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CORRESPONDENCE.
AUGUST, 1876.]
celled cave high up in the cliff is first passed, and then a fine cistern: two cells succeed, one with an inscription of five lines cut on its outer face, close to which, but further south, is a large excavation consisting of a nave or vestibule 24 feet by 18 feet, with four cells on either side, and of an inner shrine near the end of which are what would seem to be the remains of a dahgoba, viz. an abacus of four slabs, the lower the smaller, pendent from the roof, and an indistinctly traced foundation of the drum; the latter is now occupied by a shálunkha and linga. The roof is flat and about nine feet from the ground. The entrance to this cave is now walled up with two round-arched doorways as means of ingress. Further on are a cistern and a cell. The cave being flat-roofed and the top of the dahgobá being. an abacus would induce the opinion that it is an unfinished excavation, which would have been converted into a circular-roofed temple with a chhatri'd dahgobá on completion.
The Bhâmchandra excavations are hollowed out of a hill seven miles west of Chakan, within the village limits of Sinde, close to the boundary of Bhâmboli. The hill rises steep from the plain on the south and west, and in the escarped southern side are the caves in question. After a somewhat arduous climb from the base of the hill a cistern is passed on the right; the villagers call it 'Sita's Bath.' A little further on, after rounding a promontary, the principal cave is reached; it is small and faces south-west, and is now dedicated to Bhâmchandra Mahadeva. There is a cistern on the left as one enters; the entrance, which is 8 feet high by 13 wide, is now built up, having a small arched doorway in the centre. The temple is very nearly square, rather more than 14 feet long by 15 broad, the height being 7 feet; the roof is flat; four pillars, two on either side, divide the cave into three compartments (it would be a straining of terms to say
CORRESPONDENCE To the Editor of the Indian Antiquary. DEAR SIR,-I have read with particular interest Prof. Kielhorn's remarks on the Sikshâs in the Indian Antiquary, vol. V. pp. 141 seqq. I am very sorry to hear that he has to complain of the great incorrectness of most of the MSS. which he has collected, even the best and oldest of them, which goes so far
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into nave and aisles), the side compartments being each adorned with two pilasters similar to the pillars, and having each a niche with pillared jambs and canopy. There is a trace of a dahgobá in the centre, a circular base five feet in diameter within a square mark where it once stood; and the chhatri carved in the roof confirms the view that a dáhgobá once occupied the cave. The pillars are massive and square, but halfway up are twice chamfered off so as to be octagonal; the capitals have massive projections on their four sides.
There is an inner shrine occupied by the phallic symbol, and a figure of Buddha: the latter is carved on a detached stone, and may originally have adorned the dahgobá. The inner is separated from the outer cave by an elaborately sculptured doorway, the opening being two feet wide by four feet high; the carvings are mostly of human figures. There are no horse-shoe arch or Buddhist rail ornaments discernible in the cave,--contrasting in this respect with almost all the other chaitya excavations in the collectorate; and were it not for the dahgobá I should hardly suppose it to be a Buddhist temple. Perhaps it is a Buddhist chaitya of the Chalukyan era. The rock of which this hill is composed is of a soft nature, and the screen or doorway dividing the two shrines (the presence of the dahgobá in the outer prevents my calling that a mere nave) has had to be cemented or mortared by the villagers to be kept in its place. Further on is a cell, or rather cavern; and at some little distance, in the middle of the escarpment, and therefore reached with difficulty, is a cave at the end of which is a winding cavernous road low and narrow, said to permeate the hill, and to be many kos in. length. There are one or two inaccessible holes or caves higher up, and beyond, on the west, is also a small cave.
The guru of the temple is supported by a grant of inâm land in Bhâmboli.
AND MISCELLANEA.
that he feels inclined to postpone the task of editing any of them for the present. On the other hand I am glad to see that he coincides thoroughly with my own views regarding the age of these phonetic treatises, maintained by me, in opposi tion to those expressed by Prof. Haug (whose untimely death, on the 3rd instant, is a heavy blow
