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VIHARA CAVES AT AJANTA.

407

to be purified and made ready; and this scene appears to be represented in the right-hand corner of the picture, just above the previous scene, in which men alone are present.

The kind of temple in which Sâkya-Sinha, or Buddha himself, was supposed to have taught, may be conjectured from the sketch

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here given, although it must be remembered that the picture was painted one thousand years after Buddha's death.

Preaching forms no part of a Brahmanical religious service, but is a custom followed to this day by Buddhists, as may be seen by a reference to Mr. Gogerly's article on Buddhism, in the first volume of the "Ceylon Friend."

Vihâras we have observed coming gradually to perfection in India, but the case is different with Buddhist chaitya halls. "These," Mr. Fergusson says, "are the temples, or if I may

use the expression, the churches of the series, and one or more of them is attached to every set of caves in the west of India, though none exist in the eastern side." No gradual development can be here detected: all chaitya halls are alike constructed according to some pre-determined model. And Mr. Fergusson continually points out that the model must have been of wood, for the stone examples extant are decidedly copies of wooden forms. The celebrated Karli cave, which is the most perfect, is, he believes, also the oldest, as old probably as the first century B.C.2

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The wood-cut given above is of Cave No. 10, Ajanta. The date is supposed to be slightly more modern than that of Karli. It has "twenty-nine pillars surrounding the nave, all plain octagons, without bases or capitals, but covered with chunam and painted." The roof still shows markings of the timber framing which once Rock-cut Temples, 1845, p. 6, 2 Ibid. 74 photo. 1864.

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