PLACES OF INTEREST

KANHERI CAVES.

The Kanheri Caves, [The following is a list of modern notices and accounts of the Kanheri caves: Garcia d'Orta (1534), Colloquios, 2nd Ed. (1872) 211-212; Dom Joao de Castro (1539), Primeiro Roteiro da Costa da India, 75-81; Linschoten (1579), Discourse of Voyages (London, 1598), boke I. cap. xliv. 80; Diogo de Couto (1603), Da Asia Decada VII. liv iii. cap. 10 (Ed. Lisboa); also translated in Journal of the Bombay Branch Royal Asiatic Society, I. 34-40; Sir T. Herbert (1626) in Harris, I. 410; Fryer (1675), New Account of East India and Persia, 72-73; Gemelli Careri (1695) in Churchill, IV. 194-196; Capt. A. Hamilton (1720), New Account of the East Indies, 1. 181; Anquetil du Perron (1760), Zend Avesta, Discours Preliminaire, cccxciv.-ccccxiii.; Forbes (1774), Oriental Memoirs, I. 424-428, III. 450-451; Lethieullier(1780),MacneiI (1783), and Hunter (1784) in Archaeologia, VII. 299-302, 333-336, and VIII. 251-263; Valentia (1803), Travels, II. 196-198; Salt (1806) in Transactions Bombay Literary Society, I. 46-52; Moor (1810) Hindu Pantheon, 243; Erskine (1821) in Transactions Bom. Lit. Soc. (Reprint), III. 553; Hamilton's Description of Hindustan, II. 173; Heber's Narrative, II. 189-191; Trans. Bom. Geog. Soc. VII. 147; Wilson in Journal B. B. R. A. S. III. pt. II. 39-41; Stevenson in Journal B. B. R. A. S. IV. 131-134, V. 1-34; West in Journal B. B. R. A. S. VI. 1.14, 116-120, 157-160; Bhau Daji in Journal B. B. R. A. S. VIII. 230; Bird's Historical Researches, 10-11; Journal A. S. Beng. X. 94; Journal R. A. S. VIII. 63-69; Fergusson's Architecture, 129-130; and Fergusson and Burgess' Cave Temples, 348-360.] in north latitude 19° 13' and east longitude 72° 59', lie in a wild picturesque valley in the heart of the island of Salsette, about five miles west of Thana and twenty north of Bombay.

The caves, which are more than 100 in number, are easily reached from the Bhandup station of the Peninsula railway or the Borivli station of the Baroda railway. From Bhandup, fifteen miles north-east of Bombay, the Kanheri road runs north-west for about a mile, across rice fields and grass uplands, till, at the foot of the Salsette hills, it joins the old Bombay-Thana road. It then climbs a pass in the hill, and winds about a mile across the rugged upland of Vehar, the gathering ground of the Vehar lake, which, starting on the left, stretches about five miles to the south-west, its surface broken by wooded islets.

Aspect.

Beyond the Vehar gathering ground, the path passes, for about a mile, through a thick belt of forest, over the slightly raised watershed that separates the Tulsi and the Vehar valleys. Near Tulsi the road swerves to the left, keeping to the south-west of Tulsi lake, a beautiful sheet of water surrounded by wild forest-clad hills. For the two remaining miles, from Tulsi to Kanheri, the road is not fit for carts. The first mile lies along the Vehar-Borivli road, with rough rises and falls, down the wooded Tulsi or Tasu valley, surrounded by high forest-clad hills, through glades of withered grass, thick copsewood, and bright green clumps of bamboos. The last mile is along a footpath that strikes from the Borivli road north to Kanheri.

From Borivli station, on the Baroda railway twenty-two miles north of Bombay, the way to Kanheri lies, for about half a mile, south along the Bombay road. Then, crossing the railway and passing south-east through about a mile of rice-land, it enters a great belt of brab-palms with patches of brushwood and grass land. After about a mile the valley of the Tasu narrows, and the brab grove and grass give place to forest. Carts pass through this forest for about a mile and a half, when, not far from where the Bhandup track leaves the Borivli road, a footpath strikes north about a mile to Kanheri.

In the bed of the Tasu or Tulsi, near where the Kanheri footpath leaves the Borivli road, is a small rock-cut cave whose mouth is under water except in the hot weather. The first signs of caves are to the north-east, in the high cliff of Kaman, the main range that runs north-west from Tulsi. Further north the paths from Borivli and Bhandup join, and pass among thick trees losing sight of the Kaman range. Then suddenly on the right, from thickly wooded slopes, rises a rugged cliff, the end of the Kanheri spur, that runs about north-east and south-west, nearly at right angles to the Kaman range and several hundred feet below it. A bare black scarp that runs along the west face of the Kanheri spur is greatly worn by the storms of the south-west monsoon. There remains a black brow, as if roughly cut in a series of arches, overhanging a hollow gallery (West's 38-41) of light brown rock, the burying-ground of the old Kanheri monks. Above the overhanging crest, the rounded slope of the hill-top swells, without bushes or grass, to a flat plateau of black rock, crowned by patches of brushwood, prickly pear, and stunted trees. The rest of the Kanheri spur, like its south-west face, is one long dome-topped block of black trap, a paradise for cave-cutters.

Passing under the west cliff, up a deeply wooded ravine, a flight of worn steps leads, across a broad brushwood-covered terrace, to the slightly overhanging scarp in whose west face is cut the Great or Cathedral Cave (No. 3). The Great Cave stands near the mouth of a narrrow ravine, marked blue on the map, which runs nearly east and west in a deeply-worn channel. On both sides of this narrow ravine the face of the rock is carved into caves. Along the low north bank there is room for only one row of caves. But the lofty dome of the south bank is carved into three irregular tiers, joined by long roughly cut flights of shallow steps. Behind the lines of caves, on the north bank, approached by roughly cut flights of steps, are two knobs of rock, with remains of relic shrines or burial-mounds, and, on the top of the south bank, above the lines of caves, the sloping sides and long flat table of rock are carved into steps and cisterns, and were once crowned by burial-mounds and relic shrines or temples.

The view from the hill top is bounded to the north by the scarp of Kaman, which, rising from a thickly wooded slope, though hollowed and broken by the weather, bears traces of more than one cave front. To the south a high wooded bank hides the distant view. But east and west Kanheri hill commands the whole breadth of Salsette from Bombay harbour to the mouth of the Bassein creek. To the east, across forest-clad slopes, lies Tulsi lake, with its small bare islets and its circle of high wooded hills. Beyond Tulsi is a belt of thick forest, then a gleam of Vehar lake, and, beyond Vehar, rice fields and salt wastes stretch dim and grey to Bombay harbour. To the west lies the beautiful Tulsi valley, a large deep cup-shaped hollow. Its gentle slopes are richly covered with forests, brightened by tufts of light green bamboo, with lines of black rock and glades of withered grass, Beyond the hills, the deep green' belts of brab-palms and mango groves are broken by yellow patches of rice and grass land. Then, through a flat of bare brown salt waste, wind the narrow sail-brightened waters of the Gorai creek, and, beyond the creek, stretches the long level line of Gorai island. Along the north-west winds the Bassein creek, and, over the ruins and palm groves of Bassein, the sea fades into the sky.

The site of the caves, lonely, picturesque, and not far from the rich trade centres of Sopara, Kalyan, and Chemula, combines the three leading characteristics of the sites of the chief groups of Western India rock temples. But Kanheri is the only rock-cut monastery in Western India that has the feeling of having been, and of being ready again to be, a pleasant and popular dwelling place. The rows of cells water cisterns dining halls lecture halls and temples joined by worn flights of rock-cut steps, and the crowded burial gallery show what a huge brotherhood must once have lived at Kanheri. In many of the better caves, the front court-yard with its smooth rockfloor broad benches and gracefully rising side walls, the shaded water cistern, the neat flight of easy steps leading to the cave door, the deep flat eave, the cool veranda, the well-lit hall with its windows of stone lattice, the slim graceful sculptures, and the broad easy benches hewn. at many of the best view points, have a pleasing air of comfort, refinement, and love of nature; while the long stretches of clean black rock, the steps and the court-yards free from earth, weeds, or brushwood, look as if lately swept and made ready for a fresh settlement of religious recluses. It is, says Mr. Nairne, a town carved in the solid rock, which, if the monks and the worshippers returned, would, in a day or two, be as complete as when first inhabited. ' All things in their place remain as all were ordered ages since.' [Nairne's Konkan, 15.]

History.

The centre of trade and population, on which the Kanheri monastery originally chiefly depended, was, probably, about three miles to the west, at the mouth of the Tutsi valley, somewhere near the site of the deserted village of Magathan, which appears in one of the cave inscriptions as Mangalthan. Pilgrims, no doubt, came from the east, by Vehar and Tulsi, but the main approach was from the west, perhaps by way of Padan hill, up the Tasu valley, which was probably cleared and tilled and provided with an easy road.

Kanhagiri, the old name of the hill, perhaps the Prakrit corruption of the Sanskrit Krishnagiri or Krishna's hill, seems to show that the fame and holiness of Kanheri date from before the rise of Buddhism. [Though it seems probable that the early Brahman settlers, who were drawn to the Vaitarna and to Sopara, would also attach religious importance to the hill that crowns the island of Salsette, this derivation is not certain. Kanhagiri may simply mean the black hill. Again it seems possible that the name is older than the Brahmans, and that the original form of the word was Khanderi, the Dravidian Sea Hill, and that the Aryan settlers slightly changed the name, as Musalman settlers often did in later times, to a word that gave a meaning in their own tongue.

An apparent reference to the Kanheri caves in the Mahabharata (B.C. 1400) looks like a late Brahmanical interpolation. It occurs in the Pandavtirthyatra or Pilgrimage of the Pandavs, and runs as follows: After Yudhishthira had seen these and other holy places one after another, the Wish-Granted One saw the very holy Shurparaka. Then, crossing a narrow belt of sea (the Bassein creek), he came to a world-famed forest, where, in times of yore, gods had done penance and kings sacrificed to gain religious merit. Here the Long and Sturdy Armed One saw the altar of the son of Richika, foremost among bowmen, surrounded by crowds of ascetics and worthy of worship by the virtuous. There the king saw charming and holy temples of the Vasus, of the Maruts, of the two Ashvins, of Vaivasvata, Aditya (?), Kubera, Indra, Vishnu, and the all-pervading Savita (?), of Bhava, the moon, the sun, of Varuna lord of the waters, of the Sadhyas, of Brahma, of the Pitris, of Rudra with his ganas, of Sarasvati, of the Siddhas and other holy gods. Presenting the wise men of the neighbourhood with clothes and rich jewels, and bathing in all the holy pools, he came back to Shurparaka. Mahabharata (Bom. Ed.) Vanaparva, cap. cxviii.] The Buddhist legends place the conversion of the Konkan to Buddhism as early as the lifetime of Gautama (B.C. 560-481).[Burnouf's Int. a I'Histoire du Buddhisme Indien, I. 255-275. The story is a legend. Gautama almost certainly never left northern India.] The story is that Purna, the chief of the Sopara merchants, was so affected by hearing Buddhist hymns sung by merchants from Shravasti near Benares, that he determined to become a follower of Gautama. Leaving Sopara he set out for Shravasti where Gautama was living, and, on presenting himself as a disciple, was received with honour. He soon rose to a high place among Gautama's followers, and, anxious to show his zeal for the faith, asked leave of his master to preach the law in the country of Shronaparanta, apparently the Konkan. Gautama reminded him how fierce and cruel the people were. But Purna persisted, and, promising to overcome violence by patience, was allowed to make the attempt. His quiet fearlessness disarmed the wild men of Aparanta. Numbers became converts, and monasteries were built and flourished. [The details, hundreds of beds, seats, carpets, cushions adorned with figures, and carved pedestals, apply to a late period] Shortly after, Purna's brother and some merchants from Shravasti, on the point of shipwreck off the Malabar coast, called on Purna to help them, and he, appearing in their midst, calmed the storm. On reaching Sopara they built a Buddhist temple with their cargo of sandalwood, and its opening was honoured by the presence of Gautama, who converted the city to his faith. [A passage in Fah Hian (A.D. 420, Beal 141), which seems to refer to Kanheri (see below, p. 126), states that the monastery was dedicated to Kashyapa the Buddha who came before Gautama. This Kashyapa is said to have been a Benares Brahman who lived about B.C. 1000 (Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 89). He was worshipped by Devadatta who seceded from Gautama (Rhys Davids, 76, 181). The sect was still in existence in A.D. 400 (Beal's Fah Hian, 82-83; Remusat's Foe Koue Ki, 175-179).] About B.C. 246, when Ashok determined to spread Buddhism over India, a certain Dharmarakshita, called Yona or the Yavan (that is, probably the Baktrian) was sent to Aparanta or the Konkan and made many converts. [Fergusson and Burgess' Cave Temples of India, 17. Aparanta, says Professor Bhandarkar, must be the western coast below the Sahyadris. In the fourth canto of the Raghuvamsh (Distichs 52, 53, and 58) Kalidas represents Raghu as crossing the Sahya to conquer Aparant, and as, by means of his immense army, making the sea to appear as if it touched the Sahya mountain. Trans. Sec Or. Cong. 313. So also Pandit Bhagvanlal writes (Ind. Ant. VII. 259): ' Aparanta corresponds with the modern Konkana, from Gokarn in north Kanara to the Damanganga, the frontier river of Gujarat, or perhaps even further north to the Tapti.' In a passage in the Mahabharat, it is stated that Arjuna, after visiting the sanctuary of Pashupati at Gokarn, travelled to all the holy places in Aparanta, and, following the coast, finally arrived in Prabhas, that is Veraval in south Kathiawar. According to the Yadava Kosh, ' The Aparantas are the western lands; they are Shurparaka and others.' The commentator on Vatsyayanas Kamasutra (A.D. 200?) calls Aparanta the coast of the western ocean, and according to Varahamihira (A.D. 550) it is a western country.]

