During the last fifteen years Bombay has undergone a complete
transformation, and the English are now making of it one of the
prettiest cities that it is possible to see. The environs likewise
have been improved, and thanks to the railways and _bungalows_ (inns),
many excursions may now be easily made, and tourists can thus visit
the wonders of India, such as the subterranean temples of Ajunta,
Elephanta, Nassik, etc., without the difficulties of heretofore.
The excavations of Elephanta are very near Bombay, and the trip in the
bay by boat to the island where they are located is a delightful one.
The deplorable state in which these temples now exist, with their
broken columns and statues, detracts much from their interest. The
temples of Ajunta, perhaps the most interesting of all, are easier of
access, and are situated 250 miles from Bombay and far from the
railway station at Pachora, where it is necessary to leave the cars.
Here an ox cart has to be obtained, and thirty miles have to be
traveled over roads that are almost impassable. It takes the oxen
fifteen hours to reach the bungalow of Furdapore, the last village
before the temples, and so it is necessary to purchase provisions. In
these wild and most picturesque places, the Hindoos cannot give you a
dinner, even of the most primitive character. It was formerly thought
that the subterranean temples of India were of an extraordinary
antiquity.
The Hindoos still say that the gods constructed these works, but of
the national history of the country they are entirely ignorant, and
they do not, so to speak, know how to estimate the value of a century.
The researches made by Mr. Jas. Prinsep between 1830 and 1840 have
enlightened the scientific world as to the antiquity of the monuments
of India. He succeeded in deciphering the Buddhist inscriptions that
exist in all the north of India beyond the Indus as far as to the
banks of the Bengal. These discoveries opened the way to the work done
by Mr. Turnour on the Buddhist literature of Ceylon, and it was thus
that was determined the date of the birth of Sakya Muni, the founder
of Buddhism. He was born 625 B.C. and his death occurred eighty years
later, in 543. It is also certain that Buddhism did not become a true
religion until 300 years after these events, under the reign of Aoska.
The first subterranean temples cannot therefore be of a greater
antiquity. Researches that have been made more recently have in all
cases confirmed these different results, and we can now no longer
doubt that these temples have been excavated within a period of
fourteen centuries.
Dasaratha, the grandson of Aoska, first excavated the temples known
under the name of Milkmaid, in Behar (Bengal), 200 B.C., and the
finishing of the last monument of Ellora, dedicated by Indradyumna to
Indra Subha, occurred during the twelfth century of our era.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--FACADE OF THE TEMPLE OF PANDU LENA.]
We shall speak first of the temples of Pandu Lena, situated in the
vicinity of Nassik, near Bombay. These are less frequented by
travelers, and that is why I desired to make a sketch of them (Fig. 1).
The church of Pandu Lena is very ancient. Inscriptions have been found
upon its front, and in the interior on one of the pillars, that teach
us that it was excavated by an inhabitant of Nassik, under the reign
of King Krishna, in honor of King Badrakaraka, the fifth of the
dynasty of Sunga, who mounted the throne 129 B.C.
The front of this church, all carved in the rock, is especially
remarkable by the perfection of the ornaments. In these it is to be
seen that the artist has endeavored to imitate in rock a structure
made of wood. This is the case in nearly all the subterranean temples,
and it is presumable that the architects of the time did their
composing after the reminiscences of the antique wooden monuments that
still existed in India at their epoch, but which for a long time have
been forever destroyed. The large bay placed over the small front door
gives a mysterious light in the nave of the church, and sends the rays
directly upon the main altar or _dagoba_, leaving the lateral columns
and porticoes in a semi-obscurity well calculated to inspire
meditation and prayer.
The temples and monasteries of Ajunta, too, are of the highest
interest. They consist of 27 grottoes, of which four only are churches
or _chaityas_. The 23 other excavations compose the monasteries or
_viharas_. Begun 100 B.C., they have remained since the tenth century
of our era as we now see them. The subterranean monasteries are
majestic in appearance. Sustained by superb columns with curiously
sculptured capitals, they are ornamented with admirable frescoes which
make us live over again the ancient Hindoo life. The paintings are
unfortunately in a sad state, yet for the tourist they are an
inexhaustible source of interesting observations.
