BAMIYAN, or BAMIAN, a city placed in the centre of Paripamisus, a branch of Mount Caucasus, in that part of independent Tartary called Great Bu charia. In Sanscrit itis called Vihni-nagari,Vami-grirm, and in a derivative form Vamiyan, " the most beauti ful and excellent city." It is a place of great antiquity, and at a very, early period was regarded as the me tropolis of the sect of BUDDHA. It was therefore emphatically styled Buddha-Bamiyan; but this vene rable title has been perverted by the malicious Musul mans into But-Bei/nit/an, or Rimian, of the evil spirit." This celebrated city, the Thebes of the east, is re presented in the books of the Bauddhits, as the source of purity and holiness. They pretend that it was built by the patriarch Shem, from whom it is some times called Sham-Bamiyan. This patriarch they suppose to have been an incarnation of JINA or Visit NU ; an opinion which likewise prevails among the Bramins.
Bamiyan is situated between Bahlac and Cabul, from the latter of which it is distant eight manzils or day's journey. Like Thebes in Egypt, it is entirely cut out of an insulated mountain ; and the surround ing valley is called, in the language of the country, the Tagavi, or district of Bamiyan. About two miles south from this place are the ruins of an ancient city called Guighuleh, which, at a remote period, was de solated by the furious zeal of the Musulmans. The ruins of some buildings of masonry are still seen round a small conical hill in the neighbourhood, whose sum mit is crowned with the ruined palace of its ancient kings. Through the ruins of Gulgliuleb, and the district of Bamiyan, flows a pleasant though scanty stream, which rises in the adjacent hills, and falls into a lake, from which issue four rivers, the Hirmend, the Lanai Sindh, the rivers of Bahlac, and of Conduz.
The city of Bamiyan consists of a great number of apartments and recesses cut out of the rock ; and from the Ayeen Akberry, as well as from the concur ring reports of travellers, we learn, that there are about 12,000 of these recesses in the Tagavi of Bamiyaii. Some of these appear, from their extraordinary di mensions, to have been designed for temples. None of them have pillars, but sonic are adorned with niches and carved work ; and fragments still remain of figures in relievo, which have been miserably muti lated and defaced by the Musulmans. The walls, too, have been decorated with paintings, the colour of which gleam, here and there, through the smoke with which they have been in general obscured by the fires of the inhabitants. These recesses are called
by the natives Samach'h, and by the Persians Samaj. They are very frequent in the country of the Afgh ans; some of them extremely rude, but others highly finished and beautifully decorated. The most per fect are at Mohi, on the road between Bamiyan and Bahlac, in which the paintings retain their original freshness, as their situation amongst precipices has prevented the Musulmans from making them their habitations.
But no curiosities in Bamiyan or its vicinity are more calculated to attract attention, than two colos sal statues, seen at a great distance, which are at least fifty cubits high. They adhere to the moun tain out of which they are cut ; and stand erect in a sort of niches, the depth of which is equal to the thickness of the statue. At a small distance from these stands another statue of less colossal size, being only about fifteen cubits high. Concerning the names or sex of these statues, oriental writers are not agreed. The few Hindus resident in these countries say, that they represent Blum and his consort : while the followers of Buddha maintain, that they are the statues of SHAIIAMA, and his disciple SAMALA. The Musulmans, on their part, contend, that they are the effigies of Key-Umursh and his consort, that is to say, Adam and Eve ; and that the third represents Selish or Seth, their son, whose tomb, or at least the place where it stood, is shewn near Bahlac. As the Musulrnan troops never pass that way without firing a few shots of cannon at them, one of the legs of the male figure is much broken. It is said that Aureng zebe, passing that way in his expedition to Balliac, in the year 16-16, ordered a few shots to be fired as usual. One of them took effect, and almost broke the leg of the statue, which bled profusely. Some frightful dreams conspired with this prodigy, to make him desist from the sacrilegious attack, and the clot ted blood, we are told, adheres to the wound to this day. This miracle is equally credited by Hindus and Musulmans • the former ascribing it to the interposi tion of the Being, and the latter imputing it to witchcraft. Between the legs of the largest figure there is a door leading into a most spacious temple, at the entrance of which are stationed a few ' wretched Banians, who sell provisions to travellers.