied their plans. In the West of India, the Hall is the most prominent and most essential feature, and into it all the cells open. Consequently, when these became numerous, and the hall necessarily large, pillars became indispensable to support the roof, which otherwise would have fallen in, and eventually they became a most important feature. In Orissa, on the contrary, all the cells open on the outer air, and their doors are only covered by shallow verandahs, and there are no halls in which internal pillars could possibly be introduced. There is, in fact, no analogy between the disposition of the caves in the East and those in the West. I need hardly, however, attempt to explain here in what the difference consists, as in the book on the subject I have in the press, conjointly with Mr. Burgess, the subject will be fully entered into.
page 143 note 1 Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, vol. v. plates ix. and xxix.Google Scholar
page 144 note 1 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. vii. inscriptions 1 and 2, on the third plate of Bhau Daji's paper, p. 63.Google Scholar
page 144 note 2 Woodcuts of the interior of these two caves will be found in my Eastern and Indian Architecture, woodcuts 84, 85, and 86, and lithographic representations of them, plates iv. and v. of my Rock Temples, folio, London, 1845.
page 145 note 1 I pointed out the Value of this date in my original paper (Vol. XI. p. 160), but the Babu has an unpleasant habit of passing over “sub silentio” any facts that militate against his theories. Had he realized its importance, this paper would probably never have been written.
page 147 note 1 Since the above was in type, I have received from Mr. Burgess a letter dated Lanouli, 29th November, in which he says, in answer to my telegraphic inquiry, “There is no inscription, in Cave No. I. at Ajantá, either cut or painted.”