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XVI. An Account of some Sculptures in the Cave Temples of Ellora, By 

 Captain Robert Melville Grindlay, M.R.A.S. Accompanied bij Plates. 



Read Dec. G. 1828. 



The accompanying drawings of some of the sculptures in the cave temples 

 of Ellora were made in the year 1813 ; since which time, until very recently, 

 they have been in the possession of the Honourable Lady Hood (now Mrs. 

 Stewart Mackenzie), for whom they were executed : and I have availed 

 myself of that lady's permission to make them public through the medium 

 of the Royal Asiatic Society. 



The superiority of these sculptures is universally acknowledged by all who 

 have visited tiiese stupendous excavations, as well as their antiquity over 

 perhaps any other building now existing in India, 



The magnificence of design, the justness of proportion, and the surpassing 

 richness of ornament displayed in these shrines, have been already too well 

 described by Mr. Erskine* to require any further mention here. 

 The four drawings represent the following subjects : 

 No. 1. Mahadeva, Dacsha, and Nanda. 

 No. 2. Bhadra, or Vira Bhadra. 



No. 3. Jayad Ratha, called also Dytasur Siva. Siva having obtained 

 the chariot of Surya, or tiie sun, is in pursuit of the demon Tripura. 

 No. 4. Bhairava or Bhyru. 



It may be proper to remark, that these figures are as nearly as possible 

 fiac-similes of the outlines made on the spot with the most scrupulous 

 regard to accuracy of form and proportion, by a hand too unpractisL-d to lend 

 either embellishment or correction to the objects pourtrayed. 



These figures will probably be received as evidence that the art of sculp- 

 ture formerly existed in India in a much higher state of perfection 



* In the first volume of the Transactions of the Bombay Literary Society. 



