2 10 ''HE CAVE OF ELEPHANTA. 



approaching the temple, and are considerably in recess, being approached 

 by two narrow passes in the hill; one on each side of the grand entrance, 

 but at some distance from it. After advancing to some way up these 

 confined passes, we find each of them conduct to another front of the 

 grand excavation, exactly like the principal front which is first seen ; all 

 the three fronts being hollowed out of the solid rock, and each 

 consisting of two huge pillars with two pilasters. The two side fronts 

 are precisely opposite to each other on the east and west, the grand 

 entrance facing the north. The two wings of the temple are at the upper 

 end of these passages, and are close by the grand excavation, but have no 

 covered passage to connect them with it. 



From the northern entrance to the extremity of this cave is about one 

 hundred and thirty and a half feet, and from the eastern to the western 

 side one hundred and thirty-three feet. Twenty-six pillars, of which 

 eight are broken, and sixteen pilasters support the roof. Neither the 

 floor nor the roof is in the same plane, and consequently the height 

 varies ; being in some parts seventeen and a half, in others fifteen feet. 

 Two rows of pillars run parallel to one another from the northern 

 entrance, and at right angles to the extremity of the cave ; and the 

 pilasters, one of which stands on each side of the two front pillars, are 

 followed by other pilasters and pillars also, forming on each side of the 

 two rows already described another row running parallel to them up the 

 southern extremity of the cave. The pillars on the eastern and western 

 front, which are like those on the northern side, are also continued across 

 the temple from east to west. 



Thus the ranges of pillars form a number of parallel lines, intersecting 

 one another at right angles, the pillars of the central parts being con- 

 sidered as common to the two sets of intersecting lines. The pillars vary 

 both in their size and decorations, though the difference is not sufficient to 

 strike the eye at first. The walls are covered with reliefs, and all these 

 refer to the Indian mythology. The deities of the Hindoo Pantheon 

 amount to three hundred and thirty millions, yet all these gods and 

 goddesses may be resolved into three principal ones, Vishnu, Sheva, and 

 Brahma, the elements, and the three females, Doorgo, Lukshumu, and 

 Surnswutu, of which, together with some inferior deities, we shall give a 

 brief account. Brahma is likewise styled the great one. The Hindoo, 

 mythology states that the world was all darkness when the self-existent 

 god, Bramhu, who was desirous of forming different creatures by an 

 emanation of his own glory, first created the waters and impressed them 



