ANTIQUITY OF ELEPHANTA. 
267 
resist for any great length of time the ravages of the 
weather/' is altogether gratuitous. Nothing appears in 
the cavern itself to establish this fact ; for the dilapi- 
dated state of the pillars and statues does not proceed* 
as Bishop Heber supposed* from the gradual process of 
decay* but from external violence. It is a well known 
fact* that the first settlers among the Portuguese* 
in their blind zeal against idolatry* defaced many 
of these Hindoo temples* exercising upon them the 
rage of intemperate bigotry. In the caves of Ele- 
phanta and Salsette* they kindled fires at the bases of 
the columns* and when these were in a state of red 
heat* suddenly threw water upon them* by which 
process they subverted a great number and mutilated 
many more. Instead* therefore* of the columns hav- 
ing mouldered away to their capitals* they have been 
rudely thrown down by physical agency* and some of 
those which remain are at this moment so perfect 
as entirely to overthrow the bishop’s conclusion ; since* 
if the progress of decay has been so rapid as to have 
greatly increased in the memory of many living men* 
and some of the pillars have been so strongly acted 
upon as to have entirely mouldered away* it cannot 
be likely that any one pillar in the cavern should have 
escaped the operation of its own inherent principle of 
decay. Supposing* for a moment* that this cavern is 
not of greater antiquity than Bishop Heber imagines* — 
say fifteen hundred years* — still* if the mouldering is 
so rapid as to be perceptible by persons now living* 
the whole structure would have been one heap of ruins 
long before the lapse of half the number of ages which 
the learned prelate admits it most probably to have 
existed. I confess I am among those who lean to the 
