Emily and I have reason to do so, for we are his guests, and the more we see of him we like him the better."

Heber, with his love for architectural drawing, lost no time in visiting the Brahmanical shrines cut into the trap rock of Elephanta Island about the eighth century of the Christian era, and the many Buddhist caves excavated in the volcanic breccia of Kanhéri in Salsette, at periods stretching back to a time before Christ. A few years before this, William Erskine, the historian and son-in-law of Sir James Mackintosh, had for the first time done justice to the former in his Account of the Cave Temple of Elephanta. The learned missionaries of the Scottish Society, John Stevenson and John Wilson,1 were soon to put the whole subject on a scientific basis by finding the key to the inscriptions which James Prinsep used with good effect:

"8th May 1825.

"The Island of Elephanta, or Gharapoori, is larger and more beautiful than I expected. The major part is very beautiful wood and rock, being a double-pointed hill rising from the sea to some height (250 feet). The stone elephant, from which the usual Portuguese name is derived, stands in a field about a quarter of a mile to the right of the usual landing-place. It is about three times as big as life, rudely sculptured, and very much dilapidated by the weather.2 The animal on its back, which Mr. Erskine supposed to be a tiger, has no longer any distinguishable shape. From the landing-place a steep and narrow path, but practicable for palanquins, leads up the hill, winding prettily through woods and on the banks of precipices, so as very much to remind me of Hawkstone. About half a mile up is the first cave, which is a sort of portico supported by two pillars and two pilasters, and seeming as if intended for the entrance to a rock temple which has not been proceeded in. A quarter of a mile farther, and twothirds of the ascent up the higher of the two hills, is the great

1 See Life of John Wilson, D.D., F.R.S. (John Murray), chap. x. Also for the latest archæological and architectural results, The Cave Temples of India, by James Fergusson and James Burgess, London, 1880.

2 When the present writer first visited Elephanta in 1864, the figure had collapsed into stones, which had been removed to the Victoria Gardens in Bombay. See The Rock Temples of Elephanta or Gharapuri, by Dr. Burgess, C.I.E., Bombay, 1871 (Thacker).

cavern, in a magnificent situation, and deserving all the praise which has been lavished on it. Though my expectations were highly raised, the reality much exceeded them; the dimensions, the proportions, and the sculpture seemed to me to be of a more noble character, and a more elegant execution than I had been led to suppose. Even the statues are executed with great spirit, and are some of them of no common beauty, considering their dilapidated condition and the coarseness of their material.

"At the upper end of the principal cave, which is in the form of a cross, and exceedingly resembles the plan of an ancient basilica, is an enormous bust with three faces, reaching from the pavement to the ceiling of the temple. It has generally been supposed, and is so even by Mr. Erskine, a representation of the Trimurti, or Hindoo trinity, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. But more recent discoveries have ascertained that Siva himself, to whose worship and adventures most of the other ornaments of the cave refer, is sometimes represented with three faces, so that the temple is evidently one to the popular deity of the modern Hindoos alone. Nor could I help remarking that the style of ornament and proportions of the pillars, the dress of the figures, and all the other circumstances of the place, are such as may be seen at this day in every temple of Central India, and among all those Indian nations where the fashions of the Musalmans have

made but little progress. Those travellers who fancied the contrary had seen little of India but Bombay. From these circumstances, then, nothing can be learned as to the antiquity of this wonderful cavern, and I am myself disposed, for several reasons, to think that this is not very remote.

"The rock out of which the temple is carved is by no means calculated to resist for any great length of time the ravages of the weather. It evidently suffers much from the annual rains; a great number of the pillars (nearly one-third of the whole) have been undermined by the accumulation of water in the cavern, and the capitals of some, and part of the shafts of others, remain suspended from the tops like huge stalactites, the bases having completely mouldered away. These ravages are said to have greatly increased in the memory of persons now resident in Bombay, though for many years back the cave has been protected from wanton depredation, and though the sculptures, rather than the pillars, would probably have suffered from that vulgar love of knick-knacks and specimens which prevails among the English more than most nations of the world.

"A similar rapidity of decomposition has occurred in the

elephant already spoken of, which, when Niebuhr saw it, was, by his account, far more perfect than it now is. But if thirty or forty years can have produced such changes in this celebrated temple, it is hardly reasonable to suppose that any part of it is so old as is sometimes apprehended. It has been urged, as a ground for this apprehension, that the Hindoos of the present day pay no reverence to this temple or its images. This is not altogether true, since I myself noticed very recent marks of red paint on one of the lingams, and flowers are notoriously offered up here by the people of the island. It is, however, certainly not a famous place among the Hindoos. No pilgrims come hither from a distance, nor are there any Brahmans stationary at the shrine. But this proves nothing as to its antiquity, inasmuch as the celebrity of a place of worship, with them, depends on many circumstances quite distinct from the size and majesty of the building. . . . It has been urged that the size and majesty of the excavation compel us to suppose that it must have been made by some powerful Hindoo sovereign, and, consequently, before the first Musalman invasion. This would be no very appalling antiquity; but even for this there is no certain ground. The expense and labour of the undertaking are really by no means so enormous as might be fancied. The whole cavern is a mere trifle in point of extent, when compared with the great salt mine at Northwich; and there are now, and always have been, rajas and wealthy merchants in India who, though not enjoying the rank of independent sovereigns, are not unequal to the task of hewing a huge stone quarry into a cathedral. On the whole, in the perfect absence of any inscription or tradition which might guide us, we may assign to Elephanta any date we please. It may be as old as the Parthenon, or it may be as modern as Henry VII.'s Chapel. But though the truth probably lies between the two, I am certainly not disposed to assign to it any great degree of antiquity."

