waters which in the rainy seasons flow into it. This led the bishop to conclude that the work cannot have been of great antiquity, because, under present circumstances, it seems not likely to be of long continuance, for the waters occasionally flowing into it act powerfully on the lower portion of the soft sandstone columns, which certainly prevent the subsidence of the roof. The inference of the bishop is, however, scarcely tenable. There can be no doubt that, before the desecration of the cave, proper means would be taken to divert the waters of the rains from the entrance. Such care, if continued unremittingly, would have made the works as permanent as the mountain itself. The date of the excavation certainly belongs to that age when the worship of the trimurti was first adopted, which will be ascertained when British researches shall have traced the cameleon-like changes of sectarian absurdities which have taken place during the long periods of Indian idolatry.

One of the sacred caves near Ellora is of a structure so remarkable, and indeed so interesting, as to demand some short notices; a full description of the work would occupy many pages. It is called Cailasa, being intended to represent Cailasa, the heavenly abode of Siva on Mount Merù. Instead of being fashioned into a cave by excavation, the rock is hewn into a temple by the removal of the material, so as to exhibit in open day spacious courts, columns, colonnades, covered rooms, and pyramidal spires, together with every article usually found in pagodas or temples built above ground.

The fabric is entered, as is usual with the generality of heathen temples, from the west. Two courts have been formed out of the rock; one, in front of the entrance of the temple, is one hundred and thirty-eight feet wide or broad, and eighty-eight feet long or deep. The great court in which the fabric, the proper temple, stands, is two hundred Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. No. 10.

h Heber, chap. xxvi.

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and forty-seven feet long and one hundred and fifty wide. The covered temple is one hundred and three feet by sixtyone. The height of the ceiling is seventeen feet ten inches. It is flat, and supported by pillars and pilasters, which divide the room into a nave and two ailes. The ceilings of some of the lesser rooms, of which there are many, are arched. There are several pyramidal spires, of which the highest is ninety feet, others are about fifty feet high. The solid rock out of which the whole has been hewn, was one hundred feet above the level of the area: toward the gate of the entrance it was forty-seven feet high. The labour which must have been necessary for the completion of this work was immense. It proves that the zeal of the architect was most ardent, but it is difficult to discover the reason why he should not have been content with the excavation of the cave alone, without converting it into a temple, standing indeed within the mass of the mountain, but yet in open air. Perhaps his object may have been to secure to the fabric all the benefits of cave-worship, while at the same time it partook of all the benefits of light and fresh air. The arched ceilings of the lesser rooms of this structure exhibit a feature indicative of great progress in the architecture of the ages which this temple was fabricated; but the arch being found in the rooms of smaller dimensions than that which may be called the nave of the temple, intimates that the architects of the age had not been accustomed to construct arches of wide span.

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In another of these caves at Ellora bearing the name of Viswa-kurma, that is, the cave of the Creator, there is an example of an arch of the pointed character called Gothic, and of large span and length. The principal room, which may be called the nave, is seventy-nine feet by forty-five, the height thirty-five; of which the pillars rise about fifteen, and the ceiling the remaining twenty, forming an arch of noble dimensions; it has projecting stone ribs extending from the capitals of

the pillars to the crown of the arch. There are two ailes of the height of the pillars, but the ceilings of these are flat. The pillars are thirty in number; twenty-eight are octagonal, eight feet in circumference, and two are square. At the upper end of the nave or central room there is a cupola of the form of a bell, constructed on a square pedestal, which, being a form commonly used by the votaries of Buddha, indicates that this cave belonged to that sect, whose god being of an avatara the last of all that have as yet taken place, intimates that this cave was of later construction than the others noticed as above. Arched ceilings similar to these occur in cave temples at Kanara, in the islands of Salsette, and at the top of the Bora-Ghaut. These arches will be the subjects of future consideration, for they are objects of much importance in the history of sacred architecture.

