. Winter India . ry seven miles to change ponies,and we changed tongas, visited back and forth fromone cart to the other, rode backward as the passen-ger is supposed to ride, sat on the front seat with thedriver, and did everything to beguile the tedium anddiscomfort of that all-day ride of fifty-six sun grew warmer, and it was almost hot at noon,the country more and more uninteresting, with fewvillages, few travelers, and no incidents to distractus after an indifferent tiffin at a way-station. Atthree in the afternoon, we reached the foot of theghat in whose perpendicular face the g
. Winter India . ry seven miles to change ponies,and we changed tongas, visited back and forth fromone cart to the other, rode backward as the passen-ger is supposed to ride, sat on the front seat with thedriver, and did everything to beguile the tedium anddiscomfort of that all-day ride of fifty-six sun grew warmer, and it was almost hot at noon,the country more and more uninteresting, with fewvillages, few travelers, and no incidents to distractus after an indifferent tiffin at a way-station. Atthree in the afternoon, we reached the foot of theghat in whose perpendicular face the great cave-temples have been excavated. The rock-cut templesat Mahabalipur had been but preparation for thegreat series of caves at Ellora, where the face of asteep hillside has been burrowed into, great cham-bers hollowed out, and porticoes, galleries, staircases,and passages cut in the solid rock and covered withsplendid bas-relief sculpture on the most elaboratescale. The line of rock-temples extends for a mile. UOCK-CUT TEillLi;. .\ 1 THE OAVES OF ELLORA AND KARLI 373 and a quarter along the front of the clift*, Buddhists,Jains, and Brahmaus having in turn cut theirshrines in the everlasting hills, accomplishing thisstupendous work in the sixth, eighth, and later cen-turies. For more than two hours we rambled alongthe face of the cliifs, in and out, up and down thedifferent stages and galleries of the thirty-four rock-cut shrines; and, fatigued as we were, hastened withbreathless interest from one to another of the manysurprises. All that we had seen of roek-sculptures and mono-lith temples elsewhere paled before this great dis-play, and all the monuments of patient toil and in-finite labor in the world seemed nothing comparedto the Kailas at Ellora. First, the great sunkencourt, measuring one hundred and fifty-four by twohundred and seventy-six feet, was hewn out of thesolid trap-rock of the hillside, leaving the rock massof the temple wholly detached in a cloiste
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