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Rh and a quarter along the front of the cliff, Buddhists, Jains, and Brahmans having in turn cut their shrines in the everlasting hills, accomplishing this stupendous work in the sixth, eighth, and later centuries. For more than two hours we rambled along the face of the cliffs, in and out, up and down the different stages and galleries of the thirty-four rock-cut shrines; and, fatigued as we were, hastened with breathless interest from one to another of the many surprises.

All that we had seen of rock-sculptures and monolith temples elsewhere paled before this great display, and all the monuments of patient toil and infinite labor in the world seemed nothing compared to the Kailas at Ellora. First, the great sunken court, measuring one hundred and fifty-four by two hundred and seventy-six feet, was hewn out of the solid trap-rock of the hillside, leaving the rock mass of the temple wholly detached in a cloistered court like a colossal boulder, save as a rock bridge once connected the upper story of the temple with the upper row of galleried chambers surrounding three sides of the court. One enters from the plain by an ornamental gateway in the cliff front, a rock screen closing the front of the court. Colossal elephants and lamp-posts stand on either side of the open mandapam, or pavilion, containing the sacred bull; and beyond rises the monolithic Dravidian temple to Shiva, ninety feet in height, hollowed into vestibule, chamber, and image-cells, all lavishly carved. Time and earthquakes have weathered and broken away bits of the great monument, and Mos-