Oct. 1814.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. cv 



exhibiting the dresses, habits of life, pursuits, general appearance, and even features 

 of the natives of India, perhaps two thousand or two thousand five hundred years 

 ago, well preserved and highly colored, and exhibiting in glowing tints, of which 

 light red is the most common, the crisp haired aborigines of the sect of Buddhists." 

 He adds further on, " the high antiquity (of Buddhism,) may be satisfactorily proved 

 both from the paintings and sculptured figures in these excavations, which exhibit 

 traces of the existence of a woolly-haired race, now no where found on the Indian 

 continent." Again, (p. 368) : "In the gallery or passage behind the pillars are 

 fresco paintings of Buddha, and his attending supporters with chowries in their hands. 

 The thickness of the stucco is about a quarter of an inch. The colors are very vivid, 

 consisting of brown, light red, blue and white ; the red predominates. The coloring 

 is softened down, the execution is bold, and the pencil handled freely, and some 

 knowledge of perspective is shewn. The figures are two feet and a half, or three feet 

 in height. 



(P. 369.) " The paintings in many of the Caves represent highly interesting and 

 spirited delineations of hunting scenes, battles, &c. The elephants and horses are 

 particularly well drawn. On the latter two men are often seen mounted. Ram and 

 cock fights I observed in one of the excavations. The spears are peculiar, having 

 three knobs near the head, and there was an instrument resembling a lyre with three 

 strings. I observed something like a zodiac ; but not at all resembling the celebrated 

 one at Dendera." 



The following passages in Mr. Fergusson's paper relate to these highly interest- 

 ing relics of Hindu antiquity : — 



"After crossing the valley of the Taptee from the North, you approach a Ghaut of 

 some 500 or 600 feet in height, supporting the table land of the Dekhan. The 

 upper line of the Ghaut is flat and regular, and the wall, if I may use the expression, 

 tolerably even, except in some places, where it is broken by ravines which extend 

 for a considerable way into the table land above. It is in one of these ravines that 

 the Caves of Ajtend are situated. The entrance to the ravine is nearly half a mile 

 in width, but is gradually narrower, as you wind up it, till it terminates in a cascade 

 of seven falls, called the Sat-Koond, the last of which may be 100 feet high, the 

 others, together 100 more." 



"Immediately below the fall the ravine makes a sudden turn to the right, and it is 

 in the perpendicular cliff, forming the outer side of the bend, and facing the Koond, 

 that the caves are situated, the whole series extending, as near as I can guess 

 about 500 yards from North to South- East. ****** 



" No. 16. The whole of this Cave, the largest, has been covered with stucco and 

 painted, and many of the smaller paintings on the pillars and in the panels of the 

 roof of the aisles, remain, consisting of figures of Buddha and his disciples in vari- 

 ous attitudes, rosettes and other ornaments ; but owing to the ruined state of the 

 front, the rain apparently has beat in, and destroyed the larger subjects. There are 

 several inscriptions painted on the plaster, and though none remain sufficiently entire 

 to be transcribed, yet sufficient remains to shew, that the character* are those pre- 



s 



