1889-90-] A Joiiniey from Bombay to JeypoTe. 319 



had come to see something wonderful, but our expectations 

 were far more tlian realised. Such beautiful buildings, com- 

 posed of marvellous designs in carved white marble, we did 

 not think it possible to construct. They are quite beyond 

 any power of mine to describe, but a few photographs I now 

 show may convey a faint impression to your minds of what 

 some parts of the buildings ai^e like. What is perhaps as 

 extraordinary about these structures as anything, is that the 

 nearest place at which the white marble of which they are 

 built is to be obtained is at Jeypore, nearly 300 miles away. 

 How the large blocks of this stone could be conveyed such a 

 distance, through a wild and mountainous country without 

 roads, is a marvel. The temples are dedicated to Parswanath, 

 the chief of the deified men whom the Jains worship. Two 

 of the sacred buildings are specially beautiful. The older of 

 them is said to have been built by Vimala Sah in 1032 

 A.D., and the more modern one by Tej Pal and Vasta Ptil in 

 1177 A.D. 



We had to remount our ponies with regret, and after visit- 

 ing the I^akhi Lake, a sheet of muddy water surrounded by 

 wooded hills, and prettily situated, got back to the hotel at 

 4.25 P.M. Our ponies were quite done up, so we got a change 

 of steeds, and this time I had a iine charger — hardly the kind 

 of animal for mountain paths. It had to be led for the first 

 two miles by its groom until we got past a large tank, as it 

 had, I was informed, a bad habit of rushing into the water, 

 and leaving its riders there. We got past the tank all right, 

 but then my charger knew it was going away from home, and 

 it was only after a series of violent efforts that I overcame it, 

 and got it fairly in hand. It afterwards was as quiet as pos- 

 sible, and gave me no difficulty. We pushed on as fast as 

 we could so long as we had the carriage-road, as we began to 

 realise that we would be only beginning the most dangerous 

 part of the journey through the jungle when darkness would 

 set in. I had been told that the risk we ran was considerable, 

 as there happened at the time to be a great many wild hillmen 

 wandering about, who were not to be trusted. In the next 

 place, monkeys were apt to frighten our horses at night, owing 

 to the noise they make ; and last, but no doubt least likely to 

 trouble us, were the big game, that probably would be more 



