560 Facsimiles of Ancient Inscriptions. [Sept. 



are other armed men. Ts it the sacking of a city? See how the water brings 

 out the colours, — but I have given Prinsep more than two hours. Have they 

 brought the oil ? and the ladder, — they are all here. 



21s/. — A Dr. Bird from Sattarah, the Residency Surgeon, come with a design 

 to draw up some account of the caves, dismounts from his horse at 8 a. m. 

 Mutual greetings. In three minutes my new acquaintance praises Mr. Erskine 

 of Bombay ; quotes him and swears by him, aud tells me, ' These are Jain cave 

 temples, and, like most others in this part of India, are dug iu basalt. This 

 is amygdaloid basalt : you see it incloses masses of quartz.' 



Dr. B. says he has brought a learned pandit to examine the inscriptions ; 

 that he is about to draw up an account for the London Asiatic Society, and 

 carry away some of the paintings by taking from the wall. Can you draw, Sir ? 

 4 No — I am sorry I cannot.' Those who come here with that qualification are 

 disheartened by the difficulty, or have other occupations which demand their 

 attention, (as G.) — As for carrying away the paintings, you can do so in powder. 

 I have ascertained that they will not quit the walls in laminae, but crumble 

 under the touch. 



' I am sorry for that. I think a native painter might succeed in copying them.' 

 Certainly he might — but you must attend on your native painter, to give him 

 confidence. This is a wild secluded spot, within a mile or two of the frontier ; 

 barren rocks and chains of hills E. and W. The nearest inhabited place is a 

 poor hamlet three miles off. We find marks of recent fires in the caves and 

 caverns, and know that small parties of migratory predatory Bheels who 

 lift in these parts, haunt the caves, which are very seldom visited*. 



Dr. Bird's so-called pandit proves to be a Marhatta brahman : — can make 

 nothing of the inscriptions — supposes them written by the Jains. 



G. For my part, I think it is the character I have seen on the pillar at Alla- 

 habad, and on the column at Delhi, which no one can decypher. On the left of 

 the portico to the zodiac cave has been an inscription four feet high and one and 

 a half broad — the left and lower part utterly effaced by the weather. What re- 

 mains, may afford a few whole words to one who has the key ; (see Plate XXVIII. 

 No. 10). Under the foot of a colossal statue, there is part of an inscription, 

 perhaps half a name : — outside another cave. In the zodiac there is some 

 writing — and in the same cave one figure holds out a scroll on which the writing 

 may be legible. 



Mallet's figures in the Asiatic Researches would lead a stranger to expect 

 statues — but the figures are entirely in alto relievo. Almost the only novelty is 

 the thing I call an altar : it is nine feet high. There are four altar caves, or, as 

 folks call them, carpenter , sf caves. The first has the figure just mentioned at 

 the back. In the second the altar differs in having an intermediate circle or 

 section of a cone — another globular mass. 



[* Capt. Ovans visited in March 1827 ; Mr. Laing saw two in July ; Capt. O., 

 Mr. G. Giberne and Gresley were here in February JS28 ; Mr. and Mrs. R. on 

 the 8th of that month ; G. and R. 18th and J 9th of the current month ; and, lastly, 

 Dr. Bird, an intelligent young Medical man from Bombay. Lieut. Alexander 

 of the Lancers visited them in 1824.] 



1" From the tradition regarding Visvakarma's having constructed them in a 

 night. See Sir William Mallet's description of Ellora, As. Res. VI., 389. 



