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CHRONOLOGY OF GUJARAT
Of the antiquities found there, mention may be made of a complete tile reconstructed by piecing together the broken pieces, ineasuring 10" x 7", with two holes. It was probably used for roofing or covering the gutter. Two silver coins were unearthed. A few rusted tiny copper-coins were also picked up at the excavation. An iron dovetail with one nail intact, indicates the existence of a wooden roof. Parts of earthern jugs, cups, bowls, drain-cover tiles, stone weights, four-legged rectangular grinding stone with pestle, pieces of mica etc. were found in large number, which proves the existence of a well-populated ancient Vihāra of the Buddhist monks.-(G. V. Acharya : 'Excavation of a Buddhist Vihāra at Intwā Hill in Gimar at Junagadh': Gujarat Samachar (Daily), October 1949).
Uparkot Caves : The caves at Uparkot in Junagadh are cut into two floors, with a frieze ornamented with caitya-windows and chequer carvings.-( Plate X). Majority of the smaller caves in this group are rectangular halls with a verandah in their front, supported by square or octagonal pillars. This plan of the early vihūras is often met with in the caves of the 2nd century in Mahārāstra. In one of them we come across a pillar with a pot-shaped capital which can easily be compared with such capitals of pillars in the caves of the Sātavāhana period in the Deccan.-(M. G. Dikshit, History of Buddhism in Gujarat,' Journal of Guj. Res. Soc., 1946, Nos. 2 and 3).
In these caves are found certain religious symbols, identified as Svastika, Bhadrâsana, Nandi-pada, Minayugala and Kalasa, which, however, are common to both the Buddhist and the Jaina. From other architectural features, the caves appear to be Buddhist. The form of these caves is later than that of the earlier caves of Western India; it shows some features of wooden construction, as wooden frames are copied here. But they are earlier than that of the almost identical caitya-window at the Gop temple; and others at Elura and Cave I at Ajanta.
It is, however, difficult to date these caves with ornamentation so little, but so varied and rich on the pillars and the Caitya-window. Several phases of the Uparkot caves seem to extend for about seven centuries (100-700 A.D.). These caves, most probably were Buddhistic, Jaina, and then converted to Buddhism as in the 7th century, when Hiuen Tsiang went to Junagadh, he found there convents and monks of the Sthavira sect of the Mahāyāna.--( Sankalia, Archaeology of Gujarat, pp. 49-51).
Talājä Caves : The caves at Talājā in the south-east of the peninsula of Surāșțra, and at Dhānk in the once Gondal State, seem to belong to two or three periods. The 'Caitya'-cave and the plain cells belong to pre-Christian period, when the Buddhist Bhikṣus first came over to Gujarat in C. 200 B.C. The cells and halls which have the Jaina symbols and advanced type of pillar-forms, belong to the second period i.e. the period of the later Kşatrapas (Circa A.D. 200-300 ).
Out of the 30 caves at Talājā, which are definitely Buddhistic near the mouth of the river Setrunji, on the north-west of the solitary rock, only one needs description and
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