out the entire edifice there runs, distinctly traceable,
a vein of aesthetic thought of very high order, by
which it might be said to approach high art more
closely than any other monument in India, if only one
could strip it of those monstrous representations of
the Hindu gods and their acolytes which disfigure
its walls throughout. I t seems difficult to reconcile
the latter with the proposition so frequently advocated
by men of no mean authority in such matters,
that nowhere in India “ figure ” sculpture shows indications
of an independently developed art, but can be
traced to Greek origin after Alexander’s invasion of
the Punjab. As to the architecture, the proportions
and forms of columns, obelisks, &c., are, at first sight,
apt to give a shock to one’s preconceived ideas of
beauty, since we are prone to compare them in our
mind either with the pure and perfect style of Greece,
or the overwhelmingly grand designs of Ancient
Egypt, whose rock-cut temple of Ips&mboul is certainly
the most beautiful of its kind. But on looking
at Indian objects of art, in order to appreciate them
at their true value, we ought to do so free of
all bias. Seldom have I seen anything more
beautiful than the Kyl&s, taking it as a whole, of
purely Indian origin ; and it was with a heavy heart
that I returned on the next morning to take a last
look at it before starting on my return trip to
Naudgaum.
It had been my intention to visit Ajanta, but owing
to heavy rains, the road in that direction had become
impassable. Its temples, some thirty in number, are
very celebrated. They are cave-chambers, highly
ornamented, and many of them covered with paintings,
the most important of these, according to Mr.
James Ferguson, appertaining to the middle of the
seventh century. As regards some of the cruder
specimens, Babu Bajendralala Mitra, a learned native,
and author of the recently published “ Indo-Aryan,” on
the evidence of inscriptions he discovered, places their
antiquity as early as the first century of the Christian
era, and the entire group as belonging to the Buddhist,
the Brahminical, and the Iain professions of
religious belief. At first, cave-temples were little
more than copies of original types in wood; figure
sculpture, which long preceded painting, was then
their only embellishment.
The best route to visit these caves, as described to
me by a friend who knew it well, is as follows : Proceed
for about a mile beyond the Ellora temples up
the ghaut to Roza, where there is the simple tomb,
without dome or canopy, of Aurungezebe, the most