CAVE DWELLINGS OF MEN. 



3 



of the cave people themselves, he argued that they must have pos- 

 sessed a high capacity for culture in all directions, and must have 

 been as complete in their whole manhood as living Europeans. 

 He was disposed to put their age only a few thousand years back. 

 The cave temples of India are famous and most curious speci- 

 mens of architecture. They date from near the beginning of the 

 Christian era. The best-known ones, those of Elephanta, have 

 been described and pictured over and over again. The great 

 cave, according to Mr. James Burgess, in The Rock-cut Temples 



Fig. 3. Facade of the Temple of Pandu Lena, near Nassik, India. 



by M. Albert Tissandier.) 



(From a drawing 



of Elephanta or Gharapuri, occupies a space having an extreme 

 length of two hundred and sixty feet, with a depth into the rock 

 of a hundred and fifty feet. It has three entrances one in the 

 side and one at each end which are each about fifty-four feet 

 wide, and divided into three doors by pillars fully three feet in 

 diameter and sixteen feet high. This subdivision is repeated over 

 the entire area of the underground temple, which may be described 

 as consisting of eight parallel rows of such columns about fifteen 

 feet apart. One of the quadrangular clumps of pillars is built 

 round and incloses the shrine. Opposite the north entrance is 

 the Trimusti, or Trinity, one of the most remarkable sculptured 

 religious relics in the world. It consists of three united half- 

 length figures, each head being elaborately carved and ornamented, 

 and is seventeen feet high and twenty-two feet wide. Besides the 

 great caves there are three others on the island. They consist of a 



