112 So7ne Aceount of the Caves near Baug, 



has, howeyer, almost entirely given way, leaving the rude con- 

 struction of the column apparent. 



Leaving this first cave, and proceeding southward twenty or 

 thirty paces by a narrow ledu;e round a projecting part of the 

 hill, you enter a second cave, evidently never completed, the 

 columns being left in a rude state wiih deep marks of the chisel 

 still remaining. This cave is nearly the same in length as the 

 first, by about half the depth. It has originally been open in 

 front, but with the exception of a small part it is now choked up 

 with large fragments of the hill from above. It contains little 

 worthy of notice. 



Leaving the second cave, and returning by the same road, you 

 descend the stone stairs, and proceed along the bottom of the 

 hill southward for about a hundred yards, and then reascend by 

 a rugged steep footpath to the third cave. 



This cave, which measures eighty feet by sixty, has been nearly 

 similar in its arrangement to the first ; but it is now in a ruinous 

 state from the giving way of a great part of the roof, bearing 

 down in its fall several beautiful columns. This cave, which has 

 none of the gloominess of the first, has been once finished and 

 decorated in a very superior style, and it is apparently the most 

 ancient of the whole. It has some similar features with the 

 other. In the inner apartment is the octagon, called The (^hurn, 

 mentioned in the first; but it wants the recess, or viranda, with 

 the sculptures. 



The whole of the walls, roof, and columns of this cave have 

 been covered with a fine stucco, and ornamented with paintings 

 in distemper of considerable taste and elegance. Few colours 

 have been used, the greatest part being merely in chiaro scuro; 

 the figures alone, and the Etruscan border (for such it may be 

 termed), being coloured with Indian red. 



On many places of the lower parts of the wall and columns 

 have been painted male and female figures of a red or copper 

 colour ; the upper parts of the whole of which have, however, 

 been intentionally erased. Such of the lower parts (the legs and 

 feet) as remain, show them to have been executed in a style of 

 painting far surpassing any thing in the art which the natives of 

 India now possess. 



Leaving this cat'e l)y the riglif hand doorwav, and proceeding 

 a few paces further along the hill, you enter a fourth cave nearly 

 similar in dimensions and arrangement to the second. It has 

 however been finished, and is falling ftist to decay. 



There appears at the extremity of this cave the rude com- 

 mencement, or perhaps the ruins, of a fifth. It is not however 

 sufficiently accessible, on account of the large fragments of fallen 

 rock, to admit of any correct judgement of its former state. 



The 



