Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 1.pdf/61

 THE HALABīd TEMPLE.

FEB. 2, 1872.]

“The Halabid temple...is regular, but with a studied variety of outline in plan, and even greater variety in detail. All the pillars of the Parthenon are identical, while no two facets of the Indian

temple are the same; every convolution of every scroll is different. No two canopies in the whole building are alike, and every part exhibits a joy ous exuberance of fancy scorning every mecha nical restraint.

All that is wild in human faith

43

º

dile, and the dove is represented by the sacred goose or swan.

This similarity in order cannot

be considered accidental, and must, as its proto type at Elora, signify something. A study of the frieze, where scenes from the Rámáyana and Mahābhārata are delineated, well repays any trouble. A clearer and better know

ledge of these two great Hindu epic poems is obtained by examining these carvings than hours of tedious weary reading would ever give. Although some of the carvings are to a consider

or warm in human feeling is found pourtray ed on these walls; but of pure intellect there is little—less than there is of human feeling

able extent mutilated, yet the attitude of the

in the Parthenon.”

actors and the position of the scene, with refer

Strange to say, both here and at Bailur, this frieze of horsemen appears to have been the more especial object of aversion to the conqueror of the capital. It is with difficulty, and only where concealment has been afforded by some figure in front, that one can find a complete

ence to those on its right and left, enable us to

state with certainty what the sculptor meant to represent. Here we see that, as to-day, so eight hundred years ago, the Hindu mother carried her child on the hip.

Large earrings were the

fashion among the women of those days, for

All have been more

the lobe of the ear is distended to an enormous

or less mutilated. It appears to have been the custom then, not only among the horsemen but generally, for all men, to wear their hair—like the Sinhalese of the present day—tied up in a knot behind; long boots were always worn by the riders, whose seat is more European than native ;

extent. Like the natives of the Western Ghâts of the present day, no covering then concealed a woman’s breast. As now, so then, children

figure of man and horse.

in some instances their horses were protected

by network, similar in every outward respect to that of the old Norman knight. The cavalry were armed generally with a short Roman-like sword; and from this it is conjectured they usually dismounted to fight; some however are delineat

ran about

perfectly naked.

Looking-glasses

were not unknown ; for we find a fair one ad miring herself in a circular glass.

Both two and four wheeled chariots appear to have been in use.

As is natural, kings affected

the four-wheeled one more than the two.

The

wheels were much lower than the body, which

The saddle-cloth was indispens

was a sort of raised platform. Each wheel had an independent axle. Improvements in carriage building had, however, taken place, for in one

able, and stirrups were not unknown. Fah Hian,” (who, as Col. Sykes conjectures,) visited Elora about A. D. 400, found there “a Sangharāma of the former Buddha Káshyapa. It is constructed out of a great mountain of rock hewn to the proper shape. This building has altogether five stories. The lowest is shaped into the form of an elephant, and has five hun

spokes. The horses were attached, as bullocks are now, to the pole on which the driver stood. Shurapadma, scorning the more common-place horse, has tamed the lion, which is repre sented as yoked to his war chariot. In all these eight hundred years, no change has been made in the pounding of rice—the same sort of mortar

dred stone cells in it.

and pestle is now used.

ed with lances.

The second is in the form

of a lion, and has four hundred chambers.

The

third is shaped like a horse, and has three hun dred chambers.

The fourth is in the form of an

ox, and has two hundred chambers.

The fifth

instance the solid circular disc is replaced by

In the upper and larger frieze, where every Hindu god finds a place, and which consists in all of some 300 figures, is to be seen one which— from its peculiar Assyrian-like look—cannot fail

story is in the shape of a dove and has one hun

to attract attention.

dred chambers in it.”—Now the order of friezes

a disc, in his left a wand.

at Halabid, with an interpolation of scenes from the Rámáyana and Mahābhārata, is the same,

hands are adorned with rings.

except that in lieu of the ox we have the croco
 * Beal's Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist

Pilgrims, p. 139. Compare Julien's Voyages de Hiouen Thaang tom II. p. 101, and Cunningham's Anc. Geog. of

In his right hand he holds

The fingers of both His dress, a

simple long robe descending below the knee, is thrown back showing a Brahmanical cord. What India, pp. 521-525. It is not at all probable that the Po-lo yu of Fäh Hian was Elora, but some place considerably to the S. E. of it.—Ed.