XXVI, belongs to the group of monastic halls which are oriented towards the setting sun. The eclipse-dragon, Rāhu, is carved at the crown of the great sun-window which lights the nave, and at the springing of the arch is the first suggestion of the crocodile-dragon of the cosmic ocean which in later Indian art has an established place there. The Chapter-house is considerably larger than No. XIX,[1] and is even more richly decorated. The design of the façade is better conceived, but there is less refinement in the exuberant carving of the interior. The stūpa here enshrines the image of Maitreya, the Buddhist Messiah, seated in European fashion upon a throne the legs of which are formed of lions and elephants. His footstool is a lotus with turned-down petals. Here and in No. XIX we can see the gradual transformation of the stūpa into a temple, a process by which the stūpa-house of early Buddhism lost its raison d'être.
At Ellora, not far from the south of Ajantā, celebrated as one of the great Indian tīrths, or places of pilgrimage—for here also a great waterfall pouring over a crescent-shaped scarp is a symbol of the birth of the Ganges—there is a stūpa-house larger than that last described, and probably somewhat earlier in date. It is especially interesting from being dedicated to Visvakarma, the Architect of the Gods, who was the patron saint of the master-builder. This great Assembly-hall, therefore, may have been at one time the Guild-hall of the masons who for many generations were employed in making the rock-cut shelters for the devotees of many sects who fixed their ashrams in this holy ground, as well as many temples for the crowds of pilgrims, including the amazing Kailāsa,
- ↑ The dimensions are: length 67 ft., breadth 36 ft. 3 in., height 31 ft. 3 in.
