Indian Antiquary Vol 08

SR No.: 032500
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 404
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JULY, 1879.
In one of the domed caves I was fortunate enough these at regular intervals are blocks of quartz. to find unmistakable traces of fresco painting. The lower as well as the upper part of the sides The dome was surrounded with two rows of Bud- of the square base were ornamented with numerdhas, bust-size, enclosed in borders, the whole ous mouldings, bold and deep, and the sides of being imitations of panelling. The roof, as in other this base were further ornamented with pilasters cases, was dreadfully obscured with the effects of a foot wide, divided from each other by spaces in smoke, and the plaster had evidently been wilfully width 5 ft. 9 in. The upper half of the circular broken; but enough remained to show that there base was likewise richly ornamented with mould. were twelve Buddhas in each row; that round the ings and shallow pilasters, with round arches head of each Buddha was the nimbus, giving the between and a cornice of Grecian type. These whole representation greatly the character of pilasters were very narrow, and the spaces between pictures of the saints; and that some of the colours them only 3 ft. They were all built with thin used by the old artists were certainly blue, yellow, pieces of well-dressed schist. It is curious that all and black. Thus the ground of the dome was blue, the other topes here still exhibit traces of the and on this blue ground were painted the Buddhas, plaster which once covered them, giving smooth apparently in black with yellow outlines. In an- ness and polish to their exteriors and completeother cave of the ordinary kind I found the archedness to their mouldings. From the entire absence ceiling had been painted in a similar manner; but of any trace of plaster on the Khaista tope, and in this case black only had been used. What were from the existence in every alternate panel on the these small, black, domed caves! Were they round base of small square holes, which I imagine separate shrines P And why were the domes in to be scaffolding holes," I suppose that this beautheir roofs painted blue? Were they typical of tiful tope was never completely finished. But, the vanlt of Heaven P
finished or not, it still forms one of the most The immense tope called Khaista, or the imposing and graceful objects the mind can con"Beautiful," deserves a few words of description. peive, and its commanding position, in the midst I visited it in company with two other officers, of so much beautiful scenery of mountain, plain, Dr. Creagh, of I Battery, 0 Brigade, Royal Horse and river, is striking and picturesque to the last Artillery, and Captain Bax, of the 11th Bengal degree. Lancers. After passing through Jellåldbad we At the foot of the conical hill on which this tope rode along the right or southern bank of the Kabul stands there is an old Muhammadan graveyard, until we reached its tributary, the Rud-i-Bals and within the precincts of one of the tombs which Bagh, a mile beyond which there rises a precipi- this graveyard contains lives an ancient, gray tous ridge of rocky mountains with an eastern bearded Faqir. This old man remembers perfectly aspect. The triangular piece of ground at the foot well the former Afghan war and our occupation of this ridge contains, probably, three or four of the country. With reference to the tope, he square miles of the richest land, and is enclosed informed us that the English employed a gang of by the ridge on the west, the river Kabal on the coolies to drive a gallery to the centre of the tope, north-east, and the Rud-i-Bala Bagh on the south- and then to sink a shaft, and that they discovered east. Scattered over this magnificent estate there #small stone chamber, in which were several are the ruins of no fewer than twelve topes. They brazen vessels. In one of these vessels there are all extremely ruinous, but some of them are less were ashes, in another a string of pearls, and in ruinous than others. Of these latter, the Khaista another records in manuscript. It is well known tope is by far the most perfect and the most that all our documents, both official and private, beautiful. It is situated on the apex of a conical were lost in the disastrous retreat from Kabul. hill at the very foot of the mountains. Much It may be, however, that some reference to the of the square base is still entire, as well as most opening of this tope and to that of the other topes of the round base which stands upon the square in the neighbourhood is preserved in the corresbase, and about half of the dome-shaped top. pondence, either published or not, of some who Each side of the square base measures 115 ft. in took part in the events of the occupation of Aflength, and the diameter of the round base is ghanistan. The publication of any such reference about 60 ft. The height of the entire tope cannot just now, when the archæological treasures of the be less than 100 ft. The exterior masonry consists country are once more undergoing examination, of slabs of dark blue schist, most carefully cut would be exceedingly interesting.--Jellaldbad, to size, measuring about a foot square, and not | Feb. 3. more than an inch in thickness. Built in with' -The Times, 12th April 1879.
Possibly holes for a wooden covering.-En.