None of the Kanheri caves shows certain signs of being as old as the time of Ashok. But the simple style of Caves 5, 8, 9, 58, and 59, ranks them amongst the earliest class of caves which vary in date from B.C. 100 to A.D. 50. This early date is supported by an inscription (No. 26) in Nasik Cave III., which shows that, in the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196), Kanheri, though so small a hill, was famous enough to be ranked with the Sahya, Vindhya, and Malaya mountains. [Foe Koue Ki, 316; Trans. Sec. Ori. Cong. 311.] An inscription in Kanheri Cave No. 5 shows that, as early as the reign of Vasishthiputra (A.D. 140), cisterns were made for older caves. Of about fifty inscriptions that have been deciphered ten, from the form of the letters, seem to date from before the Christian era. The rule of the Shatakarni kings (B.C. 200 -A.D. 350), especially the reign of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196), seems to have been a time of prosperity at Kanheri. To about this time belong twenty of the fifty inscriptions, recording grants by kings ministers and traders of caves, cisterns, lands, and money. Among the caves that belong to this period are the entire third tier, including the great Cathedral Cave No. 3.[The flourishing state of Kanheri in the second and third centuries, and the close trade connection between Egypt and the Konkan at that time make it probable that much of the European knowledge of Buddhism was gained from Kanheri monks. The Brahmans who wrote the account of their religion for the Roman governor of Egypt (470), and who had been employed in their own country in carrying food from the towns to monks who lived on a great hill, were perhaps Kanheri acolytes. (Lassen's Ind. Alt, III. 378, IV. 907). The correct ideas of Buddhism held by Clemens of Alexandria (A.D. 200), who was the first European who knew the word Buddha and who speaks of the Shramans worshipping pyramids which they believed to hold the bones of some god, and of Porphyry (A.D. 300), who described the Shramans as a mixture of classes who shaved their heads and wore tunics, abandoned their families and lived in colleges spending their time in holy conversation and getting daily doles of rice (Talboys Wheeler, IV. 240), were perhaps taken from the same source. [Mr. Priaulx (J. R. A. S. XX. 298) notices with surprises, that, while Clemens Alexandrinus (A.D. 200) had a correct idea of Buddha, in the fifth and sixth centuries not even Kosmas (535) seems to have had any idea of the religion. Can the explanation be that, in the worship of that time, Buddha had lost the position which he held under the older people, and, that the ground work of the religion was hidden under a mass of spirits and bodhisattvas. Another man who, according to Christian writers of the third and fourth centuries [Archelaus in his Archelai et Manetis Disputatio (A.D. 275-279); Cyril's Catacheses (A.D. 361); and the Heresies of Esiphanius (A.D. 375)] brought the influence of Buddhism to bear on Christianity may have gained his knowledge of Buddhism from Kanheri monks. This man was Skythaenus, the teacher of Terebinthus, and the originator of the peculiar doctrines of the Manichaeans. He lived during the time of the Apostles, and was said to be a native of Palestine, familiar with Greek, and a merchant who traded to India. He visited India several times and learned Indian philosophy. In his maturer years he married Hypsele, an Egyptian slave, and settled in Alexandria, where he mastered the learning of the Egyptians and wrote four books, the source of the Manichaen doctrine. He then went to Judaea with Terebinthus, disputed with the Apostles of Christ, and died there. At his death Terebinthus inherited his books and wealth, and, going to Babylon, proclaimed himself learned in the wisdom of the Egyptians and took the name of Buddha (Bouddas). J. R. A. S. XX. 271.]

It was probably in the fourth century that the sculptured stone tope in cave No. 38 was built; and it was followed in the fifth century by a tope near cave No. 3. Additions both of fresh caves and of new ornaments in old caves seem to have continued through the fifth and sixth centuries, ten of the fifty inscriptions dating from that period. These additions belong to the late or Mahayana school and are much more ornate than the older caves. To this period belong the Darbar Cave (No. 10) and others at the end of the first row, the two large statues of Gautama at the ends of the veranda of the Cathedral Cave (No. 3), and several chapels. In the beginning of the fifth century (420) Fah Hian described from hearsay a monastery in the Deccan, in a hilly barren land, whose people were heretics knowing neither the Buddhist nor the Brahman religion. Windows were pierced in many parts of the hill, and at the four corners flights of steps led up the hillside. The monastery was well supplied with water. A spring at the top flowed before the rooms encircling each tier, and on reaching the lowest chamber passed through the gate. [Beal, 141; Remusat's Foe Koue Ki, 314-317. Though this is curiously like De Couto's account (see below, p. 149), the rest of Fah Hian's description makes the identification with Kanheri very doubtful. He says the monastery was formed of five stories or tiers, the lowest in the shape of an elephant, the second of a lion, the third of a horse, the fourth of an ox, and the fifth of a dove.] Hiwen Thsang (640), though he passed through the Deccan, seems not to have heard of Kanheri. [Cunningham (Ane. Geog. 556) considers that Kanheri is the convent which Hiwen Thsang (Stan. Julien Mem. Sur. les Contrees Occ. II. 156) describes as built in a dark valley in a range of hills in the east of Maharashtra, with walls covered with sculptures showing the events in Gautama's life. But this account, though confused, seems to apply much more closely to Ajanta (see Khandesh Stat. Act. Bom. Gaz. XII. 480, 481). Shortly after Hiwen Thsang's time, Kanheri perhaps gained an important addition in the person of Chandrakuti, the head of the Nalanda monastary near Benares, who, being defeated by Chandragomme, fled to the Konkan. Vassilief's Boaddisme, 207.] This was the time of the spread of the Rathods of Malkhet near Haidarabad, staunch followers of Shiv and connected with the Elura and perhaps with the Elephanta caves, who, during the eighth and ninth centuries, seem to have wrested the north Deccan and Konkan from the Chalukyas. Before the end of the eighth century gifts were again made to Kanheri. Two of the Kanheri inscriptions dated 853 and 877, belong to the ninth century. These gifts are of little importance, none of them being more than grants of money. So far as the inscriptions have been read no further additions were made. Up to the middle of the thirteenth century Thana was under the rule of the Silharas, who though Shaivs seem not to have interfered with the practice of Buddhism. [The Kolhapur Silhara Gandaraditya (1110) built a temple to Buddha and endowed it with land. J. B. B. R. A. S. XIII. 10. None of the Thana Silhara grants which have yet been deciphered make any mention of Buddha.] From the Silharas it passed to the Devgiri Yadavs (1250-1318), who were staunch Shaivs. But neither the Yadavs nor their Musalman successors were firmly established in the Konkan. Only a few outposts were held, and it is not certain whether Salsette was under Gujarat or under the Deccan. In either case Kanheri seems to have been undisturbed, and, as late as the middle of the fifteenth century (1440), Buddhist monks were building relic shrines. [See the stone pots with ashes and some coins of Ahmad Bahmani (1440) mentioned below (p. 175) as found in cave 13.] Nearly a century later (1534), when the Portuguese conquered Salsette, the Kanheri caves were still the home of a large colony of ascetics. The leaders were converted to Christianity and the life of the monastery was brought to an end. The Portuguese speak of the ascetics as Yogis and they may have been Brahmanic ascetics. But several details recorded by the first Portuguese writers (1538-1603) make it probable that they were Buddhist monks, and that the great Buddhist monastery of Kanheri remained in life until its leaders were made Christians by the Portuguese. [Dom Joao de Castro (1538) (Primeiro Roteiro da Costa da India, 75-81) notices that the object of worship was a great round ball (the relic shrine). This would seem to prove that the worshippers were Buddhists. But it is possible that the relic shrine was taken for a huge ling, as Forbes' (Or. Mem. I. 425) informant told him in 1774, and as seems to be the case at the present day in the neighbouring Kondivte caves where the relic shrine is known as Mahakal, that is Shiv the Destroyer. According to Hove, as late as 1787, ' the Hindus at Kanheri paid adoration to the round pillar at the head of cave No. 3 resembling the crown of a hat about sixteen feet high and fourteen in diameter (Tours, 13). The view that the monks found by the Portuguese were Buddhists is confirmed by Couto's (1603) sketch of Saint Jehosaphat (below, p. 150), which shows that in 1534 the Kanheri monks had a correct knowledge of Gautama's life.

Buddhism lingered nearly as late in other parts of India. In Bengal the famous monastery of Nalanda was rebuilt early in the eleventh century (1015-1040), and at Buddha Gaya the celebrated temple of Bodhidruma was not finished till the end of the thirteenth century. In the Deccan, near Miraj, a Buddhist temple was built in the twelfth century (1110, J. B. B. R. A. S. XIII. 10). At Amravati, near the mouth of the Krishna, there was a Buddhist temple in the twelfth century, a tooth relic till perhaps the beginning of the fourteenth century, and a remnant of Buddhists as late as 1503. Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, 156; Fergnsson and Burgess' Cave Temples, 132, 398.]

The twelve hundred years of Buddhist ascendancy (B.C. 450-A.D. 750) may be roughly divided into four periods, each period marked by the development of a new theory, or gospel, of the way to enlightenment and rest. The gospel of the first period was conduct, of the second metaphysics, of the third mysticism, of the fourth magic. Conduct dates from Gautama (B.C. 500), metaphysics from about B.C. 200, mystery from about A.D. 100, and magic from about A.D. 500. Though the elder systems were to some extent eclipsed by the younger, they seem to have continued side by side till the fall of Buddhism.

Buddhism.

Gautama's maxims have been so changed and so overlaid by later teachers, that it is hard to say how much of Buddhism comes from the founder of the faith. [Vassiliefs views of the comparatively modern date of many of the doctrines and institutions that the Buddhist scriptures ascribe to Gautama are, as is noticed in detail below, borne out in several particulars by the evidence of the sculptures in the early Buddhist monuments at Katak (B.C. 300), Bharhut (B.C. 200), Sanchi (A.D. 50), and Amravati (A.D. 300-400).] In any case, whether it was started by Gautama or was a later development, the original Buddhist philosophy seems to have been taken from earlier Hindu thinkers. The Buddhists were originally a sect of Hindus, and the Brahmans seem to have in no way interfered with the efforts of the early Buddhists to spread their doctrines. [Rhys Davids, 84, 85.] The new philosophy seems to have taught that matter existed, but that there was neither soul nor self. Man was a collection of attributes, sensations, ideas, and tendencies; all is changing, nothing is stedfast. [Rhys Davids, 94, 95.] Though nothing is stedfast and there is no self or soul, the thing done or karma remains, and, according as it is good or bad, enters on a new existence more or less miserable. These new existences are an evil. They are the result of unrest or yearning. Yearning can be quenched by leaving the world and leading a life of moderate asceticism, overcoming the passions, and preparing for the fading of self and desire in the stirless rest of nirvana. Laymen cannot reach this final goal of complete rest. But they can improve their future by their present conduct, by leading kindly and sober lives, and by free-handed gifts to ascetics. The four great truths seem to be as old as Gautama. That all men suffer, that the root of sorrow is desire or yearning, that sorrow dies when desire is quenched, and that a holy and thoughtful life quenches desire. That to lead a holy and thoughtful life the memory, beliefs, feelings, thoughts, words, and deeds must be right. And that these being right the changes of life and death lead by four stages, conversion, one more life, the last life, and perfection, to the state of rest or nirvana, where self ceases to trouble and desire is dead. [Rhys Davids, 106-111.]

