THE TEMPLES OF INDIA 



971 



lands, and the daubs of ocher show that 

 the old religions survive and worshipers 

 are faithful to their traditions and re- 

 ligious festival days. 



Two and three-story temples succeed 

 to one's bewilderment, communicating 

 staircases and galleries hewn in the living 

 rock leading from one to another, until 

 one is quite lost. Great halls and cham- 

 bers, their walls covered with sculpture, 

 every recess holding its image cut from 

 the living rock, are shut from the outer 

 world by rock screens, or galleried walls, 

 whose windows are placed so that the 

 light shall fall on altar, or image, or 

 dagoba, as at Karli, just as the golden 

 statue at Buddha-Gaya was illuminated 

 by the rising sun long before Ellora was 

 known. Bats scream and beat their 

 wings in many dark chambers, which the 

 noisome odor keeps the most industrious 

 visitor away from, and even in the dry, 

 cold weather one has a proper fear of a 

 lurking cobra. 



In the so-called Carpenter's Cave, a 

 wooden chaitya hall is exactly imitated 

 in this underground burrowing, even 

 the ribbed ceiling and the heavy joists 

 and beams are imitated in the living rock, 

 as are the dagoba and the seated image 

 of Buddha. 



All else at Ellora and elsewhere pales 

 beside the Kailas, the supreme effort of 

 rock-cutters' work, where a court, ninety 

 feet deep and more than one hundred 

 and fifty feet square, was sunk in the 

 solid rock at the edge of the cliff. A 

 rock wall, or screen, was left, as a gate- 

 way to the sunken court, and then the 

 detached rock mass, standing free in its 

 midst, was carved over to the outward 

 semblance of an elaborate, two-story, 

 Dravidian temple, and hollowed out into 

 chambers and image halls. The carved 

 columns for flags and lamps remain, the 

 life-sized elephants stand waiting, the 

 sacred bull rests on his pedestal, and all 

 is as complete as anything masons ever 

 constructed. A two-story series of 

 carved chambers surround the court, 

 cave cloisters as elaborately ornamented 

 as the halls of the temple itself. One 

 may walk around the Kailas, view it 



from different levels from every side, 

 but unfortunately the camera cannot 

 have range enough to reproduce any- 

 thing but sections. The Ellora caves 

 are cleared of underbrush and rubbish, 

 and well looked after, and railway com- 

 munication has lately made them easily 

 accessible. 



49. Akbar, the greatest Asiatic mon- 

 arch of modern times, built this fortress- 

 about 1580. His empire included the 

 whole of Hindustan north of Deccan. 

 The city of Agra is greatly venerated by 

 the Hindus, as it was the scene of the in- 

 carnation of Vishnu under the name of 

 Parasu Rama. 



50. The series of figures represent tri- 

 umphal processions returning from battle. 



51. Cleanliness of person and clothing 

 is partially secured by the Hindu cus- 

 tom of bathing and worship at sunrise 

 each morning. The pious ones wade into 

 the stream, as here at Secunderamalai, 

 and after prayers and ablutions drop 

 their winding draperies of white head 

 sheets and wash them. They spread 

 them out on the sand and stones of the 

 river bank and in a few minutes they are 

 dry and may be draped over head and 

 shoulders. 



52. It is about 2 miles around the 

 rock, and every one who goes to the fes- 

 tival joins the procession around the 

 rock. The temple at the foot of the rock 

 (not visible) is the Temple of Subranan- 

 iam. 



53. The Horse Columns of the Pudu 

 Mandapam in the Great Temple of Ma- 

 dura; this great hall was built in 1623- 

 1645, but was never completely finished. 

 Were there not other wonders in India 

 yet greater, these horse columns would 

 be sufficient to make the fame of any 

 temple. 



54. The five Great Gopuras of the Ma- 

 dura temple as seen from the tower of 

 the American Mission Church. The 

 space within the enclosure guarded by 

 these enormous gate towers is filled with 

 a labyrinth of shrines, pavilions, courts, 

 cloisters, tanks, and passages. The 

 treasury contains some of the finest 

 pearls and sapphires in all India. 