The resemblance borne by these caves to the forms of the temples of ancient heathenism, as also of the Christian churches of the present times, will be observed with some surprize. The antiquity, which it seems may justly be assigned to them, will also excite surprize, and suggest the idea that both the heathen temple and the Christian church may have owed their form to the Hindu cave. That form, consisting of ailes distinguished from what may be called the nave or middle portion of the temple by rows of pillars, appears, especially in the cave of Elephanta, to have been the result of the necessity of securing the rock of the ceiling from falling. In various parts of Hindosthàn, especially in the Delta of the Ganges, the formation of a cave is impossible, and therefore the inhabitants of such countries, approving the principle of cave-worship, and admiring the forms of many caves, would naturally be induced, as were the Egyptians, to build temples above ground, which might be proper substitutes for caves, having various apartments available to the same uses, and pillars affording the necessary support to the ceiling or roof, a part of the structure indispensably necessary to the

character of a cave.

That many structures of such form were built in India, as had been done in Egypt, cannot be doubted, and yet there are few or perhaps no superterranean temples of this form now in India. This may be owing to various causes. The practice of cave-worship seems to have ceased, and this dereliction of former usages may have prevented the building of temples in the form of caves, and also the repair of those already built, which must in the length of time which has passed since cave temples were first wrought, have utterly decayed and perished.

The presumed construction of superterranean cave churches, of large extent and grand in form, may shew the reason why the hypæethral cave temple of Calaisa should have been wrought at an immense cost of money, time, and trouble. It may be presumed that temples built in imitation of the cave excited the admiration of the constructor of Calaisa, while, at the same time, the supposed advantages of cave-worship secured his attachment to the cave. These feelings induced him to secure the benefits of the latter, and the grandeur of the former, by digging, as it were, out of the rock, a temple standing open to day, but being at the same time a cave temple, actually situate beneath the surface of the earth. That Hindosthan has had architects capable of constructing even magnificent temples on the cave plan, capable of exciting such emulation, the following description, given by the traveller Tavernier, of a temple at Benares in the seventeenth century, is offered as a decisive proof.

The body of the temple is constructed in the form of a vast cross, with a very high dome at the centre, above which rises a high structure of a pyramidal form, such as usually occurs in the more magnificent pagodas of Hindosthàn. At the four extremities of the cross there are four other pyramids, which are ascended on the outside by steps, with balconies at stated distances for places of rest. Inside of this great temple, beneath the dome, is an altar, or rather table,

eight feet long and six wide, which on some occasions is covered with cloth of either gold or silver, at others with tapestry, according to rules prescribed for the performance of different rites and ceremonies. The traveller saw several idols placed upon this table, one of them, about six feet high, seemed to represent the god to whom the temple was dedicated. The neck of this idol was splendidly decorated with a necklace of precious stones, of which the priest had great variety for different festivals; some were rubies, some pearls, and some emeralds. The head and neck were only visible, the rest of the body being covered with an embroidered robe spreading in ample folds on the table. The pagoda stands. close to the stream of the Ganges, to which there is a way by steps, which were much used by the worshippers at the temple, who all pass into the river for performance of the indispensable rite of ablution.

Bishop Heber makes no mention of this temple among other notices of Benares, whence it should seem that it is not now extant. It was probably destroyed by the Emperor Aurungzebe, who, according to the information communicated to the episcopal traveller, destroyed, in one of his freaks, one of the principal temples at Benares, and erected a mosque on its site. One of the fundamental precepts of the Koran enjoins the destruction of idolatry. This duty imposed upon the Moslems has proved fatal to many, indeed to almost all the principal sacred structures of Gangetic India: otherwise numbers would doubtless have been found, exhibiting the progress of Indian architecture from the simple cell or shrine to the magnificent temple, such as that above described.

This is the reason why the magnificent temples of the votaries of the Sastra are chiefly confined to the southern provinces of the Indian peninsula, where the Moslem rule was never permanently established. The desecration of a Hindu temple is easily effected: the destruction of the fabric is by no means necessary. The slaughter of a cow within