The excavations, which have been made one after another in the wall of
volcanic rock of the mountain, form, like the latter, a sort of
semicircle. But the churches and monasteries have fronts whose
richness of ornamentation is unequaled. The profusion of the
sculptures and friezes, ornamented with the most artistic taste,
strikes you with so much the more admiration in that in these places
they offer a perfect and varied _ensemble_ of the true type of the
Buddhist religion during this long period of centuries. The
picturesque landscape that surrounds these astonishing sculptures adds
to the beauty of these various pictures.
The temples of Ellora are no less remarkable, but they do not offer
the same artistic _ensemble_. The excavations may be divided into
three series: ten of them belong to the religion of Buddha, fourteen
to that of Brahma, and six to the Dravidian sect, which resembles that
of Jaius, of which we still have numerous specimens in the Indies.
Excavated in the same amygdaloid rock, the temples and monasteries
differ in aspect from those of Ajunta, on account of the form of the
mountain. Ajunta is a nearly vertical wall. At Ellora, the rock has a
gentle slope, so that, in order to have the desired height for
excavating the immense halls of the _viharas_ or the naves of the
_chaityas_, it became necessary to carve out a sort of forecourt in
front of each excavation.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--PLAN OF THE TEMPLES OF KYLAS.]
Some of the churches thus have their entrance ornamented with
porticoes, and the immense monasteries (which are sometimes three
stories high) with lateral entrances and facades. The mountain has
also been excavated in other places, so as to form a relatively narrow
entrance, which gives access to the internal court of one of these
monasteries. It thus becomes nearly invisible to whoever passes along
the road formed on the sloping side of the mountain. The greatest
curiosity among the monuments of Ellora is the group of temples known
by the name of Kylas (Fig. 2). The monks have excavated the rocky
slope on three faces so as to isolate completely, in the center, an
immense block, out of which they have carved an admirable temple (see
T in the plan, Fig. 2), with its annexed chapels. These temples are
thus roofless and are sculptured externally in the form of pagodas.
Literally covered with sculptures composed with infinite art, they
form a very unique collection. These temples seem to rest upon a
fantastic base in which are carved in alto rilievo all the gods of
Hindoo mythology, along with symbolic monsters and rows of elephants.
These are so many caryatides of strange and mysterious aspect,
certainly designed to strike the imagination of the ancient Indian
population (Fig. 3).
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--SUBTERRANEAN TEMPLE AT ELLORA.]
Two flights of steps at S and S (Fig. 2) near the main entrance of
Kylas lead to the top of this unique base and to the floor of the
temples.
The interior of the central pagoda, ornamented with sixteen
magnificent columns, formerly covered, like the walls, with paintings,
and the central sanctuary that contains the great idol, are composed
with a perfect understanding of architectural proportions.
Exit from this temple is effected through two doors at the sides.
These open upon a platform where there are five pagodas of smaller
size that equal the central temple in the beauty of their sculptures
and the elegance of their proportions.
Around these temples great excavations have been made in the sides of
the mountain. At A (Fig. 2), on a level with the ground, is seen a
great cloister ornamented with a series of bass reliefs representing
the principal gods of the Hindoo paradise. The side walls contain
large, two-storied halls ornamented with superb sculptures of various
divinities. Columns of squat proportions support the ceilings. A small
stairway, X (Fig. 2), leads to one of these halls. Communication was
formerly had with its counterpart by a stone bridge which is now
broken. There still exist two (P) which lead from the floor of the
central temple to the first story of the detached pavilion or
_mantapa_, D, and to that of the entrance pavilion or _gopura_, C. At
G we still see two sorts of obelisks ornamented with arabesques and
designed for holding the fires during religious fetes. At E are seen
two colossal elephants carved out of the rock. These structures, made
upon a general plan of remarkable character, are truly without an
equal in the entire world.
We may thus see how much art feeling the architects of these remote
epochs possessed, and express our wonder at the extreme taste that
presided over all these marvelous subterranean structures.--_A.
Tissandier, in La Nature._
* * * * *
[NATURE.]