The excavations of the island of Salsette, also contiguous to Bombay,
are hewn in the central mountains. The great temple is excavated at some
distance from the summit of a steep mountain, in a commanding situation.
This stupendous work is upward of ninety feet long, thirty-eight wide,
and of a proportionate hight, hewn out of the solid rock, and forming an
oblong square, with a fluted concave roof. The area is divided into
three aisles by regular colonnades, similar to the ancient basilic, a
pile of building twice as long as it was wide, and one of the
extremities of which terminated in a hemicycle, two rows of columns
forming a spacious area in the center, and leaving a narrow walk between
the columns and the wall. In these _basilici_ the Roman emperors of the
east frequently administered justice. This magnificent excavation at
Salsette appears to be on the same plan, although, doubtless, intended
for a place of worship. Toward the termination of the temple, fronting
the entrance, is a circular pile of solid rock, nineteen feet high, and
forty-eight in circumference, most probably a representation of the
_lingam_, the symbol already alluded to in the description of the
temples of Elephanta. In this temple there are not any images, nor any
kind of sculpture, except on the capitals of the pillars, which are in
general finished in a very masterly style, and are little impaired by
time. Several have been left in an unfinished state; and on the summit
of others is something like a bell, between elephants, horses, lions,
and animals of different kinds.
The lofty pillars and concave roof of the principal temple at Salsette
present a much grander appearance than the largest excavation at the
Elephanta, although that is much richer in statues and bass-reliefs. The
portico at Salsette, of the same hight and breadth as the temple, is
richly decorated: on each side a large niche contains a colossal statue,
well executed; and facing the entrance are small single figures, with
groups in various attitudes, all of them in good preservation. The outer
front of the portico, and the area before it, corresponding in grandeur
with the interior, are now injured by time, and the moldering sculpture
intermingled with a variety of rock-plants. On the square pillars at the
entrance are long inscriptions, the characters of which are obsolete,
and which modern ingenuity has not as yet succeeded in deciphering.
Further up the mountain, a flight of steps, hewn in the rock, and
continued to the summit, leads, by various intricate paths, to smaller
excavations, most of which consist of two rooms, a portico and benches,
cut in the rock. To each is annexed a cistern of about three cubic feet,
also hewn in the rock, for the preservation of rain-water. Some of these
excavations are larger and better finished than others; and a few,
although inferior in size and decoration, in their general effect
resemble the principal temple.
The whole appearance of this excavated mountain indicates it to have had
a city hewn in its rocky sides, capable of containing many thousand
inhabitants. The largest temple was, doubtless, their principal place of
worship; and the smaller, on the same plan, inferior ones. The rest were
appropriated as dwellings for the inhabitants, differing in size and
accommodation according to their respective ranks in society; or, as it
is still more probable, these habitations were the abode of religious
Bramins, and of their pupils, when India was the nursery of art and
science, and the nations of Europe were involved in ignorance and
barbarism.