34 THE KYLAS.
Ellora. Imagine vast buildings, many two or three
stories high, hewn and excavated, as already stated,
out of the solid granite-like rock, complete not only
in their exterior, but also in their interior arrangement.
The process of executing these tremendous
works has been explained by sinking a wide, deep
trench all round the mass which is afterwards to be
shaped into a temple. The “ Kylâs,” or “ Kailâsa ”
(Plate II.), the most beautiful of these monuments, is
in the Davidian (i.e. non-Aryan) style of Hindu architecture,
and is its most perfect specimen extant. The
other form is the Chalukian, which took its existence
under the dynasty bearing that name as early as
the third century A.C., although little known as
builders until the eighth to the twelfth century, and
of these we shall find examples when we reach
Conjeveram, in the Madras Presidency ; in their
arrangement they are all more or less copies of the
Buddhist Vihara.
The approach to the “ Kylâs ” is through a lofty
portico, elaborately carved, like the rest of this stupendous
pile. Through it one enters a large hall or
antechamber, 140 feet by 90, filled with rows of
pillars of true Indian design, and its walls covered
with representations of the Hindu deities in relief.
They are one mass of sculpture. Then through a