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INTRODUCTION.

HERE are few among the monuments of antiquity regarding whose history or uses so much uncertainty prevailed, till a very recent period, as those known as the rock-cut temples of India. When Europeans first became acquainted with them, they were so struck by their monolithic grandeur, and the apparent eternity of duration that resulted from it, that they jumped at once to the conclusion that they must be among the most ancient monuments of the world, rivalling in this respect, as was then supposed, even those of Egypt. There was also a mystery hanging over their deserted condition, added to the fact that almost all of them were situated in remote and lonely valleys, or cut into the bare mountain-side; which, with other circumstances, conspired to render them the most attractive, as they certainly were the grandest, relics of the arts of the ancient Hindoo races.

In consequence of all this, the wildest theories were adopted with regard to their antiquity and the purposes for which they were originally intended. These might have continued in vogue till the present day had not James Prinsep, between the years 1830 and 1840, opened a new era in our knowledge of Indian antiquities, and introduced new modes of investigation, which soon led to most important results.

Among the first fruits of his labours was the decipherment of the Great Buddhist inscriptions, which exist all over Northern India, from beyond the Indus at Kapur di Giri to the shores of the Bay of Bengal at Cuttack. xi