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NOVEMBER, 1876.]
CAVES IN THÅNÅ ZILLA.
309
They bewilder, enchant, and deceive,
Plunge in anger, delight, and despair; Woe to those who in pity receive
To their credulous bosoms the fair!
| Are helps to those who long for Siva's guid
ance here; But be the mind devout our homes will forests
seem.
A hermit's forest cell, and fellowship with
deer, A harmless meal of fruit, stone beds beside
the stream,
Sweeter than honey are the nectar'd strains The goddess Speech sends forth to cheer our
souls; Content with these and charitable doles, We will not purchase wealth with slavish pains.
NOTES ON SOME CAVES IN THE KARJAT TALUKA
OF THE THÂNÂ COLLECTORATE.
BY.W. F. SINCLAIR, Bo. C.S. In the late Dr. Wilson's paper upon the south of the nave, but it cannot be made out Ancient Remains of Western India* he inserts whether there ever were any round behind the a description by his native correspondent dahgoba, which, as well as the pillars, is much Vishņu Sastri of some caves at Mouje Kon. injured. There does not seem ever to have dâne, Taluka Karjat, and adds that "Mr. Law been a stone screen or music-gallery, but part (then Collector of Thâņa) has lately been able of the original wooden screen remains. It is to visit these excavations, and to procure illus- of the same construction as that at Kârli. trative drawings of their front and principal There have been wooden horse-shoe rafters figures. They appear to be more modern than within it, but they are gone. The façade so those of Salsette. The account above given closely resembles that of the chaitya hall at of them by Vishna Sastri has been found to be Bhâ je, near Karli, that the best idea of it can correct." I do not know what has become of be formed from the engraving of that cave given Mr. Law's notes and drawings; but, from a by Mr. Fergusson. Two bold cornices, one on visit recently paid to the caves, I am in a po- each side of the archway, have been supported by sition to say that, so far from being later than flying brackets of the Bhâje pattern, but those those of Salsette, these caves are probably among of the north side are broken. the most ancient known.
At about fifteen feet from the ground, upon a They are situated at the base of the hill- sort of string course, there are small reliefs in fort of Rajma ohi (which forms the northern compartments, four to the north of the archway side of the valley known to travellers on the and three to the south, the fourth here having Great Indian Peninsula Railway as the "Bor perished. Five represent each a man and woman, Ghât Ravine"), about seven miles by road the other two single figures, apparently male. from Karjat railway station. The approach is There is nothing very characteristic about them so easy that I rode a stout hack up to the very except a sort of cowl worn by the men, and a door of the caves, a folly for which I might decent sufficiency of vesture not always observhave paid with the loss of my horse, as the able in Eastern sculpture. North of the archcliff was tenanted by several swarms of rock- way, close to the ground, there has been a group bees.
of sculptures in high relief, of which nothing The following is a detailed description of the remains but part of the head of a single figure, caves, from notes taken on the spot.
twice life-size. The face is almost all gone; but No. 1. A Chaitya hall opening to the north- there remains the head-dress, which was either a west, twenty yards long by eight wide over all. great roll of hair, or a turban in very fine strands : There are remains of seven plain ootagonal a fleur-de-lis aigrette in front rises no higher raking pillars on the north side, and six on the than the crown of the head-dress. I am inclined
• Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. vol. III. pt. II. (Jan. 1860) p. 46.
1
Hist. of Indian and Eastern Architecture, fig. 46, p.
