Page:The Rock-cut Temples of India.djvu/299



O sooner had the Brahmans made the discovery that the Rock afforded them as good an opportunity of displaying their architectural magnificence as it did to their hated rivals, than they proceeded to excavate the Kylas—the next in situation—and which is, certainly, the most remarkable, though it may not be the most beautiful, of the rock-cut structures of India.

Strange to say it is not, however, in any style of architecture found in any other instance north of the Kistnah, but is a purely southern temple, such as are found at Tanjore or Tritchinopoly—a circumstance that aids in fixing a date to it, for we know that the southern Cholas, in the ninth and tenth centuries, did extend their dominions to this quarter, and it is to them, probably, that we owe this excavation. It certainly is not the work of any other race we know of who occupied this country either before or since. 71