1839.] March between Mhow and Saugor, 1838. 815 



hood to believe them one huge slab. The two upper stories, (if they 

 may be so called,) are similarly composed, and are but little, if at all, 

 less in size ; but I need hardly point out, how much the rounding 

 of the edges, and the consequent cushion-like appearance, and even 

 the ornaments at the corners of the upper table, relieve the heaviness, 

 which would seem inseparable from such large blocks of stone. The 

 idol is reached by steps, which being on one side, and half concealed by 

 one of the pillars as you enter, do not detract from the effect of the 

 coup d'ceil; and this noble and seemingly insulated throne of rock, 

 crowned by a Ling 7i feet high and 17 feet 8 inches in circumference, 

 so well accords with the dark pillars which bound it, that it can 

 hardly fail to impose on the approaching worshipper a mixed feeling 

 of awe and admiration. The art of the architect is again displayed 

 in the pillars. It was desirable to adapt them, in some measure, to the 

 necessarily confined boundary of walls, without detracting from their 

 solid grandeur. This has been effected in an ingenious manner. The 

 shaft, (which, if I remember rightly,) rises from a base six feet square, 

 is divided into three nearly equal sections. Of these the lower is an oc- 

 tagon, each of whose sides measures 2 \ feet ; the sides of the second, 

 also an octagon, are somewhat narrower, or about 2| feet; the third 

 has 24 sides, of a little less than 2 feet ; so that the pillars have the ap- 

 pearance of tapering, while in reality they are nearly of the same thick- 

 ness throughout. Even after this, the pillars would have but a gloomy 

 look, were it not for the door- way, which, unlike the usual entrance to 

 a temple, occupies nearly the whole of one of the sides of the square. 

 This entrance, it is true, seems to have been enlarged by violence, but 

 it was evidently from the first, lofty and spacious. 



The simplicity, — which has been religiously preserved in the walls of 

 hewn stone, in the unornamented pillars, and the plain pedestal of the 

 Ling, — was exchanged in the upper part of the temple for rich and ela- 

 borate carving. The dome seems to have been one mass of ornament. 

 I say seems, for alas the barbarian has not spared this beautiful struc- 

 ture, and all that remains of the roof are the sculptured edges. Under 

 the shelter of this fragment, a mere narrow rim, and clustering on the 

 projecting cornices, numerous families of bees have taken up their 

 abode, whose never-silent humming, re-echoed from the hollows, 

 struck me as in melancholy unison with the solemn ruin. We counted 

 no less than fifty-two of their black nests. Never robbed of their honey, 

 and accustomed to the crowds, who at certain seasons assemble to pay 

 their devotions to Bhojeswar, these insects are not the least alarmed 

 or irritated by the noise of strangers, nor even by smoke, to which bees 



