ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 261 



"Biddmi, and Sirur, are also built of fine sandstones and quartzite sand- 

 stoneSj the former variety having in all probability been brought from 

 the Aiholi quarries, for they are finer in texture than anything near the 

 temples in question. A rath, or temple car, at Aiholi is mounted on 

 four equal wheels of fine-grained red sandstone, 5 feet in diameter; 

 another at the Banshankri temple, near Badami, has equirotal wheels fully 

 7 feet in diameter, each cut out of one homogeneous slab of precisely the 

 same red sandstone. I could not find out where these fine wheels had 

 been quarried, nor did I come across such a sandstone in my wanderings, 

 but it doubtless exists somewhere n,ear the Aiholi Jain settlements. 

 Different in kind are the remarkable cave temples at Badami already 

 referred to at p. 107, which are cut into instead of out of rock of the same 

 age. One of these^ the most easterly, seems to be purely Buddhist. The 

 other three are of Jain origin, and contain figures of many deities and 

 personages besides Buddhas, which alone ornament the sides of the 

 easternmost cave temple. 



Perfect quartzite, on account of its hardness, is rarely employed 



except in the rough. One very notable exception 



to this occurs at Bilgi, twelve miles north-east of 



Kaladgi, where the highest hill south of the village is surmounted by a 



very fine stambha, or sacred lamp-post, cut out of typical waxy-lustred 



quartzite of very pale pinkish drab color, said by 

 The Bilgi Stambha. ^ J r f ^ > j 



the villagers to have been quarried close to the 

 spot where it stands. Considering the refractory nature of the stone 

 and the extreme rarity of finding a quartzite bed which is not broken 

 up by jointing into small masses, this beautiful monolith is a most 

 remarkable specimen of stone-cutting skill. Including the base, which 

 is built into a square basement pile, the whole stambha must be 

 nearly, if not fully, 35 feet high, but it is only 1 foot 6 inches square 

 at the surface of the basement structure. The pillar has been cut into 

 an octagon for the greater part of its length, but at intervals it was left 

 square in order to afibrd steps by which to climb up to the lamp fixed 



{ 361 ) 