Gautama's followers seem from the first to have been divided into lay and ascetic. For long the ascetics were hermits living by themselves under trees, in huts, or in natural caves, probably in no case living together or forming organised bodies of monks. [Fergusson and Burgess' Caves, 68. The Katak caves in Orissa (B.C. 200 -A.D. 100, the age is doubtful, see Ditto 70) and the Bharhut sculptures in Central India (B.C. 200-100) have representations of hermits' huts. In neither are there traces of monasteries or of ascetics in the regular garb of Buddhist monks. Cunningham's Bharhut Stupa, 30.] Among the objects of early Buddhist worship were trees, [Each Buddha had his bodhi tree or Tree of Knowledge. Of the four last Buddhas Gautama's tree was the pipal Ficus religiosa, Kashyapa's the banyan Ficus indica, Kanaka's the umbar Ficus glomerata, and Krakuchchhanda's the shirish or Acacia sirisa. Cunningham's Bharhut Stupa, 108. Tree worship was probably part of an earlier religion. Curtius (VIII. 9, B.C. 325) says, the Shramans or Buddhists worship chiefly trees which it is death to injure. The trees were at first associated with the different Buddhas; they afterwards seem to have been considered a symbol of the congregation.] relic and memorial shrines, [The worship of relic shrines seems to have been older than Gautama's time and to have received his approval. Details are given below, p. 175.] wheels representing the law, and a triple symbol that included the relic shrine, the wheel, and the tree. From early times marks of Gautama's feet, his head-dress, girdle, alms-bowl, bathing robe, drinking vessel, and seat or throne were also worshipped. [Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, 107-112.] The only figure that occurs as an object of worship in the early sculptures is Shri or Lakshmi the goddess of wealth.[Shri's image is common at Katak, one occurs at Bharhut, ten at Sanchi, and many at the Junnar caves. Lakshmi remained a Buddhist goddess till in the seventh century she went over to the Vaishnavs. Fergusson and Burgess' Caves, 72, 151.] Buddhist temples are probably of late origin.[ Vassilief's Bouddisme, 88. Fergusson (Cave Temples of India, 91) notices the absence of a temple in the Katak group. Rajendralal Mitra (Buddha Gaya, 128, 129) says temples were not thought of till the time of Ashok.]

Even in the time of Ashok (B.C. 250) there is a marked absence of many of the chief feature a of the later Buddhism. His edicts make almost no reference to Gautama or Buddha, and their religion consists purely in conduct. The common people are to obey their parents, to be liberal to their relations and friends and to Brahman and Buddhist beggars, to be thrifty, to shun slander and the taking of life, and to confess their sins. The rulers are to found hospitals and to regulate the public morals. Though in the latter part of his reign Ashok is said to have granted them great endowments, his edicts make no mention of monasteries, and Brahman and Buddhist ascetics are spoken of as equally worthy of support. Trees and relic or memorial shrines were still the only objects of worship. [Duncker's History of Antiquity, IV. 532. Talboys Wheeler, III. 216-238. One monastery the Jarasandha-ka-baitak at Rajgir or Rajagriha in Bihar seems to be older than Ashok. Fergusson and Burgess, 303.] But noble memorial mounds were raised at places famous in Gautama's life, and the practice of making pilgrimages was established.

The practical working of Gautama's teaching seems to have been very little at variance with the established social system. Neither at first nor afterwards does Buddhism seem to have given offence to Brahmanism by interfering with caste. Gautama's law was a law of mercy for all. But this equality was religious not social. Men were equal because all were mortal and subject to suffering. Shudras were allowed to become ascetics. But the feeling of equality was not strong enough to embrace the impure classes or Chandals whom the Buddhists at first, and probably during the whole of their history, regarded with not less loathing than the Brahmans. Early-Buddhism had no room for the Chandal. [Vassilief's Bouddisme, 181.] The less practical mysticism and magic of the later schools was in theory more liberal. To win power over nature you must grasp its secret, to grasp its secret you must have perfect sympathy with nature, sympathy to be perfect must include a kindliness for what is foulest and most revolting in nature, therefore you must pity, perhaps associate with the Chandal. [Vassilief's Bouddisme; 181.] This enthusiasm for the outcaste seems to have rested in words. As late as the fifth century after Christ, Fah Hian found that in Mathura, where Buddhism was in honour, the Chandals or impure tribes were forced to live by themselves, and when they went into a town had to sound a bell or strike a piece of bamboo that people might know they were coming and hold aloof.[Beal's Fah Hian, 55; Remusat's Foe Koue Ki, 105.] So far from men of the lowest classes being admitted into the Buddhist community a monk might not even receive alms from a Chandal. [Remusat's Foe Koue Ki, 105. A monk might not take alms from five classes, singers and players, courtezans, tavern-keepers, kings in case they might be annoyed, and Chandals.] On the Other hand Brahman converts were treated with special respect. One of the marks of honour shown to the champion or chief scholar of a Buddhist monastery was that his attendants were Brahmans, not ordinary monks. [Stan. Julian's Mem. Sur. les Con. Occ. I. 79.] And some of the Brahman monks seem to have been so proud of their birth as to hold themselves defiled by the touch of any one who was not a Brahman. [Fah Hian mentions a famous Brahman teacher of Buddhism, who, if the king from affectionate esteem took him by the hand, washed himself from head to foot. Beal, 105; Remusat's Foe Koue Ki, 254; T. Wheeler, III. 257. Gautama seems to have continued to consider himself a Kshatri. His images are represented as wearing the sacred cord. Rajendralal's Buddha Gaya, 131.]

As regards the laity neither Gautama nor his successors seem to have interfered with the social arrangements of caste. Gautama's equality, says M. St. Hilaire, [Buddhisme, 210.] is philosophic, the admission that all men are liable to suffer and may escape from suffering. He was not a social reformer. He did not try to alter Indian society. He wished to heal the human race. [Buddhisme, 210.] Obedience is one of the great duties of the laity, not license to break through marriage or other rules. So Ashok says, " When you are called to a feast, ask what is your host's caste, and when you are arranging a marriage find out to what caste the family belongs. But among ascetics you should think of their virtues not of their caste. Caste has nothing to do with the religious law; the religious law does not concern itself with caste." [Buddhisme, 163. The Buddhist rules about caste seem much the same as the rules now in force amongst the flourishing Gujarat sect of the Svami Narayans. The Svami-Narayan theory is that all men are equal and a member of any caste may become a monk. The impure tribes are alone excepted. On the other hand special respect is shown to Brahmacharis or monks of Brahman birth. As regards the laity the sect has nothing to do with caste. No attempt is made to break caste rules. Considering how often in Buddhist times the conversion of a king, or the success of a preacher, changed a province from Brahmanism to Buddhism and from Buddhism to Brahmanism, it seems almost impossible that to adopt the worship of the new sect carried with it any practical change in the marriage laws.]

To meet the advance of Buddhism the Brahmans revised those parts of their system which the success of Buddhism showed to be unpopular. In place of the cold abstraction of the world soul [Duncker's History of Antiquity, IV. 126-136.] two local deities, Shiv the fierce god of the hills and Vishnu the kindly spirit of the plains, were raised to be the rulers of men. [Shiv and Vishnu are mentioned as early as the sixth century B.C. (Duncker, IV. 325). According to Burnouf (Int. a l'Histoire du Bud. Ind. I. 554) Shiv was in power in Western India before Buddhism. On the other hand Fergusson (Tree and Serpent Worship, 216) is not satisfied that Shiv and Rudra are the same, and holds that Shiv is a late god.] To help this change in religion, in the third century before Christ, the old epic poems, the Mahabharat and Ramayana were remodelled and added to and the favourite heroes were made either worshippers or incarnations of Shiv and Vishnu. Shiv was a dread power but his favour could be won by due ceremonies and sacrifices. And, round Vishnu and his incarnations, stories clustered that showed him to be not less kindly or less ready than Buddha to sacrifice his ease for the good of men. ' When right falls to sleep and wrong wakes to power I create myself to free the good and to destroy the bad.' [Duncker, IV. 496.] This gentle kindly god called for no sacrifice of life. Offerings of flowers fruit and water were enough. [Duncker, 494. Vaishnavism probably rose in the same part of India as Buddhism. How closely the two faiths are connected is shown by the fact that Jagannath in the east is a Buddhist emblem, Vithoba in the west a Buddhist or a Jain image, and Buddha the ninth incarnation of Vishnu. Fergusson and Burgess, 74; Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, 158, 356, 361. Stevenson in J. R. A. S. VII. 5.] To counteract the fame of the places which Gautama's life had made holy, the sanctity of the shrines of the new gods and of other places of Brahman interest and the high merit of visiting them was proclaimed.[Duncker (IV. 508) thinks that it was the new passion for making pilgrimages that gave the Brahmans their name of Tirthyas and Tirthikas. This seems doubtful. Wheeler's (III. 126) opinion that the name means pure livers, in allusion to their practice of going about naked, seems to be that generally held.] To meet the Buddhist philosophy, about B.C. 300, a new version of the old system of yog or abstraction was brought forward by Yajnavalkya. According to the new system the proper purifying of the mind enables the soul to leave the body and lose itself in the world soul. This new doctrine was accompanied by the preaching that gentleness, kindness and temperance are higher than penance and sacrifice, and by the opening of the way of salvation to Shudras as well as to the higher classes. [Duncker (IV. 516) writes as if Yajnavalkya had founded the system of yog or contemplation. But some of the doctrines were older than Buddhism. T. Wheeler, III. 100, 116.] A scheme for Brahman monasteries formed part of the system. [Duncker, IV. 520.]

This form of the doctrine of yog or contemplation had a great influence on the future of Buddhism. Not long after Yajnavalkya, a teacher named Nagarjuna, rose among the Buddhists preaching a new doctrine. [According to Buddhist accounts Nagarjuna lived from 400 to 600 years. He may represent a school of teachers. Vassiliefs Le Bouddisme, 28-31, 34, 37.] This new gospel, which he said he had found in writings left by Gautama under the charge of the Nagas or dragons till the minds of men should be ready to receive them, taught that meditation not conduct led to freedom from desire and to rest or extinction. Before the time of Nagarjuna the followers of the old system had been split into eighteen sects. These sects joined into two schools, and finally united into one body, to oppose the new system which they said was borrowed from the heretics. [The heretics mentioned are the Lokhiatas and Nigrantas. Vassilief's Le Bouddisme, 71.] The rivalry lasted over several hundred years. At last, in the first century after Christ, a great teacher named Areiasanga defeated the champions of conduct and established thought as the path to perfection. [Vassiliefs Le Bouddisme, 28-31,34, 37, 77.] This new doctrine was accompanied by a metaphysical nihilism according to which everything is void or unreal. [Vassilief, 123; Burnouf's Int. I. 558.] A later branch of the same school seems to have held, that the soul in man and the soul of the universe can have communion. But that this communion must be reached by abstraction, not by thinking, for thought is ignorance and to keep the mind pure it must not be disturbed by thought. [Vassilief, 135.] These new metaphysical doctrines were accompanied by a change in the ideal of conduct from the personal striving to reach perfection by a virtuous life to a broad enthusiasm for self sacrifice. The new religion was a religion of love and pity. [Vaasilief's Le Bouddisme, 124. This love was the Buddhist charity or alms-giving. It was without limits. Buddha came into the world only to save. His followers should shrink from no sacrifice that is likely to benefit a living being. So Buddha gives his body as a meal to a starving tigress and a young disciple throws himself overboard as a sacrifice to the storm. See St. Hilaire, 140.] There was also a change in the objects of worship. The image to Buddha as an ascetic took the chief place in front of the relic shrine. [The first image of Gautama is said to have been carved by a converted demon and the second by a heavenly sculptor. There is one image of Gautama as a man to the Sanchi sculptures (A.D. 50). But, according to Fergusson, his image as an ascetic did not come into ordinary use till about A.D. 300 (Fergusson and Burgess, 73). Cunningham puts the introduction of images as early as B.C. 100. In his opinion the first image came from the half-Greek Panjab (Bharhut Stupa, 107). About A.D. 300 the worship of relic shrines gave place to the worship of images, and the shrine became little more than an image frame or setting (Fergusson and Burgess, 179, 180).] And, by degrees, there were added the images of past Buddhas, of Bodhisattvas or future Buddhas, and of several male and female divinities. [Vassilief's Le Bouddisme, 124-126; St. Hilaire, 92. A Bodhisattva is the present form of the thing done, or karma, which will produce future Buddhas. The first of Bodhisattvas is the next Buddha, the Maitreya or kindly Buddha (Rhys Davids, 200), and the most popular was Avalokiteshvar the manifest god or the god who looks from on high. (Rhys Davids, 203). These Bodhisattvas probably owe their origin to the belief that Gautama had passed through rest or nirvana into utter extinction, parinirvana, and that therefore help must be sought from some other source (Rhys Davids, 200). So Fah Hian (430), in fear of shipwreck, calls on Avalokiteshvar, to bring daylight (Beal, 169; Foe Koue Ki, 359; Burnouf's Introduction, 347). The covenant between Amitabha, or boundless light, and his son Avalokiteshvar, the manifest god, is traced by Mr. Beal to Christian influence. (Fah Hian, LXXII). In the tenth century northern Buddhism went a step further inventing a primordial or Adi Buddha (Rhys Davids, 206). Indra was the chief among the gods and Tara among the goddesses. (Fergusson and Burgess' Cave Temples, 133). In different parts of the country some of the old Buddhist images are preserved and worshipped as Brahmanic deities. Thus at Buddha Gaya Vajrapani's image is now Vagishvari and Padmapani's image is now Savitri. Rajendralal's Buddha Gaya, 137 plate xxxii.]

