112 



DESCRIPTIVE REMARKS ON 



They are more than mere hermit cells, but much less than 

 the Buddhist Caitya caves and halls of assembly. They 

 are mere shrine chapels for individual image worship, and 

 resemble, I should think, the Saiva caves near Bombay, but 

 are very much smaller. From the descriptions, the Caves of 

 Elephanta would seem to be most like them in design and 

 purpose. In the Madras Presidency there are many scat- 

 tered examples of the smaller and less ornamental of them, 

 especially in the districts of North and South Arcot and 

 Chengalpat. 



The Structural Temples (V), like the Monolith Rathas 

 and the Rock- cut caves, are mere ornamental models of large 

 buildings, and contain but a small chamber or cell for an 

 image or emblem and an altar-piece, with no room, court, or 

 covered hall for the assembly and collective worship of any 

 number of people. They are adapted only for the indivi- 

 dual worship of an image by single persons.. 



In style they are not very different from the square pyra- 

 midal Rathas, and in ornamentation and purpose much resem- 

 ble the caves also. 



The older Saiva temples in Southern India resemble them 

 closely, and if I am not mistaken, small megalithic temples, 

 just like them, are to be found on the opposite (Malabar) 

 coast of Southern India. 



The scenic and fiqure sculptures on the rock (III), 

 even more than the monolithic Rathas, are believed to be 

 unique, and although much weather-worn are extremely 

 interesting. They seem for the most part to represent scenes 

 from the early Hindu mythology, in which the animal 

 kingdom figures largely. The larger groups carved on the 

 open face of the rock are comparatively free from the super- 

 natural extravagances of the later conventional mythology, 

 and one of them (No. 15) seems to be entirely free from the 

 supernatural. 



