184/.] Notice on the Antiquities of Bhopal. 749 



The entrance gateways are formed of two pillars without bases, seven 

 feet apart, two feet three inches square in section, and including the 

 capitals, eighteen feet four inches in height. On the capitals rest an 

 architrave nearly two feet square in section, and which projects about 

 four feet three inches beyond the pillars on each side. The architrave 

 rises slightly in the centre, and the ends are also somewhat turned up, 

 and carved so as to represent volutes or scrolls. Over the capitals, the 

 architraves somewhat thicken, so as to support continuations of the 

 columns. A second architrave thus lies parallel to the first at a distance 

 of about three feet. It is not quite so long or projecting as the lowest, 

 and a third architrave is still shorter than the second. On the ends of 

 the architraves are seated lions, and between the architraves are figures 

 standing, or seated on elephants, or camels, or horses. The pillars, so 

 to speak, terminate in tripods supporting globes, which again sustain a 

 kind of crescent encircling an ornament. Upon the centre of the 

 topmost architrave rests a large crescent, if indeed the circle was not 

 originally complete. The crescent is five feet high, which gives a total 

 height to the gateway of 33 feet 6 inches. The capitals of the 

 columns are formed in one instance of lions, in another of human 

 dwarfs, and in two instances, I think, of elephants. From the astra- 

 gals, or from the necks of the capitals, stretch female figures to the 

 ends of the architraves. The columns, except where they abut against 

 the stone inclosure, are elaborately ornamented with flowers, or human 

 or animal figures in relief, or with representations of trees and temples, 

 of religious ceremonies, and occasionally of the practice of mechanic 

 arts. A detached gateway, which probably formed an entrance into 

 the cleared area or platform, is similar in style and ornament, but not 

 so large in size. 



These gateways are not displeasing to the taste, although the super- 

 structure, seems too heavy for the baseless columns. The bas-reliefs, 

 which give the human figure a height of six or seven inches, show some 

 fancy in design and some skill in execution. They surpass the ordina- 

 ry productions of the present day, without being equal in accuracy of 

 proportion or excellence of workmanship to what may be seen in some 

 brahminical temples, or to the works at Ellora or Adjunta as given to us 

 in drawings. — Their value however consists in what they make known 

 about a former people, and while it would be idle to attempt to describe 



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