30 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
water-vessels upon the head, so universally adopted 
by the Hindoo women when they return from the 
gauts or tanks with water, is also most accurately 
represented upon this rocky tablet. There is in one 
of the chambers of these celebrated rocks a most 
spirited representation of Durga seated on a lion, and 
attacking Mahishasur,* which might be compared, 
without suffering by the comparison, to some of the 
best specimens of sculpture, if we except the un- 
rivalled monuments of Grecian art, to be found among 
the works of the middle ages, or indeed, of any sub- 
sequent age, up to the seventeenth century. It is a 
very remarkable fact that the style of architecture in 
the neighbourhood of the Seven Pagodas, is unlike 
that of any other part of India, a circumstance which 
has greatly puzzled and drawn forth various specu- 
lations from the learned in Indian antiquities. 
The large sculptured rock is from ninety to a 
hundred feet in length, and about thirty in height. 
Its surface forms a vast tablet, executed in very bold 
basso-relievo, representing various extravagant fictions 
of Hindoo fable. Many sketches have been made 
of it, and some published ; but they have been evi- 
dently done by mere tyros, whose crude and inaccu- 
rate delineations are not in the least to be depended 
on. There are two elephants on this stupendous 
tablet, most exquisitely modelled; the larger is seven- 
teen feet two inches in length ; its companion, a 
female, is somewhat smaller, and placed immediately 
behind. There are several young ones represented at 
* This contest is a personification of Virtue, under the form of 
Durga, triumphing over Vice, under that of Mahishasur. 
