266 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
following are among his chief reasons for such a de- 
cision. 
" The rock out of which the temple is carved is by 
no means calculated to resist, for any great length of 
time, the ravages of the weather. It evidently suffers 
much from the annual rains ; a great number of the 
pillars, nearly one-third of the whole, have been un- 
dermined by the accumulation of water in the cavern ; 
and the capitals of some, and part of the shafts of 
others, remain suspended from the tops like huge sta- 
lactites, the bases having completely mouldered away. 
The ravages are said to have greatly increased in the 
memory of persons now resident in Bombay, though 
for many years back the cave has been protected from 
wanton dilapidation, and though the sculptures, rather 
than the pillars, would probably have suffered from 
that vulgar love of knick-knacks and specimens which 
prevails among the English more than most nations of 
the world/’ 
After stating a few other reasons of much less 
weight, the amiable and learned bishop comes to the 
following conclusion : — “ On the whole, in the perfect 
absence of any inscription or tradition which might 
guide us, we may assign to Elephanta any date we 
please. It may be as old as the Parthenon, or it may 
be as modern as Henry the Seventh’s chapel ; but 
though the truth, probably, lies between the two — I 
am certainly not disposed to assign to it any great 
degree of antiquity.” 
It may be worth while to examine these corollaries, 
and the premises from which they are drawn. In the 
first place, the assertion, that the rock out of which 
the temple is carved is by no means calculated to 
