At Vellore, Ellore, or Ellora, (Plates 1. and 11.) the sculp tures, &c. are still more extraordinary ; and all are dedicated to the Lingam or Mandew. The height of the grand pyramid is here 90 feet ; the smaller ones 50 feet ; the obelisk 3S feet. The elephants on each side of the court are larger than life ; and there is an apartment for the bull Nundee. See Sir C. W. Mallet's paper. Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. p. 383.
Sir W. Jones (As. Res_ vol. i. p. 253) is of opinion, that the Eswara and Isi of the Ilindoos are the Osiris and Isis of l'42,-y pt. lie says, that the word Alisr, the native appellation of Egypt, is familiar in India ; that Tirhoot was the country, asserted by a learned brahmin to be that in which an_Egyp tian colony of priests have come. from the Nile to the. Ganges and Yanima (Janina). And again, in his third annual dis course, the remains of architecture and sculpture in India, prove an early connection between this country and Africa ; the pyramids of Egypt, the eolos-al statues of the Sphinx, mid the Ilerinis Canis, which last bears a great resemblance to the Varahavatu, or the incarnation of Vishnu, indicate the style and mythology of the same indefatigable workmen, who firmed the vast excavations of Canarah, the various temples and images of Buddha, and the idols which are continually dug up at Gaya.
Keinpfer asserts, that the great Indian saint, Buddha. was a priest of Memphis, and having fled to India, introduced the war ship of Apis.—Kempler's Hist. Japan. vol. i. p. 38, ed. 1738.
Athanasius Kircher is of opinion, that after Cambyses had murdered Apis, the most revered of the Egyptian deities, he committed wanton cruelties on the priests, and destroyed their magnificent temples, as related by Herodotus, and that the priests flying into the neighbouring countries of Asia, there propagated the superstitions of Egypt.
The lotus was anciently in Egypt, and is still in India, held sacred. Ilerodotus calls it the lily of the Nile. The Egyp tian priests had a sacred language ; so have the b•aInnins. The Egyptians, according to Diodorus Siculus, were divided into five tribes, of which the first was sacerdotal ; the Indians are separated into four tribes, besides an inferior one, named Buzzer Stinker.
Father Loubere, who went ambassador from the king of France to the king of Siam. in 1687, thinks the superstition of Boodh no other than theSommonacodoin, or stone deity of the Siamese, originally from Egypt. Ile says, that their astronomers have lied the death of Sommonacodoin to the 39.2ar B.C. 545, and that it was then their first grand astrono mical epoeh.). commenced. Now, according to Usher, Cam by, sus invaded Egypt in 525 B.C. Loubere adds, that the Siamese priests live in convents, which consist of many cells ranged within a large enclosure; that in the middle of the enclosure stunts the temple ; that pyramids stand near to, and quite round the temple, all within four walls.—See Lou. here's Hi t. ef Siam, in Harris's Coll. of Voy. vul. ii. p. 482. Sir W. Jones thinks that the great statue of Narrayen, or the Spirit of God, who at the beginning floated on the waters, as that statue is now to be seen in the great reservoir of Catmander, the capital of Nepaul, is the same as the Cueph of Egypt, under a different appellation ; both statues are made of blue marble.—See Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. •61.
r. Call has published a drawing of the signs of the zodiac, which he finind in the ceiling of a choultry at Verdapettah, in the Medurah country, viz., Brahma, painted in pagodas, in the act of creation, floating over the watery abyss, reclin ing upon the expanded leaf of lotus ; and Osiris is found in the same attitude, recumbent on the same plant, in the Egyp tian inonuments.--laurice, vol. ii. p. 394.
In the Hindoustan edifices, although many parts of the general arrangement and principal features resemble those of Egypt, yet simplicity has been more departed from, and eir cunt'. outlines similar to thoseof pagodas have been introduced. The must splendid of the Indian edifices being wholly formed by excavation,may most properly be denominated sculptures; hut even tbr this mode, abundance of originals exist iu Egypt. The numerous sculptured tombs adjacent to the principal cities in the Thebald, arc perfect examples, as far as regards excavations within the natural rock ; and the gigantic colossi. statues are equally su as to isolated forms.