70 Rajendralala Mitra —On Representations of [No. 1, 
There are more than five hundred representations of Indian men and. 
women in the photographs, but they appear totally unlike the human figures 
shown in these plates, and, bearing in mind the fact that the artists of these 
frescoes were most faithful in delineating the peculiarities of their subjects, 
it is impossible to deny that they took their models for these from other than 
Indians. It is difficult, however, to determine what nationality they had 
in view. The features, the cap and the turban of the principal figure, are 
the exact counterparts of what may be every day seen in the Kabulese fruit- 
sellers in the streets of Calcutta ; but the coat is different. I have never seen 
an Afghan woman in her native dress, but the gown and the jacket of the 
female figures appear very like those of Jewesses. The patch-work trim¬ 
mings are peculiar to them, and the best specimens of the kind of work I 
have seen are of Jewish make. The Afghans, however, are in no way inferior 
in this art: they bring to Calcutta every year a number of rugs and other 
articles of patch-work, which are remarkably beautiful. Knowing how such 
domestic arts as needle-work and patch-work are perpetuated for generations, 
and looking at the complexion, the cap and the turban, I was first disposed 
to believe that the figures on these plates represented Afghans, the thick- 
lipped servants being Negroes. 
In the Zodiac Cave (No. XVI) Dr. Bhau Daji found an inscription 
which once “ contained the names of seven or eight kings of the Vakataka 
dynasty, but only that of Vindhyasakti, the oldest and most eminent, was pre¬ 
served intact.” “ By a strange fatality,” says the writer, “the inscription 
has been obliterated wherever a royal name existed, so that one is tempted to 
suppose that the destruction was intentional. But,” he adds, “ the destruc¬ 
tive influence of the rainy weather is sufficient to account for the gaps.” # 
The name of this Vindhyasakti’s country is mentioned in the Seoni copper¬ 
plate ; but the chief himself is not named there. Dr. Bhau Daji identifies 
this Vindhyasakti with a chief of the Kailakila Yavanas who, according 
to the Vishnu Purana, once ruled in India. Having advanced thus far, 
he takes Ivailikila to be identical with an ancient city and citadel named 
Ghulghuleh near Bamian, mentioned by Mr. Masson in his paper on the 
Antiquities of Bamian {ante, v. 708), and Vakataka with Bactria, thereby 
suggesting, though not positively asserting, that the Bactrian Greeks were 
the authors of the Ajanta caves. If this reasoning be admitted, the figures 
we have shown would be those of Bactrian Greeks. But there are various 
difficulties to overcome before we can accept the identification. The name 
Vindhyasakti is too thorough a Sanskrit word to be the name of a Bactrian 
Greek, and there is nothing to connect him with the princes of the Seoni 
plate, except the word Vakataka, which, as given in the Seoni plate, is 
* Journal, .Bombay As. Soc., VII, p. 65. 
