DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0474
428 DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND OF ELEPHANTA.
cumbent mountain, with which they are also of one
piece. At the farther end of this temple are three gigan-
tic figures, the face of one of which is at least five feet in
length, and of a proportionable breadth ; but these repre-
sentations have no reference or connection, either to any
known history, or to the mythology of the Gentoos.
They had continued in a tolerable state of preservation,
considering the remoteness of their antiquity, till the ar-
rival of the Portuguese, who made themselves masters of
the place, and in the blind fury of their bigotry, not suf-
fering any idols but their own, they must, considering
the hardness of the stone, have been at considerable
pains to maim and deface them, in the state they now re-
main. It is said that they even brought field-pieces to the
demolition of images, which so greatly deserved to be
spared for their unequalled curiosity.
About two thirds of the way up this temple on each side,
and fronting each other, are two doors or outlets into
smaller grots or excavations, which open freely to the air.
About the door-way on the right hand are also several
mutilated images, single and in groupes. In one of
the last is a kind of resemblance to the story of Solomon
directing the child to be divided. A figure is seen stand-
ins; with a drawn sword, holding in one hand an infant
with the head downwards, and apparently in the act of
cleaving it through the middle. The outlet of the grot
on the left hand conducts into an area about twenty feet
in length, and twelve in breadth; at the upper end of
which, as you turn to the right, a colonnade covered at
the top, ten or twelve feet deep, and in length answering
to the breadth of the area, presents itself. This joins to
an apartment of the most regular architecture, which is
an oblong square, with a door in perfect symmetry; and
the whole executed in a very different taste and manner,
from any of theoldest or best Gentoo structures. Some
paintings
cumbent mountain, with which they are also of one
piece. At the farther end of this temple are three gigan-
tic figures, the face of one of which is at least five feet in
length, and of a proportionable breadth ; but these repre-
sentations have no reference or connection, either to any
known history, or to the mythology of the Gentoos.
They had continued in a tolerable state of preservation,
considering the remoteness of their antiquity, till the ar-
rival of the Portuguese, who made themselves masters of
the place, and in the blind fury of their bigotry, not suf-
fering any idols but their own, they must, considering
the hardness of the stone, have been at considerable
pains to maim and deface them, in the state they now re-
main. It is said that they even brought field-pieces to the
demolition of images, which so greatly deserved to be
spared for their unequalled curiosity.
About two thirds of the way up this temple on each side,
and fronting each other, are two doors or outlets into
smaller grots or excavations, which open freely to the air.
About the door-way on the right hand are also several
mutilated images, single and in groupes. In one of
the last is a kind of resemblance to the story of Solomon
directing the child to be divided. A figure is seen stand-
ins; with a drawn sword, holding in one hand an infant
with the head downwards, and apparently in the act of
cleaving it through the middle. The outlet of the grot
on the left hand conducts into an area about twenty feet
in length, and twelve in breadth; at the upper end of
which, as you turn to the right, a colonnade covered at
the top, ten or twelve feet deep, and in length answering
to the breadth of the area, presents itself. This joins to
an apartment of the most regular architecture, which is
an oblong square, with a door in perfect symmetry; and
the whole executed in a very different taste and manner,
from any of theoldest or best Gentoo structures. Some
paintings