1833.] On the Colossal Idols of Bamian- 563 
tian tombs. There is little variety in the design of these figures, which 
represent the bust of a woman with a knot of hair on the head and a 
plaid half over the breast, the whole surrounded by a halo, and the head 
again by another halo. In one part I could trace a group of three 
female figures following each other. The execution of the work is 
bad, and by no means superior to the pictures which the Chinese make 
in imitation of an European artist. 
The traditions of the people regarding the idols of Bamidn are 
vague and unsatisfactory. It is stated that they were excavated 
about the Christian era by atribe of kaffirs (infidels), to represent a 
king named Sazsau and his wife, who ruled ina distant country, and 
was worshipped for his greatness. The Hindas assert them to have 
been excavated by the Pandis, and that they are mentioned in the 
great epic poem of the Mahabharat. Certain it is that the Hindis 
on passing these idols at this day hold up their hands in adoration, 
though they do not make offerings, which may have fallen into disuse 
since the rise of Islam. I am aware that a conjecture attributes 
these images to the Buddhists, and the long ears of the great figure 
make it probable enough. I do not trace any resemblance to the co- 
lossal figures in the caves of Salsette near Bombay, but the shape of 
the head is not unlike that of the great trifaced idol of Elephanta. 
At Manikeala, in the Panjab, near the celebrated ‘ Tope,’ I found a 
glass or cornelian antique which exactly resembles this head. In the 
paintings over the idols I discover aclose resemblance to the images of 
the Jain temples in Western India, in mount Abé, and at Girvan and 
Palitana in Katywar, I judge the figures to be female, but they are very 
rude, though the colours in which they are sketched are bright and 
beautiful. There is nothing in the images of Bamidn to evince any 
great advancement in the arts, or what the most common people 
might not have executed with success, They cannot certainly be referred 
to the Greek invasion, nor are they mentioned by any of the histori- 
ans of ALEXANDER’s expedition. I find in the history of Timour.ang, 
that both the idols and exvavations of Bamidn are mentioned by 
SHeri’F up Din, his historian. The idols are described to be so high that 
none of the archers could strike the head. They are called Lag and 
Manas, two celebrated idols which are mentioned in the Koran; and 
the writer also alludes to the road which led up to them from the in- 
terior of the hill. There are no inscriptions at Bamidn to guide us 
in their history, and the whole of the later traditions are so mixed up 
with Axi, the son-in-law of MunamMeEpD, who we well know never came 
into this part of Asia, that they are most unsatisfactory, It is by no 
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