Footfalls of Indian history . from all classes of the population. Thusthey represented the whole national life of theirtime, and we owe the beauty of their architectureto the taste and imagination of the monks them-selves. But we must remember that for command ofmeans the monks depended upon neighbouringkings and cities. It was an act of surpassingmerit to excavate caves or adorn chaitya-halls forreligious communities. Kings remitted the taxesof whole villages, which thus became the monasteryglebe. Noblemen and great ministers devoted vastsums to the making of images, cloisters, and
Footfalls of Indian history . from all classes of the population. Thusthey represented the whole national life of theirtime, and we owe the beauty of their architectureto the taste and imagination of the monks them-selves. But we must remember that for command ofmeans the monks depended upon neighbouringkings and cities. It was an act of surpassingmerit to excavate caves or adorn chaitya-halls forreligious communities. Kings remitted the taxesof whole villages, which thus became the monasteryglebe. Noblemen and great ministers devoted vastsums to the making of images, cloisters, and is an inscription in the Kuda Caves ^ whichshows that a whole family of kings officers, in-cluding the daughters-in-law, joined to contributethe expenses of the various definite items necessaryfor the making of a Buddha chapel. In thekarma thus accumulated not one of this lovingand obedient group must be left out. Here atAjanta itself Cave Sixteen is made by a minister * A place 45 miles south of Bombay. Very early AJANTA: SCULPTURE IN CAVE TWENTY THE ANCIENT ABBEY OF AJANTA 71 of the Vakataka princes known as Varahadeva;Caves Seventeen, Eighteen, and Nineteen by aminister of a tributary sovereign or great noblecalled Aditya ; Cave Twenty by a man of evidentwealth and distinction, whose name is UpendraGupta; and the chaitya hall, Cave Twenty-six, bythe abbot Buddha Bhadra with the special assist-ance of his subordinate Dharmadatta and his owndisciple Bhadra Bandhu. Throughout the west country it was longfashionable, even for houses that were themselvesdevoted to Shiva or to Vishnu, to make thesebenefactions to the Buddha friars. And as timewent on it became customary to add an inscrip-tion, with the prayer that the merit of the actmight redound to the benefit first of the fatherand mother of the donor, and then of all livingbeings—a dedication that is still common amongstcertain Buddhist peoples. From Caves Sixteen and Seventeen, then, it canhardly be doubted that
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