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DECEMBER, 1877.]
ROCK-CUT TEMPLES AT BÅDÅMI.
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it is still a temple of considerable dimensions, the verandah measuring nearly seventy feet in length, and the cave inside sixty-five feet, with a total depth from the front of the verandah pillars to the back wall of forty-eight feet, -the shrine going into the rock about twelve foet further, while the general height thronghout verandah and hall is fifteen feet. It is considerably higher up in the rock than the other Vaishnava cave, and is entered by an ascending stair through a door in the west end of a square court in front of it, the north side of this court being formed by a large mass of rock left un- excavated there; the east and west ends are formed by old walls of masonry, that on the east entirely precluding all access from this side to the Jaina cave just beyond it, so that the Jainas must have formed a path for themselves from the shore of the taldo below up to their rock-cut shrine.
The cave faces the north, and the level of the floor of it is eight or nine feet above that of the court outside. A narrow platform is built up the whole length of the front, the cave being entered by a flight of steps in the centre of it, but which have now been torn down,-probably because the long treads of the steps were found useful for some purpose or other in the village. The front of the platform has a moulded cornice, and under it & dado of blocks, many of them seven feet in length divided into more than thirty compartments throughout the length of it, and in each compartment two of those little fat dwarfs or ganas that are sach favourites with the early Hindu sculptors for the decoration of basements, and which they were fond of re- presenting in every possible attitude and in every form of grimace, even with the heads of animals. All sects-Bråhmans, Buddhists, and Jains-seem to have employed such figures in similar positions: in fact they appear to have been conventionalities dependent more upon the taste and imagination of the craftsmen than upon the mythology of the sect for which any particular temple was constructed.
The verandah is supported in front by six pillars each two and a half feet square, and two pilasters, with deep bases and capitals, the latter almost hidden by the three brackets attached to the lower part of the capitals on the backs and sides of each, and by the eave or drip which comes down in front. The brackets on each
side the pillars in every case but one represent & pair of human or mythological figures--male and female standing in various attitudes under foliage, in most cases attended by a small dwarf figure; the only exception to the pair of figures is one in which Ardhanári is represented, fourarmed and with two dwarf attendants. The brackets on the backs or inner sides of the pillars are all tall single female figures, each with one or two small attendants. These brackets extend from near the bottom of the capitals to the roof. The necks of the pillars below the capitals are carved with broad bands of elaborate beaded festoon work, and on each of the four sides of the lower portions of the shafts are medallions carved with groups of figures within a border.
The verandah is nine foet wide, and is separ. ated from the hall by four free-standing columns and two demi-columns in antis, all with high bases, the two central pillars being of that purely Hindu type, so often met with, consisting of a square shaft with thin and slightly narrower slabs applied to each face : in this case two of these slabs are superimposed on each side, forming five exterior angles at each of the four corners. The two pillars outside these are octagong with capitals of the Elephanta type. There are thus left for sculptures the two ends of the verandah, and the spaces on the back between the attached pillars and the ends.
In the east end of the verandah is a large figure of Vishnu seated (see Fig. 1) on the body of the great snake Sesha or Ananta, which is thrice coiled round below him, while its hoods-five in this instance-are spread out over and round his big muguta or crown as if to protect it. He is represented as four-armed (Chaturbhuj) - the front left hand resting on the calf of his leg, and the other holding up the bankha or conch-shell, one of his most characteristic emblems,-being the shell that was among the fourteert precious thinge produced from the churning of the ocean which Vishna conducted in his second or Karma avatara, and which was said to confer victory on whoever should sound it. In the Vishme Puráňa and Harivasia, however, it is said that when Krishna was getting up his military acquirements, his ácharya or tutor, Sandipani Kasy a complained that he had lost his only son in the sea at Prabhisa (SomanAtha). Krishna
