168 Alexander E. Caddy — Asoka Inscriptions in India. [Nov. 



liad not yet been exhausted of its treasures. The Maseum is enriched 

 with casts from two of its four tympana. The worship of the railed 

 Tiodhi free and of the auspicious Sri account for two. The grime of 

 centuries has concealed the religious significance of the two fractured 

 tympana. 



The fourth or left-hand sculpture represents the better half of a 

 composition dealing with the apotheosis of the four-tusked elephant. 

 (It will be remembered that when Buddha was lord of a herd of 1,000 

 elephants, he carried four tusks, according to a birth story figured in 

 one of the Bharhut sculptures.) The artist here has tried within a 

 limited bas-relief to give every detail of the vast bulk of the lordliest 

 of elephants. The Sun is in attendance, and two female elephants on 

 each side offer their lord a lotus- worship. Much of the right-half with 

 one female elephant is lost. 



The tympanum between this and Sri shows the quadriga of the 

 Sun enface. Aruna is surrounded by the heavenly host. The Moon is 

 there in her first quarter, and Rahu, too, is largely present. Female 

 attendants minister to Aruna. The left-half of the sculpture is partly 

 lost, 



54. I am glad to say I have secured casts of these two sculptures. 



55. On this Khandagiri hill are other Buddhist caves, some with 

 ancient Pali inscriptions. But the Jains have mostly made it their 

 resort. In these caves, or the remains of them, their numerous Tirthan- 

 karas with their Saktis look down from the high position which they 

 occupy on the eastern hillside, while the top of the hill is crowned with 

 a double temple, which was restored during the Mahratta irruption into 

 Orissa. 



56. While the work at Khandagiri was completing, I went on to 

 DhauU. 



In the fork where a tributary enters the Dyah river lies an ancient 

 tank — the famous Kosali-ganga, regarding the excavation of which 

 interesting legends exist. Probably it is one of those enormous tanks 

 Buddhists have dug wherever they have made a home for themselves. 

 Now much of it is filled up and given over to cultivation. To the west 

 of this tank is an obtruded group of granite rocks, forming the isolated 

 Dhauli hill. This hill throws out a spur which reaches the tank, and 

 which, with the northern end of the hill, makes a basin-like valley be- 

 tween, with the Kosali-ganga in front of it. 



Not far from the dry tank a block of granite flanks the spur, and, 

 on entering the valley at this point, an elephant seems to approach one 

 fi-om out of the domed top of the rock, out of whose solid mass it has been 

 excavated. This is the upper half of the Aswastama rock ; the lower 