While this new doctrine and worship were being introduced, the establishment of great monasteries led to many changes in the practice of Buddhist asceticism. The leaders of the religion held the convenient doctrine that no law of Buddhism can run contrary to good sense. [Vassiliefs Le Bouddisme, 68.] So when monasteries were formed and missionary work was undertaken in distant parts of India, the original rules about observing the rains as a specially holy season were altered, and, as monasteries became endowed with lands and revenues, the rules about living on alms and dressing in the poorest clothes were laid aside. [Vassiliefs Le Bouddisme, 86, 87.] Another result of the new doctrine, that perfection lay through thought and metaphysic and not through conduct, was the development among the monks of a passion for dialectic, and the moulding of the doctrines of their faith into a more correct and polished form than that in which they originally appeared. Their warmer beliefs in the virtue of self-sacrifice and in the kindly interest which Higher Beings took in the affairs of men, led to the use of richer and freer decoration in their monasteries and temples.

As regards the ordinary life of the lay Buddhists there is little information. The sculptures at Sanchi and Amravati seem to show that in the first, and, to a less extent, in the fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian era, the people were more given to liquor drinking, dancing, and war making, than might have been expected in the followers of so mild and so ascetic a faith. But it is doubtful how far these scenes are meant to represent actual Buddhist life. [Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, 223, 224. The war at Sanchi was a religious war connected with a relic (Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, 215), and it seems possible that most of the love-making and drinking scenes represent the pleasures of Gautama's life before he became a recluse.]

Some of the doctrines of the new system were little removed from mysticism. They passed into a form of spiritual physics, according to which the mind by concentration can be raised above itself and work wonders. [Vassilief, 135, 137.] One means of raising the mind to this state of mystic trance is to keep noting the number of outward and inward breathings till the sense of past, present and future fades, and the mind, free from the trammels of time, shares in the enlightenment and in the supernatural powers of higher and perfect beings. [Vassilief, 138, 140.] The teachers of this school set up two goals of thought. One goal, called samadhi, consisted in driving from the mind all impressions from without or from within; the other goal, called vaipashyam, consisted inmastering the root idea of all subjects of thought. [Vassilief, 141.] So Bodhidharma, one of the sixth century leaders of Buddhism, taught complete indifference as the way to perfection. Doing nothing and mental abstraction led to self-absorption, lust was quenched, and happiness gained. To this school belonged the Indian exile whom the Chinese named the wall-gazing Brahman, because, for nine years, he sat with his face to a wall. [Beal's Fah Hian, XXX. The indifference of this school did away with all distinctions of right and wrong. To a recluse an enemy or himself, his wife or his daughter, his mother or a prostitute, all should be the same. Burnouf's Int. 558.]

From mysticism of this type the change to magic was slight. Early in the sixth century, Asanga, a Peshavar monk, started the doctrine of dharani or the expression of spells or mystic formulas. [Rhys Davids, 208; Vassilief, 141, 142; Fah Hian (420) has no mention of magic charms; Sun Yung (520) notices charms and magical powers (Beal, XXXI.); and iwen Thsang (640) speaks of them with favour. Jul. I. 144; Beal's Fah Hian, LXII. though not based on magical charms the possession of supernatural powers was climed by Gautama who restored sight and whose relics brought rain (Beal, 78), and Moukian Gautama's sixth disciple (Remusat's Foe Koue Ki, 32). Saints or arhats were also supposed to fly, enter other bodies, dive under water, and pass into  the th (Foe Koue Ki, 218).] Every being has its formula; and by saying, or simply thinking, this formula the initiated can bring the being under his control. This relation between the name and the thing named led to mudra, the relation between the sign and the thing signified; and this to tantra, or magic spells, the last stage of Buddhist development. Though these tantras were soon debased, the original object of gaining magical power was, at least, nominally, as a means of becoming a Buddha. The theory was that as man is made of mind, body and speech, if the devotee adds the new path of magic to the old paths of conduct and thought, the mind may think of Buddha, the body may frame the signs that represent Buddha, and the tongue may repeat the spell that gives power over Buddha, so that under the joint power of these influences, the devotee may shortly be transformed into a Buddha. [Vassilief, 142, 143, 144. Of the tantra school Davids writes, "Asanga managed with great dexterity to reconcile Shaivism and Buddhism by placing Shaiv gods and devils in the lower Buddhist heavens, and by representing them as worshippers and supporters of Buddha and of Avalokiteshvar. He thus made it possible for the half-converted tribes to remain Buddhists while they brought offerings, even bloody offerings, to the more congenial shrines of the Shaivite gods. Their practical belief had no relation to the four truths or the noble eightfold path, but busied itself in obtaining magic powers by magic phrases and magic circles" (Buddhism, 208). As noticed in the text this form of Buddhism does not seem to have passed to Southern India.] The mixture of Shaivism and Buddhism, and the addition of the senseless and degrading rites and rules that were prevalent among the tantra-worshippers of Northern India do not seem to have spread as far south as the Bombay Presidency. [Burnout's Int. I. 354. Burnonf says, " Of the north Indian tantras (558) the pen refuses to write of doctrines as wretched in form as they are hateful and degrading in nature." In his opinion the nearest approach that the Buddhism and Shaivism of Western India made was their common belief in meditation or yog (I. 354).]

This summary of the leading changes that passed over the doctrines, the worship, and the practice of the Buddhists brings to light one of the main causes of their final defeat by the Brahmans. Their system fell from the high morality of its youth and the glowing kindliness and self-sacrifice of its prime, if not to the debased magic of the tantras, at least to a foolish unreal mysticism. [Bad as it is, says M. St. Hilaire (Buddhisme, 244), modern Brahmanism is better than Buddhism.] Again, while the hungry unwearied army of Brahman village and family priests, careless of doctrine or system, had wound themselves into the home life of the people, naming their children, managing their family rites, telling the fit times for fasting and for feasting, and advising when to sow and when to reap, the Buddhist monasteries had grown rich and sleek, and the monks, no longer forced to seek daily alms or yearly clothing, knew little of the people, and, leaving the old practice of preaching conduct and a kindly life, gave their strength to the study of dialectic and oratory. [How far the Buddhist monks acted as family priests is doubtful. Duncker (History, IV. 485) seems to give them the place of family priests. And Vassilief (Bouddisme, 88) notices that the modern Lamas take part in birth and death ceremonies and are closely bound up with the life of the people by their knowledge of astrology and medicine. On the other hand Wheeler (III. 98) holds that the Buddhist monks never exercised priestly offices or shared in the family rites of the laity; and this view agrees with the present position of the Gorjis or Jain ascetics.] The importance attached to oratory was partly due to the Buddhist principle that they are always open to conviction, because nothing is good Buddhism which can be shown to be bad sense. [Vassilief, 68.] The Buddhists have from the first been famous for their love of debating. Megasthenes (B.C. 300) taunts them with their fondness for wrangling, [See Wheeler, III. 204.] and Gautama is said to have tried to stop their quarrels by warning them that an argumentative monk goes to hell and passes from one birth to another meeting affliction everywhere. [Rhys Davids, 156.] In spite of this, as monasteries grew and as the path to perfection was no longer conduct but thought and metaphysics, the importance of dialectic skill increased. The prosperity of a monastery depended on the argumentative power of its chief. [Beal, LI.] The champion talker of the monastery was treated with the highest honour. He was liable to be challenged by any stranger, and, as was the practice in the times of European chivalry, if the champion was beaten his whole party was at the conqueror's mercy. A monastery that had lasted for ages was sometimes deserted from the result of a single dialectic duel. [Vassilief, 67, 69.] This system undermined the strength of Buddhism in two ways. It loosened the monk's hold on the people and it divided the monasteries, changing them from practical teachers and helpers into isolated unsympathetic theorists who hated each other more than they hated the Brahmans. [Devil-taught was an epithet often used by one sect of Buddhist to another. Vassilief, 57.] The Brahmans were little behind the Buddhists in their zeal for oratory. Hiwen Thsang (640) speaks of Brahman colleges and places of learning being famous and held in high honour, [Stan. Julien's Hiwen Thsang, I. 76.] and, in the eighth century, when the great Brahman champion Shankaracharya arose the Buddhists trembled. They knew they would be challenged, they knew his arguments, and knowing no answer they shrunk away leaving their monasteries empty. [Vassilief, 67-69. The Brahman champions were Shankaracharya, Kumaralila, and Kanararodu; the Buddhist champion, for whom his side claim several triumphs before his final defeat, was Dharmakirti. Vassilief, 207. What took place in the seventh and eighth centuries occurred again with little change in the sixteenth century. In 1534, after Antonio De Porto had silenced and converted the Buddhist(?) champion of Kanheri, at the sight of him and another, two poor sackcloth-wearing friars, the fifty Brahman monks of Mandapeshvar rose, and, without even a war of words, left their monastery and their lands to the master-talker of the conquering sect. Jour. B. B. R. A. S., I. 38.]

