Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 7.djvu/153

BRAHMINS OF OOMKAR, MUNDUATA. the workshop. Most of them had, however, been fixed in their places, and the superstructure was probably complete. If so, this temple must have been inferior as a work of art to no structural Hindoo temple of that period, of which illustrations or descriptions have been given to the public; besides which, it appears to have been on a plan unusual in any known school of Hindoo architecture—at least Fergusson gives no notice of four open pillared porches in a Hindoo temple." At the north bank of the so-called Kavire, opposite Mundhata, is a series of deserted temples, evidently of considerable antiquity. Mundhata itself seems to have been a perfect stronghold of Sivaism, no temple having ever been erected, save to the destroyer or his associate deities.

There are many Jain temples also, which appear to be ruins of very fine edifices, covered with carvings. No doubt many photographs have been taken and sketches made of these ancient remains, and they appear to be as grand as their situation is in the highest degree picturesque; and we consider it behoves Government, in its present archæological survey, to devote a book to this celebrated and interesting spot. To the tourist or sketcher the place is readily accessible. It is not far from the foot of Asirgurh, a station of the Bombay army, and a good bridle road from the travellers' bungalow at Barhai leads directly to it, a distance of seven miles. The Mundhata Brahmins fully rely in the accomplishment of a prophecy contained in the Bhavishy Purana, and copied of course into the local gospel, that after 5,000 years of the Kaiiyugh, the sanctity of the Ganges river will expire, and the Narbada will be left without a rival. There are now (1870) only thirty-one years left of this period, but it remains to be seen whether the Gangetic Brahmins will not discover some means of avoiding such a disastrous extinction of the profitable mahatmya of their river.