Note 133 — Chapter V · CHAITYA HALLS.

It is probable that a tolerably correct idea of the general exterior appearance of the buildings from which these caves were copied may be obtained from the Raths (as they are called) of Mahavellipore (described further on, p. 328). These are monuments of a later date, and belonging to a different religion, but they correspond so nearly in all their parts with the temples and monasteries now under consideration, that we cannot doubt their being, in most respects, close copies of them. Curiously enough, the best illustrations of some of them are to be found among the unpublished sculptures of the Bharhut Tope.