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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1910.
Cave No. 2 at Bagh.
The "Gusain's" Cave.
Cave No. 2, which derives its present title from a gusain who now occupies it, is perhaps the most interesting of the series, as it is certainly the most complete. The claystone band is here narrow, while the sandstone is more compact, and consequently the roof has not fallen in.
This cave is now approached by a steep flight of steps which leads to the central door (See Plate II, figs. 1 and 2); a portico originally protected the entrance, but it has fallen in. The floor has been plastered with cow-dung to make a terrace, but from traces in the upper portion and the remains of a pilaster, it is evident that there was once a colonnade of pillars before the doors. The side walls projected beyond the portico and so admitted of the excavation of two niches. In the south-western niche is a modern figure of Ganesa (Plate II, fig. 3) usurping the earlier
Buddha's seat," which the emblems still above the niche prove the place to have originally been. The north-eastern niche still holds an image of Buddha, but it is badly defaced. He is represented in the lalitasana mudra with the usual attendants, and over him a dome with figures bearing garlands above it.
The cave possesses five doorways, of which all, except the central entrance, are now blocked. (See Plate II, fig. 3.) These doors respectively lighted the central hall, very faintly the daghoba at the end, the side aisles and cell entrance. The central door is 10' x 5'-37 and is ornamented with five lintels. The side doors are 8' x 4'. The interior walls of the cave are so blackened by many years of smoke that 1. sign of frescoes is traceable, but as the walls are all plastered, the probability is that they were once adorned with paintings.
The shape and size of the cave can be seen from the attached folding plan of Cave No. 2. It consists of a large hall 85'-6"x86', possibly 86 feet square [88 ft. sq.]. Twenty massive pillars with four pilasters on the outer walls, make it a twenty-four pillared cave. In the centre are four circular columns reeded spirally (Plate II, fig. 4). These were necessitated by the weak nature of the sandstone, and are found also in other caves of the series.
The roof is 14 feet from the ground, but the pillars. are only 11 feet high, the difference between them being made up by what in a wooden structure would have been a beam, 2 feet thick, on which the top of the pillars abut. These "beams" of stone are cut everywhere and are relics of the wooden structural buildings with which the excavators were familiar. The pillars are very fine and are all varieties of a square, having a diameter of between 5 and 6 feet [4 and 5 feet]. They stand on a pedestal one foot high surmounted by a torus and cornice, from which the shaft springs. The shaft is square to a height of 3 feet. It then becomes a dodecagon for 3 feet, a spiral for 14 feat, and finally a dodecagon again for one foot. On this rests the abacusbearing bracket architrave. Though the pillars varv in detail, this is the general type.
See Poladungad Caves Pl. II, fig. 8. The figs. have been misplaced. Dr. Impey's measurement was 10' x 5.
The measurements were made very carefully, but in such dark places necessitating the use of torches, and with so much damage as has taken place in many of the cavos, it was not easy to measure with absolute certainty. Dr. Impey's figures are given in brackets for comparison, where they differ.
The ribbing of care roofs to represent beams and even the use of actual beams is met with in early caves. At Dhamnar, stone-ribbing is used. Cf. Fergusson and Burgess.-The Cave Temples of India.
