BUDDHIST OPINIONS AND MONUMENTS OF ASIA. 257 



Europe, the light of Christianity was also introduced, and the erection of these struc- 

 tures was abandoned. But in India, where idolatry held its ground, the arts, as 

 they advanced, were employed in their enlargement and embellishment. The ob- 

 jects and edifices of superstitious veneration were increased in size, until they at- 

 tained the scale which we see exemplified in the remains of the vast structure of 

 Depaldinna, the Hill, or Mound of Light, near Amrawatty, in Central India. There 

 we see immense excavations, surrounded by concentric circles, formed of vast num- 

 bers of stones, beautifully sculptured with mythological figures, and inscriptions 

 in two or three different idioms of the Sanscrit language. The outer circle of this 

 gigantic structure is 160 feet in diameter. In the neighbourhood are numerous 

 remains of kist-vaens, circles, barrows, &c. 



Some years ago I examined two interesting structures or temples, which had 

 all the essential features of the stone circle, and of the ancient temples of Central 

 India. They are situated near the banks of the sacred Bargaretta, or Hooghly 

 River, at Culna, and belong to the Maha-Rajah of Burdwan. In this temple there 

 are two concentric circles of stones in marble, formed into 108 lingas, or repre- 

 sentations of the male and female energy of the world, with a temple over each. 

 The external circle is formed of alternate white and black marble pillars ; the in- 

 ternal circle entirely of white marble. The outer circle had its entrances north 

 and south, and the inner east and west, much in the same manner as in the large 

 temple of Depaldinna, in Central India ; and while in the centre of this there was 

 a tank, the temple in Bengal, where worship is regularly celebrated, has a well 

 of water, the yoni, or symbol of Parvati, the female energy. A second circle of 

 temples in the neighbourhood appeared to be merely a modification of the other. 



This general identity of the ancient monuments of southern and western 

 Europe with those of Hindostan, is further proved by the physical conformation 

 of the races who inhabit these distant countries, by the similarity of many of 

 their manners, customs, * and observances ; f and by the decided and extensive 

 affinities of the Celtic and other languages of western Europe with the San- 

 scrit, \ which afford as strong evidence as we can be expected to obtain, of a 

 connection so remote between races so widely separated. Indeed, the names of 

 mountains, rivers, and other great natural features of the south and west of 

 Europe, bear evidence of its having been in possession of a Celtic race anterior to 

 the earliest date of authentic history ; and this early connection indicates a line 

 of inquiry, by following which much of the obscurity resting over the earliest 

 monuments and history of western Europe may be cleared away. 



As these Asiatic races emerged from their oriental seat, and settled on 

 the shores of Europe at different stages of advancement in civilisation, 

 we must expect differences in the idioms of their language, in their monuments, 



* Primeval Antiquities of Denmark, p. 132 et seq. 



| Pliny, Nat. Hist., xxv. 1. \ Pochard's Celtic Nations, pp. 20-22. 



