Introduction.
with the Turanian natives; and one of the most interesting points brought out by the study of the caves is the fact, that the earliest are mere petrifactions of wooden buildings. The mortices, the tenons, and every form of wooden construction, is repeated in the rock in the earliest caves; and frequently even the woodwork still remains as if placed there to support the mountain, instead of being merely intended to recall the structure of the metal covered or boarded roof from which it was copied.
The same thing occurred in Lycia, where all the earliest tombs are in like manner repetitions in stone of wooden structures, and in both instances it appears that it was the Greeks who taught the natives how to use the more permanent materials. At all events, the earliest monuments we know in India, the lâts of Asoka, are adorned with Greek ornaments, evidently borrowed from the Bactrian Greeks of Central Asia, and in the earlier caves there is not one single form that suggests lithic architecture; every form is essentially wooden, and frequently interchanging with wood itself.
All the Buddhist caves we know of belong to one of two classes. They are either Viharas or Monasteries, or they are Chaitya caves or churches,—the former being, as might be expected, by far the most numerous. The oldest Viharas consist of one cell only; little hermitages, in fact, for the residence of a
Fig. 1.
PLAN OF VIHARA AT UDYAGIRI. SCALE 25 FEET TO I INCH.
single ascetic. In the next class they were extended to a long verandah, with one long cell behind it, as in the example, Fig 1. As these had, however, several doors opening outwards, they probably were divided by partitions into cells internally.
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