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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1874.
Persia. For all those who signed the grant as witnesses seem to have come from Persia and Arabia, and were probably emigrants."*
That so well-known an object as the Mount cross should have not been long ago examined, and its origin determined, is a matter perhaps for surprise out of India; in this country there
is so great indifference to Indian antiquities, and those few who do devote a little of their leisure to such subjects are so much inclined to rely on Munshîs only, that there can be little doubt but that real research will yet yield much, and even in places already well known.
THE TEMPLE OF AMARNATH. AMBARNÂTII or Amarnath is a small town try-probubly on withdrawment from it, by a or village of about 300 inhabitants, which gives change of sovereignty, of the patronage of the name to the parganah in which the town of Chola Rajas, by whose influence it seems almost Kalyan in the Konkan is situated. The old certain the ancient Brahmanical excavations and Hindu temple, which the accompanying drawings Jaina structural temples were constructed. In illustrate, is in a pretty valley, less than a mile this temple there is a Trimurti, or threeeast of this village and four and a half miles south- headed Siva,-proved without doubt to be east of Kalyan. It stands on the edge of the of this god, not merely from the general relittle river Wald b â n or Wad hw â n, which, presentations of the Saivas, which attribute rising near the base of the Malangad or creation, preservation, and destruction to their Bå w â Malang mountain, flows northwards favourite deity, but from the embracement in its into the Ulds above Kalyan, and, with its unity of Pârvati, the spouse of Siva. The tributaries, waters nearly the whole of the par- figure, strange to say, is not only monstrous, but, ganah. That strange peaked hill rises very near, from its multiplex and factitious heads and and its every furrow is distinct, whilst its sum- skeleton legs, is of as deformed a character as mit seems from this point of view as thin as a can be conceived." wedge. Altogether the prospect is very beautiful. In another paper, read January 1853, Dr.
So far as we know, the temple is without a Wilson adds, that before visiting it he was history, either written or traditional, and till inclined, from the drawings of it which he had comparatively recently it seems to have escaped seen, "to reckon it of the same era as the Elethe notice of Europeans. At a meeting of the phanta Caves. The Trimurti, which is found Bombay Asiatic Society in Sept. 1850, Dr. J. at it, however, occupies a very spbordinate Wilson mentioned it as having been first dis- position. It is in one of the external niches." covered by Vishnu Sastri, who had reported its In March 1852 Dr. Wilson with some of existence to Mr. J. S. Law, C.S., who in turn his friends paid a visit to it: and since the had called his attention to it. Dr. Wilson then railway was opened it has become known to described itt as "decidedly of a Saiva character; many. It is an object of considerable interest and, though originally built of the most sub- as a specimen of genuine Hindu architecture. stantial material, it has been considerably injured In the latter part of 1867, the attention of by the hand of violence, and has long ago lost its the Government of India was directed to the sacredness,-one of the many illustrations of the conservation and delineation of ancient archifact noticed in the Memoir't--that the form tectural structures, and a scheme was drawn of religion which the oldest Saiva temples out, dividing India into four great provinces, embodied has vanished from the Maratha Coun- and allocating Rs. 13,000 per annum as the
• Expay on Pahlavi' (in 'An Old Pahlavi-Pazand Glos- and Bhava, possessing the attributes of creating, presary, 1870), pp. 80-82.
serving, and destroying." And in the Suta Sanhita of the Jour. Bomb. Br. R. As. Soc. yol. III. pt. ii. p. 349. Skanda Purana (Yadnyawaibhaux, c. vi.): "As, therefore,
Memoir on the Cave Temples and monasteries, and those three forms are his efficient agenta, let us always with other ancient Buddhist, Brahmanical, and Jaina Remains delight devoutly meditate on the celestial figures of of Western India,' by J. Wilson, D.D., F.R.S., in Jour. Rudrs, Vishnu, and Brahm &, who, when they proBomb. Br. R. 48. Soc. vol. III. pt. ii. p. 83.
ceeded from his essence, were not subjected to the accidents Rather in a niche (marked Q on the Plan No. L) of this life; yet are not these three gods equal to Siva," outside, on the north side of the shrine.
&c.; and conf. my Elephanta, SS 19-25 and notes 31, 32. Thus, in the Linga Purdna, I. 18,-"I (Visveça or
Jour. Bomb. Br. R. As. Soc. vol. IV. p. 369, note t. Mahadeva), the undivided gupreme lord, am divided in a Resolation of the Government of India, Home Dept.. threefold manner under the names of Brahm&, Vishnu, No. 14-931 of 24th Feb. 1868.
