( 487 ) 



XXIII. Observations on the Sculptures in the Cave Temples of Ellora. — Bjj 

 Captain Robert Melville Gbindlay, M.R.A.S. 



Read January 16, 1830. 



In presenting to the Royal Asiatic Society the four accompanying repre- 

 sentations of the Ellora Sculptures, in continuation of those which I had the 

 lionour of submitting last session, I liave to regret that, from the very scanty 

 and imperfect intelligence procurable on the spot, I am unable to attach to 

 some of them any descriptive notice tliat would be at all satisfactory. 



To those better acquainted with Hindu mythology I leave the task of 

 assigning to each groupe and figure its appropriate legend : my principal 

 object being to draw the attention of the Society to these interesting speci- 

 mens of an art, wliich must have attained a much greater degree of perfec- 

 tion than has been generally believed to be the case in any period of the 

 history of India. 



Without presuming to ascribe to Hindu sculpture the classical purity and 

 elegant proportions of the Grecian chisel, it may not be too much to assert 

 that it displays considerable grandeur of design and intenseness of expres- 

 sion. The muscular powers being less developed in an Indian climate, the 

 Hindu sculptor appears to have resorted to exaggeration to give that 

 energy, which his imagination suggested, but of which he saw no living 

 models ; hence all the points of beauty in the human form are overcharged, 

 and the limbs are multiplied to express various attributes and supernatural 

 powers. 



In tlie fine forms of northern and western Hindustan we often see an 

 approximation to the Belvidere Apollo ; but the muscular energy of the 

 celebrated Torso, or the Farnesian Hercules, is rarely, if ever, to be met 

 with in any part of India which I have visited. 



The encouragement and protection which sculpture and painting have in 

 all ages and countries received from religion, have also been, in some 

 degree, the sources of many of the absurdities which those arts occasionally 

 dis])lay: Iience the many-armed and many-headed personages of the Hindu 



3 R 2 



