\ 14 Some Account of the Caves near Boug, 



it is generally conical, and is considered as a tomb, or mauso- 

 leum, containing the remains or any of the reliques, sometimes 

 only a few hairs, of a Bouddh or Bouddhist saint, to whom the 

 temple is dedicated. — Another circumstance which marks the 

 origin and design of the excavations is the number and arrange- 

 ment of the small apartments round the temple, called dookdhs, 

 or shops: these we might expect to find in such a place: they 

 are the cells of the priests, who are always found living in a mo- 

 nastic state round the chief Bouddhist temples in Siam, Pegu, 

 and wherever the religion exists. The numerous smaller exca- 

 vations at Kanara have the same object, as well as those at Karli. 

 There is no trace of the Brahminical mythology iil the whole ex- 

 cavation, except the mutilated figure of Gunesh at the entrance, 

 which, as Captain Dangerfield remarks, is evidently of a later 

 date. There are no unnatural or distorted human figures, nor 

 any with many heads or limbs. The largest temple leading up 

 to the principal object of veneration at Kanara and Karli *? 

 arched; at Baug it is flat; which might be owing either to 

 choice, or to a necessity arising from the nature of the stone at 

 Baug, which seems to be in some places deficient in strength. 



William Erskine. 



Note.— It has been thought proper to sul)join the following 

 letter from Captain Dangerfield to Sir John Malcolm, as it con- 

 tains some further interesting particulars respecting remains c4" 

 antiquity in Malwa, that have never been visited by European*. 



Kuigoond, April 24, 1819. 



Dear General, — I have just returned from Wone, and start 

 to-morrow towards Chiculda, which I expect to reach in five 

 marches. I was obliged to halt two days at Wone, to enable 

 me to make even the slightest sketches of the pagodas, or no- 

 tices of the inscriptions, of which there are several, few of which 

 any person I can procure can make any thing of. However, I 

 have copied some of them as well as I could ; but they are mostly 

 very much worn out, and appear never to have been cut very 

 deep. From all I can as yet make out, they are Jain remains, 

 certainly not Hindu ; and are from seven hundred years upwards 

 old. Thus much I have deciphered from the pedestals of some 

 itatues scattered about. 



There is in one of the laigest pagodas an immense statue in 

 bold relief of thirteen feet high, a single block ofgrmiite, with 

 similar ones of eight feet two inches high on each side. All 

 these snnaller ones have inscriptions on their pedestals, said how- 

 ever by the Shastries I got from Kurgoond to lie Muntrums, 

 which they were very unwilling to i ead or repeat. One. how- 

 ever 



