The Rock-cut Temples of India/The Caves of Ellora/Exterior Viswakarma—Ellora 2
EXTERIOR VISWAKARMA.—ELLORA.
THE most novel and interesting feature in the Viswakarma is its court. On three sides it is surrounded by a colonnade of good design, the pillars of which, instead of the bracket capital so universal elsewhere, have an exaggerated abacus peculiar to Ellora. Above this runs a frieze, filled with elephants and animals of the chase, singularly well executed, and above this again a balustrade, each compartment of which contains a male and female figure of very anti-Buddhistical design.
The great peculiarity of this Cave, however, is, that instead of the great simple semicircular window over the entrance, the opening is here divided into three compartments, something like what we call a Venetian window, and represents a form of architecture more removed from the wooden original than any other example of a Chaitya Cave we are acquainted with. The canopies over the side windows also are so modern that it seems impossible to carry the date of their execution beyond the seventh or eighth century, while it may be even more modern.