472 Voyage of the Novara. 



and interpretations, which assuredly never were in the inten- 

 tion of tlie constructors. 



On a slope on one side of the mountain are a number 

 of sculptures of remarkable beauty, representing the history 

 of Tapasa, or the deep penitence of Ardschuna. On the 

 right hand, close to the figure of the penitent Ardschuna, 

 one perceives a multitude of people, two elephants as large 

 as life and wonderfully finished, a tiger, and a figure, half 

 woman half serpent. This relief, one of the finest we have 

 seen, is a huge sculpture on the rock, 20 feet long by 30 

 in height, comprising hundreds of figures, with an idol in 

 the centre, to which from all sides worshipping deities, men, 

 and beasts, bow the knee in supplicatory attitudes ; along 

 the edge are elephants, life size, with their young. The 

 colour of the rock, somewhat resembling that of the animal, 

 tends still more to deceive the eye, and make the beholder 

 doubt whether he is looking upon sculptures or upon living 

 elephants. Elliot and others who have described these rock 

 temples, assign to them, as already mentioned, a comparatively 

 small antiquity. They are representations borrowed from 

 the poem of Mahabharata, in the Hindoo mythology. The 

 five roundish temples to the south of the village are beyond 

 all question the oldest of these monuments. They are pagodas 

 that have never been completed ; solid, and here and there 

 showing marks of work, but only adorned externally, the 

 interiors being masses of unhewn granite ; each of these 

 temples is 30 feet in length by 20 in breadth and height. Thus 