In another important point the Buddhists were inferior to the Brahmans. Paralysed by the quietism and indifference of their faith, [Courage was one of the laity's six cardinal virtues. But the ideal courage of the Buddhist layman was oddly unlike real courage. It was purely moral, the energy shown in fostering the fruitful seeds of the practice of duty. St. Hilaire, 141.] they had to face a sect the name of whose god was a battle cry and the eloquence of whose champion was probably supported by bands of armed devotees. [The Maratha war cry is, ' Har Har Mahadev,' and the names of both Shiv and Vishnu are mixed with half the warrior heroes of the country. Armed bands of Shaiv and Vaishnav Jogis and Gosais were for long one of the terrors of India. Varthema (1503-1508) (Badger's Varthema, 111, 273) notices how Mahmud Begada (1459-1511) fought with a neighbour king of the Jogis. Every three or four years the king with about 3000 men, and, if not the king, then the Jogis in bands of 30 or 400 went on pilgrimage. They carried sticks with iron rings at the base and iron discs which cut all round like razors. When they arrived at any city every one tried to please them. For should they even kill the first nobleman they would not be punished because they were saints. At Kalikat, in 1506, Varthema found the Jogi king with 3000 followers, 200 of whom were sent to attack and kill two Christians who were suspected of being in communication with the Portuguese The two Christians were killed by the sharp iron discs thrown from the Jogis' slings Barbosa, 1514, (Stanley's Edition, 99-100) describes the Jogis as Upper Indian Hindus well-made men with handsome faces, who, stopping few days in the same place, went in great bands like gypsies, naked barefoot and bareheaded dragging chains from shame that they had allowed the Musalmans to conquer their country. Their hair was made with plaits and wound round their head without ever being combed; their bodies and faces were smeared with ashes and they wore a small horn round their necks with which they called and begged for food chiefly at the houses of great lords and at temples. In 1530 Faria, in his history of the Konkan, calls them Jogis or Kalandars, and notices them as going about in bands of 2000 or more, laying the country under contribution. Kerr's Voyages, VI. 230. The Tabakat-i-Akbari notice a fight in 1547 between Jogis and Sanyasis. ' The Sanyasis were between two and three hundred in number and the Jogis, who wore only rags, were over five hundred. At length the Jogis were defeated and the Sanyasis left victors (Elliot, V. 318). In 1758 Gosavis were found wandering near Broach, in such numbers that the Nawab drove them out of his territory. Under the Marathas they received a fixed payment (Col. Walker's Letter, 27th January 1805). In 1760 Du Perron notices a chief of Jogis near Surat stark-naked, a Shaivite in religion, who was influential enough to have correspondence over the whole of Asia. He had a great trade in precious stones and carried secret messages. (Zend Avesta, I. cccxlvi). In 1764 Niebuhr found Jogis armed and going in troops of several thousands. The two orders of Vairagis and Gosais were sworn enemies, and whenever they met bloody combats ensued. (Pinkerton X. 215). In 1774 Forbes notices them as a class of Hindu mendicants who marched in large bodies through Hindustan, levying heavy contributions. (Oriental Memoirs, II. 9). In 1778 General Goddard, on his march through Bundelkhand, was attacked by a band of 2000 Sanyasis called Shaiv Nagas. (Pennant's Hindustan, II. 192). In 1789 Mahadaji Sindia, among other changes in the constitution of his army, enlisted large bodies of Gosavis, and formed them into distinct regiments. (Grant Duff, III. 23). Tod (Annals of Rajasthan, I. 67) mentions that the Kanphata Jogis were often in many thousands sought as allies especially in defensive warfare. At the grand military festival at Udepur, the scymitar, symbolic of Mars and worshipped by the Ghelots, was entrusted to them. In Gujarat the Svami-Narayan Sadhus were originalty armed, and there are records of great fights at Ahmadabad about 1830 between the and the Vaishnav Vairagis.] In the eighth century Shankaracharya and his patrons, the Rathods of Malkhet, marked the ruin of Buddhist by two of the finest memorials in Western India, the Kailas temple at Elura and, perhaps, the Elephanta caves near Bombay. Unllike Sarnath near Benares, where their monastery was burned to the ground, [Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, 79.] or Madura in Madras where the monks were tortured to death, [The memory of the impaling of the Buddhists of Madura by the Brahmans is still fresh. Taylor's Cat. of Or. MS. III. 56, 144.] the Buddhists of Western India seem to have been allowed to retire from their caves without violence.There was comparatively little to destroy. Still there seems to be no trace that the Brahmans destroyed images or ornaments.] From the general ruin the eighth and ninth centuries Kanheri escaped. So strong was the Buddhist feeling in the Konkan that the Brahmans seem to have Supplanted rather than destroyed the older faith. In the Great Cave at Elephanta and in the Jogeshvari cave, one of the leading characters in which Shiv is shown is as the Great Ascetic, Maha Yogi, seated cross-legged, passive and unmoved, lost in thought like a Buddha or a Jain saint, his seat a Buddhist lotus-throne and his supporters Buddhist Nagas. Kanheri probably long remained a place of retirement for Buddhist refugees, perhaps the last resting place from which they took sail for Ceylon, Burmah, and China.

Life at Kanheri, A.D. 100-600.

Two difficulties stand in the way of an attempt to describe Buddhist  life at Kanheri in its days of wealth and prosperity. The first difficulty is that, in the spirit of their rule that no bad sense is good Buddhism, the Buddhists were always ready to change their practice to suit local circumstances. The second difficulty is, that it is doubtful how far the strict rules originally laid down for lonely hermits were practised when large bodies of monks came to live together in richly endowed monasteries. At an early date [The nominal date is about B.C. 350 (Rhys Davids, 216). But it is doubtful whether there were monasteries before the time of Ashok.] a strong party of monks demanded concessions, among which were such important changes as that a supply of salt might be kept, that solid food and whey might be taken after midday, and that fermented drinks might be used.[These concessions, known as the Ten Indulgences, were: 1, to keep salt; 2, to take solid food after midday; 3, to relax rules when the monks were not in monasteries; 4, to ordain and confess in private houses; 5, that consent might be obtained after an act; 6, that conformity to the example of others was a good excuse for relaxing rules; 7, that whey might be taken after midday; 8, that fermented drinks, if they looked like water might be drunk; 9, that seats might be covered with cloth; and 10, that gold and silver might be used. Rhys Davids, 216.] This movement was at first defeated. But the party was strong and it is probable that concessions were afterwards made. According to Vassilief,[Le Bouddisme, 87.] when monasteries grew rich the monks sometimes dressed well, traded, and drank liquor as medicine. Still, in spite of changes and irregularities, Fah Hian's, Hiwen Thsang's, and the Ceylon pictures of Buddhist life are sufficiently alike to make it probable that the details give a fairly correct impression of life in the Kanheri monastery from the second to the seventh centuries of the Christian era. [Even during this time periods of prosperity were probably separated by periods of depression.]

The Monastery.

Kanheri, when rich and famous, differed greatly from its present state of wild lineliness. The relic mounds were bright with festoons of flags and streamers; the flights of clear-cut steps were furnished with hand-rails, and the neat well-kept cells were fitted with doors and window and shaded with canopies; [Fergusson and Burgess Cave Temples, 359.] sellers of incense and fruit crowded the gates; groups of worshippers entered and left; and the bands of yellow-robed even-pacing monks and nuns moved over the hill top and across the hill side. On festive days the space in front of the great chapel was decked with flags and silken canopies; the chapels thronged with well-dressed worshippers and full of the scent of incense; the images smothered in flowers; [The lavish use of flowers seems to have been one of the chief features of Buddhist worship. King Bhatikabhayo (B.C. 19-9) is said to have hung the great tope of Ceylon from top to bottom with jasmine garlands and buried the whole building from, The steps to the pinnacle with heaps of flowers. Turnour's Mahavanso, 211-215; Bhilsa Topes, 175.] and the relic shrines festooned more richly than usual with silken flags and variegated streamers. By night the whole hill-side cells, stairs, chapels, and relic shrines would be ablaze with lamps.[See the descriptions in Beal's Fah Hia., 76 and 178. Burnouf (Int. a 1' Histoire du Buddhisme Indien, I. 319) has an account of a monastery furnished with platforms and raised seats with balustrades, windows and trellis work, with fitly clad monks moving in calm and seemly attitudes. So too, according to Duncker (History, IV. 468), the monasteries were not uncomfortable. They had central halls and separate cells, platforms, balustrades, lattice windows, and good sleeping places.] Though the monks were poor the monastery was rich. Villages and lands, oxen and servants had been left them, and what was once given was never taken back. [Beal's Fah Hian, 55.] Careful accounts were kept, and, at least in later times, a share of the rent was taken in grain and stored in the monastery for the use of the brotherhood. There was probably considerable state. Richly-decked elephants and palanquins took part in processions and gave dignity to the movements of the abbot, the leading elders, or the champion orator of the monastery. Under some learned and prudent head Kanheri may, at times, have risen to such a state of high discipline and useful ness as Hiwen Thsang (640) found in the Nalanda convent in Behar. This was the abode of several thousand monks, of pure blameless lives, so talented and learned that the five Indies took them as models. From morning till evening the young and the old were busy, teaching and learning, and, from all sides, strangers flocked to find from the elders the solution of their doubts. The bulk of the monks belonged to the Great Vehicle, or later school, but all the eighteen sects were represented. A thousand of them could explain twenty books, 500 thirty books, ten fifty books, and one, the head of the convent, had mastered all the sacred writings. [Stanislas Julien's Mem. Sur. les Cont. Occid. II. 45-46; and Talboys Wheeler, III. 271-272.]

The Members.

The members of the Kanheri community belonged to four classes, laymen upasikas, lay-women upayis, monks bhikshus, and nuns bhikshunis. [Authorities differ as to whether Buddhist ascetics should be called priests or monks. Hardy (Eastern Monachism, 14) and Duncker (History, IV. 377) call them priests; Talboys Wheeler (III. 128) and Rhys Davids (Buddhism, 152) call them monks. Their duties, aud the present position of Buddhist ascetics in Burmah and Jain ascetics in India, seem to show that they were monks and not priests.] The laity, the bulk of whom seem to have been traders and craftsmen, were received into the community on repeating the words, ' I take refuge in Buddha, I take refuge in the law, I take, refuge in the church.' They lived in their homes, keeping the rules against killing, stealing, adultery, lying and drinking, honouring their fathers and mothers, living by a just calling, avoiding the ten deadly sins, and making liberality, courtesy, kindliness, and unselfishness their rule of life. [The ten deadly sins were: Three of the body killing, stealing, and whoring; four of the tongue lying, slander, abuse, and prattle; and three of the mind greed, spite, and unbelief. Rhys Davids, 142.] By the free gift of alms, [The laity's six cardinal virtues were alms, virtue, patience, courage, contemplation, knowledge. Several of these words have special and unusual meanings (St. Hilaire, 139). A favourite Buddhist couplet was, 'Cease from sin, practise virtue, govern the heart.' (Ditto 131).] by keeping the weekly changes of the moon and the rainy months as holy seasons, by attending at the chapel, and, at least in early times, by making confession once in every five years, they laid up a store of merit and reduced the number and improved the character of their future births.

Nuns.

Gautama was averse from allowing women to become ascetics, and agreed to admit them only under promise that they would keep certain special rules. [The rules were that a nun, even of 100 years old, must respect all monks; she must never insult or abuse them; must examine herself; confess her faults; learn from the monks, specially in the three summer months when she must rest neither by night nor by day in her efforts to learn the law; at all times she must watch the monks and profit by their example. Remusat's Foe Koue Ki, 112. One nun, the daughter of Sagara king of the Nagas, rose to be a Bodhisattva (St. Hilaire, 109). It is probably this lady who appears at Elura in the dress of Padmapani (Fergusson and Burgess' Caves, 374).] The nun's dress was the same as the monk's dress, the nuns ate together apart from the monks, and worshipped the relic shrine of Ananda, Gautama's cousin, who had pleaded with him for their admission. [Remusat's Foe Koue Ki, 112; Beal's Fah Hian, 58.] In Upper India nuns were numerous enough to attract the notice of Megasthenes (B.C. 300). [Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, XII.] They were most liberal in their gifts to Kanheri as they were to other monasteries. [Upwards of a third of the gifts to the Sanchi topes (B.C. 250-A.D. 19) were by women, many of whom were nuns (Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, 268). One Kuda and several of the Kanheri gifts are from the children of nuns (Fergusson and Burgess' Caves, 206). Probably these nuns had entered the convent late in life after their husbands' death.] They play a leading part in some of the old dramas. [In Malati and Madhav (A. D. 800) one of the chief characters is the lady superior of a Buddhist convent. Manning's Ancient India, II. 208.] But they do not seem to have ever risen to be an important class. [Hardy (Eastern Monachism, 161) says the order of nuns seems to have soon been given up.]

Monks were called bhikshus or beggars, shramans or toilers, and shravaks or hearers. At first admission was most free. 'Come hither, enter into the spiritual life' was Gautama's initiation. [Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 18.] Before long (B.C. 430) some knowledge, was required, and in later times most of the monks began as novices shramaneras. The novice must be over eight years old, have his parents' leave, be free from disease, and be neither a soldier nor a slave. [Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 18. According to Cunningham (Bhilsa Topes, 167), the unlucky, the soured, and the worn-out were the men who became monks. In the drama of the Toy Cart (A.D. 200) a broken gambler turns monk (Manning's Ancient India, II. 168, 169). But at least, in later times, most of the monks were boys taken out of Buddhist schools.] He might belong to any of the four higher classes, but apparently could not belong to one of the impure or depressed tribes. When he entered the monastery the novice became the pupil of one of the monks. His head and eyebrows were shaved; he was bathed and dressed in robes which he presented to his superior and again took from him. He was thrice made to repeat the words, 'I take refuge in Buddha, I take refuge in the truth, I take refuge in the order,' and to say the ten commandments against killing, stealing, marrying, lying, drinking, eating after midday, attending dances music parties or plays, using perfumes or flowers, and coveting gold or precious articles. [Beal's Fah Hian, 59. Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 24. These are the eight laymen's rules with two extra rules, one against dancing music and plays, the other against gold and silver. Rhys Davids, 141.] At twenty the novice was admitted a member of the order in presence of the brotherhood. He took vows of poverty and chastity, and was presented with the three yellow robes and the beggar's bowl. He promised to have no intercourse with women, never to take alms from them, look at them, speak to them or dream of them, to take away nothing, to wear a dusty garment, to dwell at the roots of trees, to eat only what others had left, and to use cow's urine as a medicine. All family ties were severed and he promised never to work, not even to dig, as in turning the earth worms might be killed. [Duncker, IV. 466. Remusat (Foe Koue Ki, 62) gives the following twelve duties of a monk. 1, To live in a quiet place; 2, to live on alms; 3, to take his turn in carrying the alms-bowl; 4, to take only one meal; 5, to divide the food he is given into three parts, for the poor, for animals, and for himself; 6, not to eat after midday; 7, to wear no new or bright clothes; 8, to wear three garments; 9, to live in tombs; 10, to sit under a tree; 11, to sit on the earth; and 12, to sit and not lie down. Compare Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 10. It is doubtful how far these rules were kept. As early as B.C. 450 a strong party was in favour of using carpets, liquor, and gold and silver (Duncker, IV. 378).] His promise did not bind him for life; he might leave the monastery when he chose.

