Sir Charles, however, discovered, that the excavations are not all of equal antiquity. having traced the more northerly ones to be the worts of the Sewras or Juttees, who are esteemed schismatics by the Brahmins, and a sect of comparatively modern origin ; but this discovery does not ascertain or affect the date or origin of the other excavations, which is lost in fable. No person, in our opinion, who has surveyed these stupendous works, can imagine them the result of individual zeal. The execution of any of them must be considered a prodigious effort of enthusiasm in one person, but when we take them collectively, and view the sides of moun tains shaped by the chissel into temples, caverns, and areas of unparalleled size, all loaded with mythological embellishment of the most elaborate workmanship, we can only ascribe them to the zeal of ages, nourished by the wealth and munificence of succeeding princes.
The Koond, or cistern, is extant just %iithout the town of Ellora. The holiness of its water still renders it a place of resort. A Tecrut, or pilgrimage, is per formed to it, under the appellation of Sewalla Tcerut, or Koond.
The mythological symbols are considered by Sir C. Malet to be purely Hindoo, without any admixture of Egyptian or Ethiopian origin.
But if Sir William Jones's opinion be well grounded, in which we entirely concur, that a connection subsist ed between the idolatrous nations of Egypt, India, Greece, and Italy, long before they emigrated to their several settlements, and consequently before the birth of Moses, we may easily supp6se them to have borrow ed their symbols of worship reciprocally from each other. Thus the remarkable features of resemblance
so ingeniously traced by Sir William between the dei ties of Greece and India will be accounted for.
In executing these works, the chissel appears to have been the only instrument used, as traces of it arc visible all over the granite.
They arc dedicated chiefly to Mandewas, the presi ding deity, who appears under a two-fold attriuute in the temples of India. He is designated the god of de struction, and is conspicuous as the deity who presides over generation, represented riding on a white bull. His celestial scat is Mount Cailasu, every splinter of whose rock is an inestimable gem. On earth, he haunts the snowy mountains of Himalaya, to the east of the Brahmaputra river, called Chandrasicharu, or thc Moun tain of the Moon.
Whoever visits the caves of Ellora, while he admires such amazing efforts of industry, must deplore its abuse, in executing works superior in point of labour and skill to the pyramids, and which, like them, can only serve to be perpetual monuments of human weak ness and folly. See Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. (w. T.)