page_title: Gavaksha
section_title: First stage
hierarchical_section_title: Gavaksha / First stage
caption_attribution_description: English: City of Kusinagara in the War over the Buddha's Relics, South Gate, Stupa no. 1, Sanchi
context_page_description: In Indian architecture, gavaksha or chandrashala are the terms most often used to describe the motif centred on an ogee, circular or horseshoe arch that decorates many examples of Indian rock-cut architecture and later Indian structural temples and other buildings. In its original form, the arch is shaped like the cross-section of a barrel vault. It is called a chaitya arch when used on the facade of a chaitya hall, around the single large window. In later forms it develops well beyond this type, and becomes a very flexible unit, "the most common motif of Hindu temple architecture". Gavākṣha is a Sanskrit word which means "bull's or cow's eye". In Hindu temples, their role is envisioned as symbolically radiating the light and splendour of the central icon in its sanctum. Alternatively, they are described as providing a window for the deity to gaze out into the world.
  Like the whole of the classic chaitya, the form originated in the shape of the wooden thatched roofs of buildings, none of which have survived; the earliest version replicating such roofs in stone is at the entrance to the non-Buddhist Lomas Rishi Cave, one of the man-made Barabar Caves in Bihar.
context_section_description: The arched gable-end form seen at the Lomas Rishi Cave and other sites appears as a feature of both sacred and secular buildings represented in reliefs from early Buddhist sites in India, and was evidently widely used for roofs made from plant materials in ancient Indian architecture.  
  Simple versions of similar structures remain in use today by the Toda people of the Nilgiri Hills.  
  The rock-cut Lomas Rishi Cave was excavated during the reign of Ashoka in the Maurya Empire in the 3rd century BC, for the Ajivikas, a non-Buddhist religious and philosophical group of the period.  A band below the arch contains a lattice in relief, presumably representing the ceiling of a thatched roof. Below that is a curved relief of a line of elephants.  The entrance leads into the side of the hall, so unlike most later window frame examples, the arch bears no great relationship to the space it leads into.  The immediately neighbouring cave in the same rock face has a plain undecorated recess at the entrance, which originally may have held a porch of similar design in plant materials.
  Early rock-cut chaitya halls use the same ogee shape for the main window needed to illuminate the interior, and often also have small relief window motifs as decoration. In these the inside of the arch has a series of square-ended projections representing the joists, and inside that a curving lattice in low relief that represents the receding roof timbers of the inside of a notional building.  At the bottom, a small area, more or less semi-circular, represents the far wall of the structure, and may be plain (e.g. Bhaja Caves over side galleries), show a different lattice pattern (e.g. Bhaja Caves main front), Pandavleni Caves cave 18, above), or a decorative motif (e.g. Cave 9, Ajanta, Pandavleni Caves cave 18, over doorway).  Often the areas around these window or gable motifs have bands of latticework, apparently representing lattice railings, similar to those shown edging the balconies and loggias of the fort-palace in the relief of Kusinagara in the War over the Buddha's Relics, South Gate, Stupa no. 1, Sanchi.  This is especially the case at the Bedse Caves, in an early example of what James Fergusson noted in the nineteenth century: "Everywhere ... in India architectural decoration is made up of small  models of large buildings".
  At the entrance to Cave 19 at Ajanta, four horizontal zones of the decoration use repeated "chaitya arch" motifs on an otherwise plain band (two on the projecting porch, and two above).  There is a head inside each arch.  Early examples include Ellora Caves 10, Ajanta Caves 9 and 19 and Varaha Cave Temple at Mamallapuram.
caption: The city of Kusinagara in the War over the Buddha's Relics, South Gate, Stupa no. 1, Sanchi.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "ILCE-6000", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Paint Shop Pro Photo 12,01", "Image DateTime": "2017:08:19 16:55:36", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "274", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "990", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5177", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:02:24 08:21:19", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:02:24 08:21:19", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "10177/1280", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "297/64", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "68", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2594", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1211", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "848", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "102", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}