Monks.

At first all monks were equal. By degrees the order became subdivided and in some countries developed into a complete hierarchy. [Rhys Davids' Buddhism, 159.] In India from early times there was a division into two grades, the monk bhikshu shraman or shravak, and the superior or elder acharya, arhat, sthavira or thero. [Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, 56, 71. 72, 115, 117, 118, and 120.] Later three grades of superior monks were introduced, the head of a monastery or abbot, the head of a group of monasteries or bishop, and the head of a province or primate. [Talboys Wheeler, III. 131, The Buddhist monk in the ' Toy Cart' is raised to be chief of the monasteries (Manning's Ancient India, II. 170). Cunningham's idea (Bhilsa Topes, 132) that the superior monks wore long hair, white mitres, and short tunics seems to be a mistake. (See the account of the Dasyus in Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, 94).] Besides by the division into grades, the position of the monks varied considerably according to their name for piety and learning. A man who could explain one of the twelve sacred collections was freed from routine and raised to be a manager If he mastered a second collection he became a superior; if he mastered a third, servants were given him; if a fourth, his servants were Brahmans; if a fifth, he travelled in a car drawn by elephants if a sixth, he was accompanied by a large escort. Those who were at the head of the monastery called the monks together and held conferences, judged the talents of those under them, raised some and degraded others. If a monk showed marked power in debate, if his speech was easy rich and ready and his wit keen, he was set on a richly decked elephant, carried in triumph round the monastery, and proclaimed its champion. If, on the other hand, his words were clumsy and pointless, if his arguments were feeble, his style wordy, and his reasoning loose, the brothers daubed him with red and white, covered him with mud and dust, drove him into the desert, or ducked him in a well. [Stanislas Julien s Hiwen Thsang, I. 79. In spite of the respect shown to the leading men, the constitution of the monastery was democratic. It was the brotherhood who consecrated monks, heard confessions, imposed penances, and ordered degradation or expulsion.]

Special spiritual insight was not less honoured than unusual intellectual power. Those who had mastered the four truths, sorrow, the cause of sorrow, that sorrow can be destroyed, and how sorrow can be destroyed, gained the title of Arya or honourable. Further progress along the path to the extinction of desire was marked by four stages, that of the shrotaapanna who had only seven births to pass; that of the sakridagamin or once returning, who had only one more birth; that of the anagamin or not returning, who is never born again; and that of the arhat, who desires nothing either on earth or in heaven. The Arhat had power to work miracles, to survey all worlds, to hear all sounds, to read all thoughts, and to remember all past existence. [Duncker, IV. 472.]

Discipline.

Neither monks nor nuns took a vow of obedience. [Rhys Davids' Buddhism, 168.] For the maintenance of discipline the monks met twice a month and the rules were read. Any brother who had broken a rule was called to confess. According to the graveness of the offence he was absolved or rebuked, or a penance was prescribed such as refraining from speech, sweeping the court, or strewing it with sand. [Rhys Davids, 169.] If the offence was more serious, indecent talk, immoral conduct, or stirring strife, he was degraded. [In one of the Bhojpur topes a bowl was found with the word patito, that is, patitah, degraded. The offender was not cut off from the brotherhood, his alms-bowl was turned upside down and left until his sin was forgiven. Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, 336.] And if he was guilty of unchastity, theft, or murder, he was driven out of the monastery. [Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 145; Stan. Julien's Hiwen Thsang, I. 80; Duncker, IV. 469.] Each monk had food and drink, a cell, a bed or stone bench and coverlet, a change of robes, an alms-bowl and staff, a razor, a needle, and a water strainer. [Beal's Fah Hian, 56; Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 64; Rhys Davids' Buddhism, 167.] They spent their time in chanting the scriptures, in thought, in teaching, visiting the hospitals, or reading to the sick or demon-haunted laity. If a stranger monk came to the convent the senior brothers went to meet him, and led him in carrying his clothes and alms dish. They gave him water to wash his feet and food, and, after he had rested, asked him his age, and according to his age, gave him a chamber supplying him with all the articles required by a monk. [Beal's Fah Hian, 56; Remusat's Foe Koue Ki, 100, 101.]

Worship.

As has been already noticed, the earliest objects of Buddhist worship were trees, relic or memorial mounds, the triple symbol of Buddha the law and the congregation, Gautama's alms-bowl staff and other possessions, and the image of Shri or Lakshmi the goddess of wealth. Later generations added the images of Gautama, of the four older Buddhas, of future Buddhas, and of several Hindu gods and goddesses. The usual form of worship was to prostrate or bow before the shrine, relic, or image 'as if it were alive,' to offer it flowers and incense, to repeat the threefold confession of trust in Buddha in the law and in the church, and to leave a money offering. [Beal's Fah Hian, 43; Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 209. ] Another common observance was to walk round the shrine repeating hymns of praise and thanks to Gautama the discoverer of truth, and to offer a prayer that all creatures may be free from sickness and from sinful pleasure, and that in the next life every man may be a saint. [Duncker, IV. 482.] At midday the monastery's most famous relic was brought out and worshipped by priests and laymen, and again they worshipped it at evening or incense-burning time. [Beal's Fah Hian, 38. The most sacred relic at Kanheri seems to have been. one of Buddha's teeth. In a small tope in front of cave No. 3 Dr. Bird found a copperplate, stating that one of Gautama's dog teeth had been buried there. Fergusson thinks that the tooth may have been brought from Amravati by Gotamiputra II. Tree and Serpent 'Worship, 159. This tooth of Buddha's seems a mistake. See Arch. Survey, X. 59.] Relics were kept with the greatest care, sometimes in relic mounds sometimes in shrines.

Food.

The rules about food were not extremely strict. Laymen were warned against gluttony, against the use of spirits, and on Sundays and in Lent against eating after noon. Even for ascetics the rules were fairly liberal. Except that they might not touch intoxicating drinks, [Hiwen Thsang noticed that the Buddhist monks drank the juice of the grape and of sugarcane. But it was altogether unlike distilled wine. Stanislas Julien I. 93. The use of animal food in the fifth century would seem to have been unusual as the Chandals are specially noticed as the only people who kill animals, or deal in flesh. Fah Hian in Foe Koue Ki, 105.] the members of the order might take what was customary in the country where they lived, so long as they ate without indulgence. It was Gautama's lax views in the matter of food, that, according to a Buddhist legend, caused the first schism, Devadatta demanding and Gautama refusing to agree to stricter rules.[Rhys Davids, 76.] The monks were allowed to dine with pious laymen, and the practice was common especially on the days of full moon. [Beal's Fah Hian, 54. The laymen treated their guests with great deference seating them on a high dais and themselves sitting on the ground before them.] Still the rule was clear that nothing should be eaten more than was wanted to keep the body in health, and that, save when travelling or sick, solid food should be taken only at the midday meal. [Rhys Davids, 157,163; Beal's Fah Hian, 56; Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 92.] Even this midday meal was no time of enjoyment. The eater should sit down, place his bowl on his knees, and eat slowly and sadly, much in the spirit of George Herbert's rule, Take thy meat, think it dust, then eat a bit, and say earth to earth I commit.' [Rhys Davids, 164; Duncker, IV. 466.] At first all food was gathered from house to house and eaten by the monks in their cells. In later times when the monastery had lands and workmen, the grain was cooked by laymen and the monks ate together in a dining hall. [The change took place before A.D. 300. Cunningham Bhilsa Topes, 133. The Kanheri dining hall (Cave No. 2) is so narrow as to leave no room for a row of plates. The monks must have steadied their bowls on their knees. Fah Hian tells of one monastery, where at the sound of a gong 3000 priests sat down. They were most orderly taking their seats one after another, keeping silence, making no noise with their rice bowl, not chattering when they wanted a second help simply signing with their fingers. Beal, 9.] Animal food was not forbidden. Flesh might be eaten so long as a Buddhist had not taken the animal's life. Anger caused uncleanness not the eating of flesh,[Rhys Davids, 131.] and abstinence from animal food was a mark of special asceticism.[Rhys Davids, 164. Duncker (IV. 466) says flesh was never eaten, and Cunningham (Bhilsa Topes, 33) states that animal food wag forbidden; but compare Wheeler, III. 142, 220 and Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 92. The story that Gautama died from eating pork is not likely to be an invention (Rhys Davids, 80). It is probably connected with the Kshatri feeling, that eating of the flesh of the wild boar is a privilege if not a duty of their class. In Buddhist Mathura, where no living creature was killed except by the Chandals, some classes must have used animal food as the Chandals dealt in flesh. Beal's Fah Hian, 55. The special position of the Muhammadan mula in the Deccan village system illustrates, perhaps is a survival of, an old Buddhist practice.] There was a strict rule against the use of intoxicating drinks. But at an early date efforts were made to avoid the force of the rule and in later times it seems to have been set aside. [One of the Ten Indulgences claimed by a large section of the monks, was to be allowed to drink any liquor that looked like water (see above, p. 137). According to Vassilief (Bouddisme, 87), when monasteries grew rich, the monks drank liquor as medicine. Drinking scenes are not unusual either in Buddhist sculptures or paintings (Fergusson Tree and Serpent Worship, 139). But most of these are perhaps meant to illustrate Gautama's life before he became a recluse.]

Dress.

On joining the order the monk's beard head and eyebrows were shaved and this was repeated once a fortnight, the monks shaving each other. They went bareheaded and barefoot. Both monks and nuns wore three lengths of yellow cloth, either castaway rags or cloth torn to patches and again sewed together. These garments were the sanghati a waistcloth or kilt wrapped round the thighs and legs, the antara-vasak a body cloth or shirt worn round the chest, and the uttarasanga a cloak or cape passed round the legs, drawn over the left shoulder, and girt with a girdle. [Beal (Fah Hian, 45) calls the sanghati the great garment or overcloak. Remusat (Foe Koue Ki, 93) seems to have held the same view. But see Rhys Davids, 166, 167; and Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, 61, 62.] The waistcloth or kilt was worn in the cell; the body cloth or shirt at prayer, and on ceremonies and high days; and the cloak in public places. [According to Hiwen Thsang (Stanislas Julien, I. 70), each sect had a special way of folding the upper robe, and the colour varied from yellow to red. From sculptures on the Bhilsa Topes, Cunningham (Bhilsa Topes, 27, 204, plate XI.) formed the opinion that the higher order of Buddhist monks wore the beard and were crowned with a mitre-like head-dress. This seems to be a mistake.] A spare set of garments was allowed and a new suit was supplied at the beginning of each cold season. [Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 121; Rhys Davids, 167.]

Daily Life.

