The Rock-cut Temples of India/The Caves of Ajunta/Façade, No. 24—Ajunta
FAÇADE, No. 24.—AJUNTA.
NUMBER 24 was intended to have been a twenty-pillared Cave, and, if finished, would have measured about 74 ft. each way. But only one pillar in the interior is sculptured, and one range exists only as a wall, with slits in it.
The pillars of the verandah have been finished, but not the friezes, which no doubt were intended to crown them, judging from the mass of plain rock that is left over them, as if for that purpose.
From such details as exist, we may infer that, if completed, this would have been one of the most carefully finished Caves of the series.
In the pillars of the verandah we have another instance of the falling-leaf ornament which became so fashionable at Delhi and elsewhere, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and which occurs also in the Choultrie to Cave No. 19, which may probably be of the same age.
Though so rare at Ajunta, the falling-leaf ornament is almost universal at Ellora, as will be seen in the illustrations that follow.