sculptures: these harmonize best with the worst features of Puranic story. Its shrines, the tri-faced figure of the Hindu Triad, the colossal guards, the groups of preternatural personages, the symbol of the Saiva worship, are all alike fitted to overawe the votaries of Hinduism, and to secure their reverence and prostration. The expression given to the features in Egyptian sculpture is generally extremely agreeable. There is a calm repose, a stillness and an air of tranquillity, that contrasts to great advantage with the stern, the malign and demon forms so prominent in the groups of Indian sculpture.

In the caves of Western India the personages represented in the sculptures are connected with the simple forms and manifestations of Budha, and the complex and elaborate objects of the Brahmanical Pantheon. The Buddhistic excavations are diverse from the Brahmanical in having numerous cells and apartments, with stone seats extending around their walls, showing that they were dedicated to the use of a monastic fraternity, and the education of disciples who had retired from the scenes of secular life for purposes of seclusion and religious discipline. In some of their habits and institutions the Buddhistic ascetics appear to have resembled the ancient anchorets of Egypt, who dwelt in the rocks on the borders of the Lybian desert. The Buddhistic further differ from the Brahmanical in being associated too with tombs constructed with great care, and, in some instances, with incredible labour, for the burial of their saints. In some of these mausolea various relics, as gold and silver boxes, coins, pearls, and precious stones, have been discovered. Some of the coins are of a highly important character, casting light on periods of history connected with central Asia, that have not hitherto been susceptible of study in any other way.

. In many of the caves there are inscriptions, some of them long, in a peculiar character, which it has been ascertained was in use in many parts of India several centuries anterior

to the Christian era. In the magnificent and extensive monuments at Ajanta, there are numerous frescoes, which in character and artistic skill harmonize well with those found in the grottos of Egypt. The subjects of these paintings are diversified persons are represented as variously employed, some bearing burdens, some conversing together; ladies writing or drawing on tablets, in apartments on whose walls musical instruments are hung; some are promenading under parasols, and others are seated under canopies. Female figures, having their tresses adorned with fillets of flowers, and apparently intended to represent the natives of the south of India, adorn some of the caves. The caves of Ajanta are in the face of lofty and precipitous rocks in sequestered ravines, which are, where nature admits of it, clothed with verdure; and they are enlivened by a cascade seventy or eighty feet high, whose foaming waters leap down the ravine in a noisy torrent.

The wonderful monuments at Ellora we can only refer to; they are so numerous and so elaborate in workmanship that volumes might be written in describing them. The Monolithic temple called Kailas, the paradise of .Siva, must, however, be specially pointed out. This monument is a pagoda or tower one hundred feet high, standing in a spacious area four hundred feet deep. This immense block of stone is formed into a magnificent temple with various apartments, and decorated within and without with endlessly varied mythological figures, some of which, as elephants, tigers, divinities, &c., are of colossal dimensions. There is another architectural monument called Tin-tal, or three-storied, having as many apartments one above the other, and designed to represent the three worlds already noticed: the worlds are heaven, earth, and hell.

At Mahavalipuram, called by navigators the Seven Pagodas, on the eastern coast of India, about thirty miles south of Madras, there are some extraordinary monuments, of the same general character as those just described. Some are excava

tions in the solid rock, and others are monolithic. In one of the excavations, dedicated to Siva, there is a gigantic figure of Vishnu, sleeping on the serpent Shesha; and, at the opposite end of the apartment, is a figure of Parvati, mounted on a lion. She is represented as at Ellora destroying Maheswar; a similar piece is found in Egyptian temples, and represents Horus sleeping on a lion. The two are considered by archæologists designed to represent the same mythological sentiment. By the serpent couch of Vishnu in the Indian cave three figures stand apparently in an attitude of grief and meditation. On one of the rocks a spirited scene, in wellexecuted bas-relief, represents the deity Krishna attending the herds of Ananda; in which there is a colossal figure of that divinity, surrounded by the shepherdesses, who are attired as the women of Southern India at the present day. One group represents a man playing on a flute for the amusement of an admiring auditory crowding around him. This is executed in a very spirited manner, and with great taste.

It is supposed by some that Mahavalipuram is mentioned by Ptolemy as an emporium of eastern commerce at a period prior to the Christian era; he calls the place Mahamaliappur. Tradition states that there was once a large city here, that has been submerged by some convulsion of nature. Most likely the city has been destroyed by the encroachment of the sea, which on this coast in some places is known to be advancing on the land.1

When I passed through Bombay, on my way to England, I visited the beautiful island of Elephanta, in the harbour of that port. The island lies seven miles east of the city of Bombay. This little insular place is famed for its cavern temple. The island derives its name from a colossal statue of an elephant, that was erected as an ornament in the way

1 More than twenty years ago I wrote an account of this place, which appeared in the "Calcutta Christian Observer," along with some lithographic prints from original drawings sketched on the spot by a Missionary friend, the Rev. Thomas Hodson.