Heber's cultured instinct was right. On architectural evidence Mr. Fergusson places the execution of the work not earlier than 750 A.D. In the same hot month of May the insatiable Bishop and his wife made a tour through the Island of Salsette, at the head of Bombay Harbour. Mountstuart Elphinstone was encamped at the Tulsi lake, which now supplies Bombay city with water, where they joined his Excellency and a large party :

"25th May 1825.

"Salsette is a very beautiful island, united with the smaller one of Bombay by a causeway, built in the time of Governor Duncan. The principal curiosities, and those which were our main object in this little tour, are the cave temples of Kanhéri. These are certainly in every way remarkable, from their number, their beautiful situation, their elaborate carving, and their marked connection with Buddh and his religion. The caves are scattered over two sides of a high rocky hill, at many different elevations, and of various sizes and forms. Most of them appear to have been places of habitation for monks or hermits. One very beautiful apartment, of a square form, its walls covered with sculpture, and surrounded internally by a broad stone bench, is called 'the durbar,' but I should rather guess had been a school. Many have deep and well-carved cisterns attached to them, which, even in this dry season, were well supplied with water. The largest and most remarkable of all is a Buddhist temple, of great beauty and majesty, and which, even in its present state, would make a very stately and convenient place of Christian worship. It is entered through a fine and lofty portico, having on its front, but a little to the left hand, a high detached octagonal pillar, surmounted by three lions seated back to back. On the east side of the portico is a colossal statue of Buddh, with his hands raised in the attitude of benediction, and the screen which separates the vestibule from the temple is covered, immediately above the dado, with a row of male and female figures, nearly naked, but not indecent, and carved with considerable spirit, which apparently represent dancers. In the centre is a large door, and above it three windows, contained in a semicircular arch, so like those which are seen over the entrance of Italian churches, that I fully supposed them to be an addition to the original plan by the Portuguese, who are said, I know not on what ground, to have used this cave as a church, till I found a similar and still more striking window of the same kind in the great cave of Karlé. Within, the apartment is, I should conceive, fifty feet long by twenty, an oblong square, terminated by a semicircle, and surrounded on every side but that of the entrance with a colonnade of octagonal pillars. Of these the twelve on each side nearest the entrance are ornamented with carved bases and capitals, in the style usual in Indian temples; the rest are unfinished.

"In the centre of the semicircle, and with a free walk all round it, is a mass of rock left solid, but carved externally like a dome,

and so as to bear a strong general likeness to our Saviour's sepulchre, as it is now chiselled away, and enclosed in St. Helena's church at Jerusalem. On the top of the dome is a sort of spreading ornament, like the capital of a column. It is apparently intended to support something; and I was afterwards told at Karlé, where such an ornament, but of greater size, is also found, that a large gilt umbrella used to spring from it. This solid dome appears to be the usual symbol of Buddhist adoration, and, with its umbrella ornament, may be traced in the Shoo-Madoo of Pegu, and other more remote structures of the same faith. Though it is different in its form and style of ornament from the lingam, I cannot help thinking it has been originally intended to represent the same popular object of that almost universal idolatry, which Scripture, with good reason, describes as 'uncleanness and abomination.'

"The ceiling of this cave is arched semicircularly, and ornamented, in a very singular manner, with slender ribs of teak-wood of the same curve with the roof, and disposed as if they were supporting it, which, however, it does not require, nor are they strong enough to answer the purpose. Their use may have been to hang lamps or flowers from in solemn rejoicings. My companions in this visit, who showed themselves a little jealous of the antiquity of these remains, and of my inclination to detract from it, would have had me suppose that these two were additions by the Portuguese. But there are similar ribs at Karlé, where the Portuguese never were. They cannot be very old, and though they certainly may have been added or renewed since the building was first constructed, they must, at all events, refer to a time when it and the forms of its worship were held in honour. The question will remain, how late or how early the Buddhists ceased to be rich and powerful in Western India? or when, if ever, the followers of the Brahmanical creed were likely to pay honour to Buddhist symbols of the Deity?

"The latter question is at variance with all usual opinions as to the difference between these sects, and the animosity which has ever prevailed betwixt them. But I have been very forcibly struck by the apparent identity of the Buddhist chattah and the Brahmanical lingam. The very name of the great temple of Ava, 'Shoo-Madoo,' 'Golden Maha-Deo,' seems to imply a greater approximation than is generally supposed; and, above all, a few weeks afterwards I found the cave of Karlé in the keeping of Brahmans, and honoured by them as a temple of Maha-Deo. All this seems to prove that we know very little indeed of the religious