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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1878
NOTE ON THE ORISSA HYPETHRAL TEMPLE.
After the notice of the remarkable temple discovered by the late Sir John Campbell in Orissa had appeared in the Antiquary (ante, page 19), I met with the description of a somewhat similar structure in General Cunningham's Archeological Reporte, vol. II. (for 1864-5).
It was found among the ruins of Khajuraho, an ancient site in Bandelkhand, between Chhatrapar and Panna, which in more recent times was the capital of the Chandel Rajputs, who flourished from the 9th to the 14th century.
By the present inhabitants the building is known as the Temple of the Chaonsat Yögini, or " 64 female demons," and consists of a massive oblong enclosure constructed of granite and open above, the length of which is 102) feet, and the breadth 58, feet. The exterior is simply ornamented with three broad flat horizontal mouldings, but round the inside are 64 cells or niches, 22 on each side and 10 at each end (exclusive of the entrance and a larger cell opposite), each cell 36, inches high by 28; broad, intended apparently for the reception of an image which no longer exists.
At what period the Yoginis were worshipped, why their number is fixed at 64, and what place they hold in the Saiva theogony, is not clear. It may even be doubted whether they belong to any of the recent forms of superstition with which we are acquainted. The temple at Khajuraho bearing their name is evidently of greater antiquity than the neighbouring buildings. It is the only one constructed of granite, all the others being built of a light-coloured fine sandstone, quarried hard by, and it is the only one not placed due north and south-all pointing to a different age and a distinct race of worshippers.
On these points, however, we may hope to be further enlightened shortly. A late letter from General Cunningham states he has discovered a third example of the same kind of structure, which he is now engaged in describing, viz. a circular cloister containing the 64 Yoginis, with several other statues, most of them accompanied by inscriptions, which will doubtless indicate their precise character.
WALTER ELLIOT.
forty, ere he had attained the full maturity of his powers, he has left behind him a rich store of early gathered fruit, the earnest of an abundant harvest never to be garnered. Mr. Blochmann's acquirements in Arabic and Persian, and the accuracy and soundness of his knowledge, marked him out for a teacher. In early life his desire to become personally acquainted with the East led him to enlist as a soldier; but arrived in India his scholarship soon became known, and he was appointed to a subordinate position in the college of which he died the chief. In this office he had peculiar opportunities of extending his knowledge, and he was indefatigable in turning them to account. He enjoyed the society of learned Musalmans, and the stores of public and private libraries were at his command. They were well used. Few men had a more intimate acquaintance with Muhammadan life, and none surpassed hin in his knowledge of Arabic and Persian MSS. A living catalogue, it was seldom that an inquiry about books was addressed to him in vain. The pages of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal attest the activity and diversity of his researches. Literature and lexicography, coins and inscriptions, in turn engaged his attention. But two subjects he made peculiarly his own-Persian prosody, the diffculties and mysteries of which he has done much to unravel; and the life and reign of the great emperor Akbar. The translation of the Ain-i-Akbari, the Institutes of Akbar, is Blochmann's magnum opus, and on this his reputation will mainly rest. He has published a large portion of the Persian text, but unhappily only one volume of the translation has appeared. It is greatly to bo hoped that the MS. of the remainder is in a forward state of preparation, for who would venture to take up the pen which his hand dropped ? The translation of a Persian book into English may not seem a great and arduous work to those who have no knowledge of the original text. But this book deals with intricate and technical subjects, and is written in a style which native writers consider as abstruse and difficult. With all his knowledge, and with the great sources of information at his command, there are passages which Mr. Blochmann could not interpret, and he has shown the manliness and honesty of the true scholar in saying 80. In this translation he has inserted a series of memoirs of the great men of the dnys of Akbar,-a peerage, in fact, of the Moghul Empire, comprising more than four hundred names. This was entirely his own compilation, and it supplies a most interesting and instructivo series of pictures of the life and manners of the time.-John Dowson. (The Academy.)
MR. HENRY BLOCHMANN. Oriental literature has sustained an irreparable loss by the death of Mr. H. Blochmann, Principal of the Muhammadan College at Calcutta, and for many years the active Secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Cut off at the early age of
1 Wilson renders Yogini by "a female fiend or sprite murti Kovil in Koimbator. These fomale demons may attendant on and created by Durg: in some places eight have some connection with the Turnian deities described Yoginis are enumerated by name" : Sans. Dict. 8. t. and figured by Pallas in his Sammlungen historicher This supporta Mr. Walhouse's suggestion, at p. 137, regard. Nachrichten über den Mongolischen Folkerschaften über ing the eight stone images facing inwards" at the Tri. ' P. T. Pallas, St. Petersburg, 1776.
