368 Lieut. Alexander's Visit to the Cavern Temples ofAdjunta. 



and descanting on it in tiie vernacular language ; their principal hearers on 

 these occasions being women, vviio sit with their Iiands clasped, their feet 

 under them, and small lighted tapers burning before them." 



The stone hemisphere, then, probably served the purpose of a pulpit. It 

 rests on a pedestal, somewhat larger than the hemisphere, surmounted by a 

 square block, in shape resembling the capital of a pillar. In Ellora the 

 figure of the deity, of gigantic dimensions, is placed on a seat in front of 

 this hemisphere of stone ; hut in this cave it is omitted. In the gallery, or 

 passage behind the pillars, are fresco paintings of Buddha and his attending 

 supporters, with choivrees* in their hands. The thickness of the stucco is 

 about a quarter of an inch. The colours are very vivid, consisting of brown, 

 light red, blue, and white : the red predominates. The colouring is softened 

 down, the execution is bold, and the pencil handled freely ; and some know- 

 ledge of perspective is shewn. The figures are two feet and a half or three 

 feet in height. The obliterating and sacrilegeous hand of the Portuguese has 

 not exercised itself in defacing with pious rage these caves ; nor are any of 

 those mutilations visible here which are so common in the excavations which 

 the Portuguese converted into places of worship. Tliat these excavations 

 served for tiie retirement of some monastic society, does not, I think, admit 

 a doubt. Adjoining the large caves are several cells with stone bed-places, 

 which, in all probability, were the abodes of the devotees: and in many 

 there are springs of clear water. 



The other caves which I visited are all flat-roofed, and generally in ex- 

 cellent preservation. The fetid smell, however, arising from numerous bats 

 {vespertilio voctula') which flew about our faces as we entered, rendered a 

 continuance inside, for any length of time, very disagreeable. I saw only 

 one cave with two stories or tiers of excavated rock. In it the steps from 

 the lower apartments to the upper had been destroyed by the Bheels. With 

 our pistols cocked we ascended by the branch of a tree to the upper range 

 of chambers ; and found, in the middle of one of the floors, the remains of 

 a recent fire, with large foot-marks around it. In a corner was the entire 

 skeleton of a man. On the floors of many of the lower caves I observed 

 prints of the feet of tigers, jackals, bears, monkies, peacocks, &c. ; these 

 were impressed upon the dust, formed by the plaster of the fresco paintings 

 which had fallen from the ceilings.t 



* Painted sticks, to which are attached the tails of the Thibet cow; used to drive away flies. 

 f See the accompanying plate, fig. 2. 



