On the Cave Temples of India, 

 By DR. BERNCASTLE. 



BEFORE proceeding to a description of the different cave temples 

 I have visited in India, a brief account of the supposed religious 

 origin, uses, and classification of those temples generally, will 

 serve to elucidate the subject, and explain the names I shall have 

 to apply to them throughout. 



The old temples of India have long claimed from the antiquary 

 a large share of attention, not only on account of the peculiarity 

 of their construction, but also because the period of their erection 

 appears in almost every case to be involved in the deepest obscu- 

 rity. The hypogsea, or subterraneous cavern structures, con- 

 cerning which I have at present to speak, are perhaps the most 

 remarkable monuments of human labour and perseverance to be 

 met with in Asia, Many of them contain statues of colossal 

 dimensions, and their walls are covered over with elaborate 

 embellishments of the most fanciful description. The ancient 

 chronologers of India have not assisted us in revealing the 

 antiquity of these wonderful mountain cave temples, but their 

 statements and writings only serve yet further to perplex the 

 confused accounts that have been handed down from past ages, 

 and to make our conjectures more uncertain and unsatisfactory. 

 It may appear, at first sight, singular that a people so skilful in 

 the fine arts as the inhabitants of Hindostan, should have 

 selected such lonely and uncouth places for the site of their idol 

 temples. Islands, subterraneous caves, and almost inaccessible 

 mountains appear to have been their favourite localities for the 

 erection of buildings which, as we cannot doubt, were intended 

 as places for the daily celebration of their peculiar worship. It 

 is, however, to be considered that, from time immemorial, India 

 has been a prey to marauding chiefs and lawless usurpers, who 

 robbed, desolated, and destroyed almost every important place 

 which they visited in their frequently-recurring predatory 



