. Indika. The country and the people of India and Ceylon . adly mutilated. Some writers attribute the wantonmutilation to the Portuguese, who, it is claimed, found the tem-ples in perfect condition. But no author, not even the painstak-ing Wilson, has been able to furnish the proof that the chargeis well-founded. The date of these particular excavations issupposed to range between the eighth and twelfth centuries ofour era. They form a part of the great aggressive system bywhich the Brahmans sought to propagate their faith throughout A SAIL TO THE CAVE TEMPLES OF /. \ / l 159 India. T
. Indika. The country and the people of India and Ceylon . adly mutilated. Some writers attribute the wantonmutilation to the Portuguese, who, it is claimed, found the tem-ples in perfect condition. But no author, not even the painstak-ing Wilson, has been able to furnish the proof that the chargeis well-founded. The date of these particular excavations issupposed to range between the eighth and twelfth centuries ofour era. They form a part of the great aggressive system bywhich the Brahmans sought to propagate their faith throughout A SAIL TO THE CAVE TEMPLES OF /. \ / l 159 India. The mould has gathered on the walls here, and in someof the spans of the temple the water lias oozed down from theroofs and covered the floor. Even with the powerful rays ofthe Indian sun to dry it, the water filters through t he rook aboveso fast, and falls to the floor in such quantity that the walkingis anything but ornamentation of some of the figures is most elaborate. ? In the female statues and relicts one sees a calmness ol feature,. PIVA, THE DESTROYER an ease and simplicity of the whole countenance, which makemany of them singularly attractive. The ideas which lie backof all are abhorrent in the extreme; hut the way in which thesculptor lias wrought out his plans is different. He has soughlto make these incarnations of the great Siva pleasing to the wor-shipper, that he might he won to them, and to higher any of the existing Indian temples above ground vmade, we may well suppose these great cave temples were hewnout of th solid rock. If Hindus did the chief work ami t!is no doubt they did—they must have had the assistan< f ICO INDIRA. Greeks and Bactrians.* The delicacy of the work shows thesteady chisel and trained eye of the Greek, while the figuresthemselves, and the ideas which they symbolize, belong to thefundamentals of Brahman theology. No finer picture of the passing away of the old, and the com-ing in of the new, in India, ca
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