444 
the sitting and standing figures, are the works of the Sewras or 
Juttees , who b}’ the brahmins are esteemed schismatics; and 
whose sect, called Shawuk, is very numerous in Guzerat. The tenets, 
observances, and habits of the Sewras are peculiar and, in many 
points, very different from other Hindoos. Their adoration of the 
deity is conveyed through the mediation of A dnaut and Paris- 
naut, the visible objects of their worship, personified as a naked 
man, sitting or standing. This sect is supposed to be of a compa- 
ratively modern origin; if so, and if the foregoing hypothesis of 
the dedication of the temples to their idol, be admitted, the limit 
of their possible antiquity follows, but without ascertaining, or 
affecting that of the others.’" 
“ Whether we consider the design, or contemplate the execu- 
tion, of these extraordinary works, we are lost in wonder at the 
idea of forming a vast mountain into almost eternal mansions., 
The mythological symbols and figures throughout the whole, leave 
no room to doubt their owing their existence to religious zeal: the 
most powerful and most universal agitator of the human mind.” 
Sir Charles Malefs account of the temple at Ellora was pre- 
ceded in the Asiatic researches by a description of the excavations 
at the island of Elephanta, by Mr. Goldingham, whose investiga- 
tions corroborate Sir Charles’s so far as to prove that neither Egyp- 
tians, Jews, nor Greeks, had any share in the undertaking. 
Mr. Goldingham’s descriptions of the several compartments 
of figures and of the detached baths and temples, are very accu- 
rate, and discriminated with judgment; he justly supposes the 
triple bust to be a personification of the three grand Hindoo attri- 
butes of that Being for whom the ancien t Hindoos entertained the 
