ELEPHANTA, a small, but very remarkable
island about five miles from the castle of Bombay in
the East Indies. Of this we have the following de-
scription in Mr Grofe's Voyage to the East Indies.
"It can at most be but about three miles in compass,
and consists of almost all hill: at the foot of which, as
you land, you see, just above the shore, on your right,
an elephant, coarsely cut out in stone, of the natural
bigness, and at some little distance not impossible to be
taken for a real elephant, from the stone being natu-
rally of the colour of that beast. It stands on a plat-
form of stones of the same colour. On the back of
this elephant was placed, standing, another young one,
appearing to have been all of the same stone, but has
been long broken down. Of the meaning, or history,
of this image, there is no tradition old enough to give
any account. Returning then to the foot of the hill,
you ascend an easy flant, which about half way up the
hill brings you to the opening or portal of a large ca-
vern hewn out of a solid rock, into a magnificent
temple: for such surely it may be termed, considering
the immense workmanship of such an excavation; and
seems to me a far more bold attempt than that of the
pyramids of Egypt. There is a fair entrance into this
subterranean temple, which is an oblong square, in
length about 80 or 90 feet, by 40 broad. The roof
is nothing but the rock cut flat at top, and in which
I could not discern any thing that did not show it to
be all of one piece. It is about 10 feet high, and sup-
ported towards the middle, at equidistance from the
fides and from one another, with two regular rows of Elephants
pillars of a singular order. They are very massive,
short in proportion to their thickness, and their capi-
tal bears some resemblance to a round cushion pressed
by the superincumbent mountain, with which they are
also of one piece. At the further end of this temple
are three gigantic figures; the face of one of them is
at least five feet in length, and of a proportionable
breadth. But these representations have no reference
or connection, either to any known history or the
mythology of the Gentoos. They had continued in
a tolerable state of preservation and wholeness, con-
sidering the remoteness of their antiquity, until the ar-
rival of the Portuguese, who made themselves masters
of the place; and in the blind fury of their bigotry,
not suffering any idols but their own, they must have
even been at some pains to maim and deface them, as
they now remain, considering the hardness of the stone.
It is said they even brought field-pieces to the demoli-
tion of images, which so greatly deserved to be spared
for the unequalled curiosity of them. Of this Queen
Catherine of Portugal was, it seems, so sensible, that
she could not conceive that any traveller would return
from that side of India without visiting the wonders
of this cavern; of which too the sight appeared to me
to exceed all the descriptions I had heard of them.
About two-thirds of the way up this temple, on each
side, and fronting each other, are two doors or out-
lets into smaller grots or excavations, and freely open
to the air. Near and about the door-way, on the
right-hand, are several mutilated images, single and in
groupes. In one of the last, I remarked a kind of re-
semblance to the story of Solomon dividing the child,
there standing a figure with a drawn sword, holding in
one hand an infant with the head downwards, which
it appears in act to cleave through the middle. The
outlet of the other on the left hand is into an area of
about 20 feet in length and 12 in breadth; at the
upper end of which, as you turn to the right, presents
itself a colonnade covered at top, of 10 or 12 feet deep,
and in length answering to the breadth of the area:
this joins to an apartment of the most regular archi-
tecture, an oblong square, with a door in perfect sym-
metry; and the whole executed in quite a contrary
style and manner from any of the oldest or best Gen-
too buildings any where extant. I took particular no-
tice of some paintings round the cornices, not for any
thing curious in the design, but for the beauty and
freshness of the colouring, which must have lasted some
thousands of years, on supposing it, as there is all reason
to suppose it, contemporary with the building itself.
The floor of the apartment is generally full of water,
its pavement or ground-work not permitting it to be
drawn off or to be soaked up. For it is to be obser-
ved, that even the cavern itself is not visitable after the
rains until the ground of it has had time to dry into
a competent hardness."