matting. Here the road, passing through a wild
country, became execrable, and I reached my destination
in a miserable plight,—my back felt broken, and
every bone in my body seemed to ache. How the
“ boy ” had managed to keep up with the conveyance,
partly running, partly hanging on somehow, and that
for upwards of seventy miles, was a riddle to me, for
there he was, as fresh as ever, ready to pull me out
of the cart. I took up my quarters at the sm a ll1
bungalow, had an excellent breakfast—curry of course,
although I should be sorry to guess its ingredients—
and spying an Indian long-chair under the verandah,
I ensconced myself comfortably in it, and enjoyed a
long siesta, until the heat had somewhat abated. I
then bestrode an active little Mahratta pony, and
made my way to the temples, about a mile from the
village.
The Ellora temples, with the exception of the
Yisarakarma, a Buddhist chaitya, or assembly hall, of
the fourth to sixth century, and the Indra cave, a
Jaina construction of the eighth century, are of Brah-
minical construction, belonging to the most brilliant
epoch of Hindu art, and exceed in magnificence anything
to be seen elsewhere in India ; they are very
numerous, and some twelve or fifteen of them may
be called large ones. Becent investigations have
proved th a t the Indian religious monuments are of
a much later period than they formerly appeared, and
those of Ellora are distinctly of a subsequent date to
those I have already described, showing a much
richer and more advanced type of architecture.
Messrs. Fergusson and Burgess, in their recent
publication, “ The Cave Temples of India,” fix the
beginning of the eighth century of our era as the
period at which the largest of the group has been
constructed, whilst Dr. Liibke, of Stuttgart, in
matters relating to sculpture generally, not a mean
authority, hints at the thirteenth century, which, however,
does not appear to be borne out by historical
facts. In fantastical wildness, the Brahminical temples,
no doubt, surpass the Buddhist shrines, yet, as regards
a sound, well digested style, and rich artistic decoration,
we shall see that in Ceylon and in Java—and
even in India, as recent excavations show—there are
some splendid specimens belonging to the latter.
On the other hand a number of fine works of Hindu
art have been produced in India until late in the
seventeenth century; long after Buddhism had
ceased to exist there.
But to return to the picture now before us at