12 1 



Correspondence of the Commissioners 



[Feb. 



Bate. 



11th Nov. 



12th 



13th 



14th 



Halting 

 place. 



Bhomaju. 



Marttand. 



Halt. 



Bij Bihara. 



10 



Remarks. 



From Bij Bihara, the direct road to 

 the caves of Bhomaju crosses the Lidar, 

 or Lambodari river by ford to the large 

 village of Bhawan, beyond which, at one 

 mile, are the caves. There are but two 

 caves worth mentioning, of which one is 

 a long narrow natural fissure, leading to 

 two or three cavities, each about 20 ft. 

 in diameter. The other cave is no doubt 

 partly artificial. It contains a small 

 temple without any image. I made a 

 plan and elevation of this building by 

 measurement with considerable care ; as 

 it appeared to me, from the simplicity 

 of its style to be the oldest temple in 

 Kashmir. The whole surface of the 

 temple was literally swarming with bugs, 

 which made the measurement an ex- 

 tremely unpleasant task. 



Road through the pretty village of 

 Bhawan, from which a steep ascent leads 

 to the celebrated temple of Marttand, 

 situated at the upper end of the exten- 

 sive Karewah or elevated plain of Ma- 

 tan or Martan, the Kashmirian corrup- 

 tion of Marttand, TTr??<JI, one of the 

 names of the sun. 



I halted the next day for the purpose 

 of completing the measurements and 

 drawings of this fine specimen of Kash- 

 mirian architecture. I do not, however, 

 attribute any great antiquity to it, for it 

 appears to me almost certain that it must 

 have been erected at a later period than 

 the temples at Avantipur, the columns 

 of which have plain cubic bases. I made 

 a ground plan of this temple, an eleva- 

 tion of one of the porches, with the ad- 

 joining columns of the peristyle, and 

 views of the interior and exterior. 



I returned to Bij Bihara over the plain 

 of Matan, which, instead of being des- 

 titute of trees, as described by Vigne 

 and Hugcl, has upwards of 500 trees 



