714 Notes on the Antiquities of Bdmidn. [Nov. 



also that they must have been subsequent to the Greek monarchy — 

 and who they were, and whence they came, can only be profitably 

 speculated upon, when we become acquainted with the antiquities 

 hidden in the regions north of the Indian Caucasus. It is an advan- 

 tage, however, to possess the knowledge of their existence, their 

 coins and memorials, which display alike their language and religion. 

 The height of the larger idols has been estimated at 120 feet and 

 70 feet respectively ; the third may be about 50 feet, and the two 

 others were 35 and 25 feet in height. Surveying them, in connec- 

 tion with the theory that they serve to commemorate sovereigns, the 

 gradations in size, as well as their numbers, may be turned to profit ; 

 the former denoting the degrees of prosperity under which they were 

 formed, and the latter authorizing us to infer that there were at least 

 as many sovereigns as idols. It is also probable that these idols, with 

 their accompaniments of caves and temples, are not posthumous me- 

 morials, but that they were constructed during the lives of the mo- 

 narchs who projected them. That they are the labors of a series of 

 kings, is an inevitable conclusion, from the moral impossibility that 

 they could have been formed by a single one. 



Supposing that Bdmidn was peculiarly a sacred place, and on that 

 account pre-eminently selected for the burial-place of the sovereigns 

 of the age, we may inquire what evidences we have of their sepul- 

 chres. Some ancient authority, — we believe Ctesias orDiODORUS, — 

 describes the mode of interment of the old kings of Persia — which 

 was by lowering down their remains from the summits of precipices 

 into caves hewn in the rock, and then closing up their entrances. 

 Some of the caves at Bdmidn are so situated, as exactly to come 

 within this description ; they are now inaccessible, and from their 

 small apertures could scarcely have been intended for dwellings, 

 while without some such contrivance, as lowering down workmen 

 from the top of the eminence, it is difficult to imagine how they could 

 have been hewn at all. It is proper to observe, that at Bdmidn there are 

 none of the structures now familiarly known to us as topes, and which 

 are so abundant in the regions east and west of the Indus ; and their 

 absence might suggest the idea that they were a later mode of distin- 

 guishing departed royalty, and originated at the period when the 

 Mithraic and Buddhist practices became mixed. Such a conclusion 

 might be convenient for adjusting that epoch, and to sanction it, the 

 whole mass of Afghan topes might be adduced as proofs, exhibiting 

 the chaitya and the cave : but there is no reason to suppose the 

 chaitya exclusively a Buddhist form, and topes are not irreconcileable 

 with the mode of commemorating Persian monarchs — if the monu- 