The elder monks spent their days in reading and thought. [There were five subjects of thought, love, pity, joy, impurity, and calm. Rhys Davids, 170-171.] Even the younger monks were forbidden the simplest work. [Monks might not dig, cut grass, pour water, or fight. Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 149.] Their daily round was to rise with the dawn, and, after cleaning their teeth and putting on the outer robe, to sweep the courtyard and the paths in front of the cell or of the chapel, to fetch water and strain it through a cloth that no life might be lost. Then to retire for about an hour and think on the rules of life. Next, at the sound of the gong or bell for morning service, [Metal cymbals or bells called the monks to service. Duncker, IV, 468.] to attend the chapel, listen to the scriptures, [Reading the sacred books was the highest exercise. Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 198.] and offer flowers to the relic shrine thinking of Gautama's nine virtues and regarding the shrine as if it were alive. In early times the young monk's next duty was to gird his outer robe round him and start for the villages near, carrying in his left hand a wooden staff breast-high tipped with a two-inch iron ferule and topped with an iron ring two or three inches wide, and holding in his right hand, close to his breast, a watermelon-shaped black or red alms-bowl of clay or iron. [Rhys Davids (Buddhism, 163) describes the alms-bowl as a brown earthenware vessel like an uncovered soup tureen; Arnold (Light of Asia, 196) as an earthen bowl shaped melon-wise. Cunningham (Bhilsa Topes, 70) holds that the old alms bowl had an upper part and a short neck.] So he moved with slow even steps and eyes fixed on the ground, passing close to every house except the dwelling of the courtezan [It seems doubtful how far this rule was kept. There are several stories about courtezans feeding ascetics. See Cunningham's Bharhut Stupa, 22.] and the Mhar, asking for nothing, taking what was given with a thankful heart, and, if no one came, shaking the iron ring once or twice and passing on.[Duncker, IV. 483; Wheeler, III. 129; Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 71,81; Beal's Fah Hian, 44. It was usual for the elder monk to walk in front and be followed by a younger brother carrying the alms-bowl. Rhys Davids, 170.] As soon as the bowl was full to the brim, he took no more and divided the contents into three parts, one for the animals, one for the destitute, and the third for himself. Then going back he washed his superior's feet, gave him water to drink, and brought the alms-bowl. After their meal he cleansed the bowl, washed his face, and worshipped his superior. This was the practice in early times. In later days, when the monasteries were endowed with lands and had stores of grain, there was no call to go begging. The grain was cooked by laymen, and, at the sound of a bell, the monks trooped to the dining hall and ate their meal. [Rhys Davids, 164; Beal's Fah Hian, 9.] When the meal was over the gong sounded again for midday service. The scriptures were read and the relics worshipped, and the elders taught the younger brethren. [Rhys Davids, 106-111.] They then withdrew to think, or went to teach in the school, [Talboys Wheeler, III. 152.] to minister in the hospital, [The second of Ashok's edicts (B.C. 250) established hospitals over the empire (Duncker, IV. 216). Fah Hian (Beal, 107) mentions homes for the sick destitute and diseased, where doctors attended free of charge. Compare Turnour's Mahavanso, 245, 256.] or to read the scriptures in the homes of the sick or the demon-haunted. [Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 240.] When the evening gong sounded, in turn with the other younger monks, the novice called the elder who was to read the evening service, washed his feet, and listened. Then he rested for a time watching the hills and the sun set in the sea. [Two things, said Gautama, we should never tire of looking at, high hills and the sea. Burnouf' s Int. a 1' Bud. Ind. I. 319.] As the light faded he waited on any sick or infirm brother who wanted help. Then seating himself on his bench he dropped to sleep musing on the cause of sorrow. [Hardy's Eastern Monaohism, 26. Duncker, IV. 469. The rule was never to lie down. The early monks seem, when sleep overcame them, to have bound their girdle. round, their waist and round their knees and slept sitting. See the figure in Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, plate XV. 1, probable date A.D. 19, and page 208). Later the shape of the stone benches and the mention of a bed in the list of a monk's outfit make it doubtful whether the practice of sleeping sitting was continued. (Hardy's Eastern Monaohism, 107). In time beds seem to have come into general use as the later caves have no stone benches. Fergusson and Burgess' Caves, 209.]

Special Days.

The routine of life at Kanheri was broken by special fasts and special feasts. [It is doubtful how far the regular days were kept at Kanheri, as the Buddhists changed the days to suit local circumstances and practices Vassilief'a Le Bouddisme, 87, 88.] The weekly changes of the moon were Sabbaths, or uposathas, when the layman rested from his work, ate no unseasonable food, wore no garlands and slept on the ground, and, dressing in his best, came to the monastery to worship and hear the scriptures, [Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 236-240; Dunoker's History, IV. 483.] The days of new moon and full moon were still more sacred. The monks bathed and shaved each other, [Hardy's Eastern Monaohism, 149.] and were called to a special service where the duties of a monk were read. After each commandment the monks were asked if they had kept the law. If any one confessed that he had not kept the law, the facts of the case were examined, and, if the fault was not serious, forgiveness was granted. [Duncker's History, IV. 469. The practice of confession sprang from Gautama's saying, ' Hide your good deeds, show your faults.' St. Hilaire, 144.] Numbers of worshippers came from the neighbouring towns, and the space in front of the chief chapel was gay with the sellers of flowers and incense. On full moon days many of the monks dined at laymen's houses where they were treated with great respect. On full moon nights a platform was raised in the preaching hall, and, before a congregation of monks nuns [The Amravati sculptures show monks grouped on one side and nuns on the other. Tree and Serpent Worship, 191.] and laity, the superior brothers chanted the law, the people greeting the name of Buddha with a ringing shout of sadhu or good. The rainy season, from the full moon in July to the November full moon, was specially holy. [Beal's Fah Hian, 155. Wheeler (History, III. 130) gives the October full moon'. But November seems to be right. See Duncker, IV. 378, and Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, 361.] It marked the time during which the monks originally gathered after their eight months' wanderings and lived together reading the scriptures and teaching one another. The climate and the position of Kanheri would make it difficult to have the large gay open air meetings which marked this season in other Buddhist countries. [See for Ceylon, Hardy's Eastern Monachism, 232.] But preaching-booths, bana mandaps, were raised in front of the chapels and shelter provided, so that visitors could hear in comfort the favourite jatakas or stories of Buddha's lives. [Rhys Davids, 38. One of the Kanheri inscriptions (in cave 29) has a special reference to these preaching booths.] Besides this holy season, there were three yearly holidays, at the beginning of spring, in the later spring, and at the end of the rainy season, old nature-worship days to which events in Gautama's life had been made to fit. Of these the chief was the autumn festival, the divali, when sermons were preached and the whole hillside cells, chapels, and stairs were ablaze with lights. [Duncker, IV. 484.] This was also the yearly confession of the whole congregation, and the time when the laymen brought the monks their yearly gift of clothes. [Duncker, IV. 469. The divali was more than a one day ceremony. The first fortnight of the month after the rains, which was called the Robe Month, was a time in which the keeping by laymen of the three extra precepts was attended with special merit. Rhys Davids, 141. It seems possible that as in Nasik the gifts of clothes were made before, not after, the rains. Fergusson and Burgess' Caves, 271.] There was also a special yearly festival on Gautama's birthday, [Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, 155. This festival survives in the Jagannath car day.] when the relics and images were carried in procession and worshipped by crowds. For days before, news of the festival was spread abroad, and all who wished to lay up a store of merit were called to level the roads and adorn the streets and highways. The roads were lined with beautifully painted figures of the forms through which Gautama's spirit had passed. Inside the monastery the paths and the stairs were watered and adorned with flags and silk hangings. Above the chief entrance a large cloth was stretched and the space richly adorned. [Dom Joao de Castro (1538) notices (Prim. Rot. de Costa da India) the bases of six large pillars apparently in the open space in front of cave No. 3. Temporary pillars set on these bases may have supported the canopy.] The roads and hillsides were full of people dressed in their best. The ruler of the land, or the local governor was present, the ladies of his court taking their place of raised seats at the entrance. The relics and images on richly harnessed elephants, or in palanquins glittering with gold silver and gems, were carried in procession. On their return, when the leading elephant was a hundred yards from the main entrance, the prince or governor took off his head-dress and putting on new garments advanced barefoot to meet the procession. On drawing near he bowed to the ground, scattered flowers, burned incense, and withdrew. As the elephant passed the gateway, the ladies and attendants from their high dais covered the images with flowers. Then in the chapels the monks burned incense and lighted lamps, and outside the laity made merry with games, music, and dancing. [Adapted from Beal's Fah Hian, 10, 11, 107, 158. Hiwen Thsang describes these processions as carrying flying streamers and stately parasols, while the mists of perfumes and the showers of flowers darkened the sun and moon (Julien, II, 207). At similar processions in Burmah nowadays streamers from 100 to 200 feet in length are carried and afterwards hung from pillars or holy trees. Hundreds of gorgeous parasols of gold and silver brocade flash in the sun and thousands of candles burn day after day before the great stupa of Shwe-Dagon at Rangoon which is devoutly believed to contain eight hairs of Buddha. Before this sacred tower flowers and fruits are offered, by thousands of people, until large heaps are formed round it. Thousands of votaries throng with their offerings of candles and gold leaf and little flags, with plantains and rice and flowers of all kinds. Cunningham's Arch. Sur. Rep. I. 232.] Every fifth year a special ceremony was held to mark the expiation ordered by Ashok (B.C. 250). [Mrs. Manning, 233.] Monks attended from every side and the laity flocked in crowds from great distances. The monastery was adorned with silken flags and canopies. In the great hall a richly ornamented dais on platform was raised for the abbot and the leading elders, and behind the dais were rows of seats for the younger monks. Then the governor and the nobles offered their possessions, afterwards redeeming them by a money payment. [Beal's Fah Hian, 15; Wheeler, III. 249. Hiwen Thsang describes a great fifth year festival held in the plain near the meeting of the Jamna and the Ganges. The giver of the festival was Shiladitya, king of Magadha. A space 4000 feet square was hedged with roses and divided into halls filled with gold, silver, and other valuables. Half a million of people, Buddhists, Brahmans, and others assembled and received gifts. The first and greatest day's ceremonies were in honour of Buddha, but the king, whose object seems to have been political rather than religious, added a second day's rejoicings in honour of Vishnu, and a third in honour of Shiv. Then followed the gathering and the distribution of offerings and other ceremonies which lasted over seventy-five days. St. Hilaire, Buddha part II chap. I. in Wheeler, III. 275.]

Inscriptions.

Of the fifty-four inscriptions which have been more or less completely deciphered, except the three Pahlavi inscriptions in cave 66, two in caves 10 and 78 in Sanskrit, and one in cave 70 in peculiar Prakrit, the language of all is the Prakrit ordinarily used in cave writings. The letters, except in an ornamental looking inscription in cave 84, are the ordinary cave characters. As regards their age, ten appear from the form of the letters to belong to the time of Vasishthipatra (A.D. 133-162), twenty to the Gotamiputra II. period (A.D.177-196), en to the fifth and sixth centuries, one to the eighth, three to the ninth or tenth, one to the eleventh, and several coins to the fifteenth. Three of them in caves 10 and 78 bear dates and names of kings, and three in caves 3, 36, and 81 give the names of kings but no dates. The dates of the rest have been calculated from the form of the letters.

Though almost all are mutilated, enough is in most cases left to show the name of the giver, the place where he lived, and the character of the gift. Of the fifty-four twenty-eight give the names of donors, which especially in their endings differ from the names now in use; twenty-one of them give their professions mostly merchants, a few goldsmiths, some recluses, and one a minister. Except seven women, four of whom were nuns, all the givers were men.

The places mentioned in the neighbourhood of the caves are the cities of Kalyan, Sopara, and Chemula, and the villages of Mangalsthan or Magathan, Sakapadra probably Saki near Tulsi, and Saphad (?). Of more distant places there are Nasik, Pratishthan or Paithan, Dhanakat or Dharnikot, Gaud or Bengal, and Dattamitri in Sind. [Kalyan is mentioned in nine inscriptions (in caves 2, 3, 12, 36, 37, 56, 59, 89, and on a detached stone between 14 and 15), Sopara in two (3 and 7), Konkan in two (78), Chemula in one (10), Nasik in one (2), Paithan in one (3), Mangalpuri in one (78), Dharnikot at the mouth of the Krishna in one (76), Dattamitri in one (3), and Gaud in one (10). All of these, except Dattamitri are well known. Dattamitri, writes Prof. Bhandarkar (Sec. Trans. Or. Cong. 345), was the name of a town in Sauvira near Sind. It may also be Demetria (Ditto). Of villages Mangalsthan or Magathan is mentioned in one (81), (Sa) Kapadra in one (10), and Saphad in one (29).] The gifts were caves, cisterns, pathways, images, and endowments in cash or in land. [Thirteen inscriptions (in caves 2, 3, 10, 19, 36, 39, 48, 53, 56, 58, 69,77, and 84) record the gift of caves, eight of caves and cisterns (12, 29, 43, 59, 68, 75, 76, and 81), four of cisterns only (5, 7, 37, 64), two of images (2 and 4), and two of pathways (95 and an inscription near caves 14 and 15). Eight endowment inscriptions (in caves 10, 12, 19, 56, 68, 76, 78 and 81) record the grant of villages, fields, and cash. The coins mentioned are Karshapanas and Drammas, but as there were both gold and silver coins of these names their value cannot be fixed. A third coin pratika called padika in Prakrit is often mentioned.] Only four of the inscriptions gave the names of kings. One in cave 36 gives the name of Madhariputra and one in cave 3 gives the name of Yajnashri Shatakarni or Gotamiputra II., two Andhrabhritya rulers of about the first and second centuries after Christ. Of the two, Madhariputra is believed to be the older and Yajnashri Shatakarni to be one of his successors. [Jour. B. B. R. A. S. XIII. 308; and XIV. 154.] Madhariputra's coins have been found near Kolhapur, and Prof. Bhandarkar believes him to be the son and successor of Pudumayi Vasishthiputra, who is believed to have flourished about A.D. 130, [Jour. B. B. R. A. S. XIV. 315.] and to be the Shri Pulimai whom Ptolemy (A.D. 150) places at Paithan near Ahmadnagar. Yajnashri Shatakarni or Gotamiputra II. appears in the Nasik inscriptions, [Sec. Trans. Int. Cong. 348,349.] and his coins have been found at Kolhapur, [Jour. B. B. R. A. S. XIII. 306.] at Dharnikot near the mouth of the Krishna the old capital of the Andhrabhrityas, [Jour. Mad. Lit. and Sc. (New Series, III). 225.] and very lately (9th April 1882) in a stupa or burial mound in Sopara near Bassein.

