710 Notes on the Antiquities of Bdmidn. [Nor. 



ed. It is a great point to gain these upper stations, as from them may 

 be profitably inspected the paintings. 



Between the tegs of the superior idol are entrances conducting into 

 spacious apartments surmounted with domes — and there are many 

 other caves at Bdmidn which display the dome or cupola : — these we 

 imagine to have been particularly temples. They, in common with all 

 other caves, were covered with cement, in which the lines of moulding 

 surrounding their circumferences, with the ornaments at the summits 

 of the domes, have been formed. The interiors of all of them are of a 

 glossy black color, from the smoke of fires which were or have been kept 

 up in them. Many of the caves at Bdmidn are remarkable for their 

 dimensions, and have other peculiarities in their form and embellish- 

 ments. The most curious are found above the superior idol, but in 

 another cliff rising backward ; so that in walking from them to the 

 front or south, we reach the edge of the perpendicular wall of rock 

 in which that sculpture is carved. In these caves we saw the names 

 written with charcoal of W. Moorcroft, W. Trebeck, and G. 

 Guthrie ! They are gained by an ascent a little to the left or west 

 of the idol. 



There can be little doubt but that of the vast number of caves', 

 which do not terminate in cupolas, many were the residences of the 

 priests connected with temples ; others may have been the abodes of 

 ascetics or monastic classes ; and as we find in Afghanistan that the 

 cave is invariably the companion of the sepulchral tumulus, without 

 reference to its nature, or whether it be a tomb or cenotaph, we may 

 suppose the majority of the excavations at Bdmidn to be of the same 

 character. When circumstances permitted the erection of a tumulus, 

 it became necessary to excavate a cave — and we need not be surpris- 

 ed at the vast number of caves at Bdmidn, when we have under our 

 eyes the ruins of a large and once flourishing city, or when we 

 consider the spot was a sacred one, possibly the most sacred, of the 

 professors of the then existing religion, and whither the dead of the 

 surrounding regions might, from pious motives, be carried for deposit. 



The inhabitants, in speaking of the three superior idols, call them 

 the father, mother and son, — presuming the second in consequence 

 to be a female ; but there is no distinction in the figure to warrant 

 the supposition that its sex varies from the others. Of whatever sex 

 the whole may be, there is little reason to doubt but they are of one 

 and the same. 



We visited Bdmidn under the idea of meeting with Buddhist anti- 

 quities, but it became evident that they were of another character. 

 The inscription was in characters unknown to us, and continued so 