The two other inscriptions, [Jour. Mad. Lit. and Sc. (New Series, III). 225.] in which mention is made of the names of kings, are caves 10 and 78. These are among the latest at Kanheri, both belonging to the ninth century, to the Silhara kings of the Konkan who were tributaries of the Rashtrakutas of Malkhet. They are interesting as giving the names of two kings in each of these dynasties, as well as two dates twenty-four years apart in the contemporary rule of one sovereign in each family. Kapardi II., the Silhara king the son of Pulashakti, whose capital was probably Chemula, was reigning during the whole interval between 853 and 878, and apparently Amoghvarsh ruled at Malkhet during the same period. This Amoghvarsh is mentioned as the son and successor of Jagattung; Amoghvarsh I. was the son of Govind III. one of whose titles was Jagattung; but he must have ruled from 810 to 830, and Amoghvarsh II. was the son of Indra II. Indra either bore the title of Jagadrudra or Jagattung, or was succeeded by a son of that name. But the dates seem to point to Indra II. himself, who may have borne the title of Amoghvarsh, and he succeeded Jagattung about 850. [Burgess' Arch. Sur. X. 61.]

Notices.

Since their discovery by the Portuguese, early in the sixteenth century (1534), the caves have continued objects of much interest and wonder. In 1539, Dom Joao de Castro gave the following detailed account of the caves:

1539.

About a league and a half from the ruined city of Thana, among great hills, in a most grand high and round rock, from the plain below to the highest point, are many sumptuous temples and noble many-storied palace-like buildings, with images, columns, houses, porticoes, figures, pillars, cisterns, temples and chapels all cut in the rock, a thing certainly not within the power of man, so wonderful that it may be ranked among the seven wonders of the world, unless, instead of thinking them to be the work of men, we attribute them to spirits and the diabolic art of which I, at least, have no doubt. I have no pen to pourtray its greatness and form. But running the risk of being thought a story-teller describe the place with fear.

At the foot of the hill on one side are the bases of seven pillars, so deep and broad that the columns must have been of great height. A little further is the first edifice high and admirable, full of pillars and wonderful works. The first story where one enters goes into the rock with great rooms and halls, but to this I did not go as the ascent was difficult and steep. Close to it is a great gallery forty yards by eighteen without columns. At the end are two chapels worked in relief with a great round ball the object of adoration, and in the middle an inscription almost worn out through time. Beyond the porch of this gallery is a magnificent temple. Outside is a large yard with two high columns admirably worked in relief. The column to the right hand, has on the top a wheel like a Catherine's wheel, placed above four lions beautifully carved. The column on the left hand has some men supporting in their hands a great ball like the world and looking as if they were much borne down by the weight. On this side of the second column are many chapels and rooms. Passing from this yard and before getting to the door of the temple are two other pillars each about fourteen feet high, with on each an inscription in clear and beautiful characters. A little beyond is a corridor, where, on one side, is a ferocious and great giant of thirty-six spans high and the limbs well proportioned. In the rest of the corridor are, in relief, many figures and faces of men. Beyond the corridor is the temple very high and beautifully vaulted, 120 feet long by fifty broad and fifty-four high. At the end of the temple is a great altar, with, on its top, the world or a masonry ball nineteen yards round. On each side is a row of thirty-seven columns, and between them and the walls is a cloister which goes round the body of the temple. Over the main entrance is a platform supported on two great colonnades, just like the place for choristers in Portuguese churches. Outside of the temple a way of steps runs from the foot of the rock to the top, so steep that it seems to go to heaven, and, all along the way from below upwards are many edifices, houses, porches, cisterns, chapels, and yards all cut out of stone. I shall speak of those only which I have seen. There are eighty-three houses, among which-is one 120 feet long by sixty wide and others where you could keep 100 men; the rest are generally high and roomy. Besides houses there are fifteen chapels, all worked in relief, and thirty-two cisterns hollowed in the rock with plenty of good water, and fifty-six porches some in relief and in fifteen of them legible inscriptions. Most of the houses and rooms have entrances with seats of stone all round. The length of the staircase that runs from the foot of the rock to the top is 930 paces, and besides it there are many other staircases with many buildings. It is a city cut in the rock that can hold 7000 men. To the north is another higher hill at whose feet runs a small stream. Across the stream is another rock with many dwellings. But I had not time to visit them. [Dom Joao de Castro, Primeiro Roteiro da Costa da India, 75-81.]

1540.

About the year 1540, Garcia d'Orta mentions two underground temples in Salsette, one of which was in a hill larger than the fortress of Diu and might be compared to a Portuguese city of four hundred houses. There were 300 houses with images carved in stone. Each house had a cistern, with conduits bringing rain water. [Colloquios dos Simples e Dragos, 211-212, quoted in Da Cnnha's Bassein, 190.]

1603.

According to De Couto (1603), the Pagoda of Canari was cut out of the lower part of a great hill of light grey rock. There was a beautiful hall at its entrance, and, at either end of the yard which is outside the door of the hall, were two human figures engraved on the same stone so beautiful, elegant, and well executed, that even in silver they could not be better wrought. Near the front door were some cisterns hewn out of the rock, which received the rain water, which was so cold in the summer, that no hand could bear it. From the foot to the top of the hill, like a winding staircase, were more than three thousand small rooms in the form of small cells, cut out of the rock, each of them with a water cistern at the door. What was more to be wondered at was an aqueduct constructed so ingeniously that it passed through all the three thousand apartments, received all the water from the hill, and supplied it to the cisterns that were at the doors of the rooms. When the Reverend Antonio de Porto (1534) lived in the Church of St. Michael (Cave No. 3), he was told by the Christians whom he had converted, that there was a labyrinth in the hill whose end had never been traced, and it was moreover stated that it extended as far as Cambay. The priest desirous of exploring this labyrinth took one of his companions, and gathered twenty persons with arms and matchlocks to defend themselves against wild beasts; and some servants to carry water, rice, biscuits, and vegetables for the journey, and oil for torches. They also took three persons laden with ropes to lay along their way. They entered the caves through an opening about four fathoms broad, where they placed a large stone to which they fastened one end of the rope. They travelled through the caves for seven days without any interruption, along places some of them wide and others narrow, which were hollowed in the rock, and on each side they saw small chambers like those in the sides of the hill, each of which had at its entrance a cistern, but no one could say whether these cisterns contained water, or how they could receive any water, for in all these passages they could not discover any hole, crevice, or anything which could throw light on the subject. The upper part of the building was cut out of the rock, and the walls on each side of these roads were cut in the same way. The priest seeing that they had spent seven days without finding any opening, and that their provisions and water were almost finished, thought it necessary to return, taking for his clue the rope, without knowing in these windings whether he was going up or down, or what course they were taking as they had no compass for their guidance.

Couto also mentions that the Portuguese found the caves inhabited by ascetics or Yogis. One of the ascetics, who was 150 years old, was made a Christian and named Paulo Raposo; and Coleta another Yogi, who had a more saintly reputation than Raposo, was named Francisco da Santa Maria. With regard to the origin of the caves, De Couto was told by one of the earliest converts that they were made by a king whose son became a great religious teacher. Astrologers told the king that his son would become a great ascetic. To prevent this, and wean his mind to pleasure, the king kept his son in a splendid palace full of life and beauty. As he grew up the son wearied of his confinement, and was allowed to drive in the city near his palace. During his first drive he saw a blind man, during his second drive an aged beggar, and during his third drive a corpse. Hearing that death was the end of all men, he loathed his life of thoughtless pleasure, and, flying from the palace, became an ascetic. De Couto's details of the life of this prince so fully and correctly agree with the legendary life of Gautama, that they strongly support the view that the yogis whom the Portuguese found at Kanheri were Buddhist monks. [See the details in J. B. B. R. A. S., I. 38-40. The monks also told De Couto that the prince went to Ceylon, fixed his abode in Adam's Peak, and when he left the island, pressed a mark of his foot in the rock. He was called Drama Rayo (Dharmaraj), and, when he became a saint, Buden or the Wise. De Couto further tells how the old converted yogi made the discovery (a discovery which has lately been re-made by Yule [Marco Polo, II. 263] and by Max Muller [Contemporary Review, XIV. 593]) that the story of Buddha is the same as the famous Christian legend of Barlaam and Joasaph, and that, under the name of Josaphat, his old master Buddha was worshipped as a saint by the Christian church. J. B. B. R. A. S., I. 39.

The legend of Barlaam and Joasaph or Josaphat is supposed to have been written in the eighth century by St. John of Damascus. The early life of Joasaph is the same as the early life of Gautama in the Lalita Vistara. His father is a king, and, after the birth of his son, an astrologer foretells that he will rise to glory; not, however, in his own kingdom, but in a higher and better one; in fact, that he will embrace the new and persecuted religion of the Christians. Everything is done to prevent this. He is kept in a beautiful palace, surrounded by all that is enjoyable; and care is taken to keep him in ignorance of sickness, old age, and death. After a time, his father gives him leave to drive out. On one of his drives he sees two men, one maimed, the other blind. He asks what they are, and is told that they are suffering from disease. He then inquires whether all men are liable to disease, and whether it is known beforehand who will suffer from disease and who will be free; and when he hears the truth, he becomes sad, and returns home. Another time, when he drives out, he meets an old man with wrinkled face and shaking legs, bent down, with white hair, his teeth gone, and his voice faltering. He asks again what all this means, and is told that this is what happens to all men; that no one can escape old age, and that in the end all men must die. Thereupon he returns home to meditate on death, till, at last, a hermit appears and opens before his eyes the higher view of life contained in the gospel of Christ. Max Muller in the Contemporary Review, XIV. 592,593.] Couto also heard from some wealthy Cambay Vanis, that the king who made the Kanheri caves lived 1300 years before the coming of the Portuguese, that his name was Bimilamenta, that he was a wise good king a native of Magor, Cedepur, and Patan, who had civilised the country reclaiming the people from wild wandering to a life of settled order. [Jour. B. B. R. A. S., I. 36, 37. De Couto's date for the making of the caves (A,D. 230), comes curiously close to the probable date (A.D. 177-196) of Gotamiputra Yajnashri Shatakarni the chief patron of the Kanheri monastery.]

In 1625 Sir Thomas Herbert mentions two temples of profane worship at Salsette. He gives little detail, only noticing that one of them had three galleries. [Harris' Voyages, I, 410.]

1675.

Fryer gives the following account of a trip to the caves in 1675. The way, he writes, to the anciently famed, but now ruined city of Canorein, is so delightsome, I thought I had been in England. It is fine arable pasture and coppice. After passing five miles to the foot of the hill on which the city stands, and half a mile through a thick wood peopled by apes, tigers, wild buffaloes, and jackals, and some flocks of parokeets, we alighted where appeared the mouth of a tank or aqueduct, cut out of a rock whose steaming breath was very hot, but the water cold. From hence it is thought the whole city was supplied with water; for as we ascend we find places, where convenient, filled with limpid water, not overmatched in India. If it be so, that it should have its current upwards through the hard rocks artificially cut, the world cannot parallel so wonderful a water-course. From hence the passage is uneasy and inaccessible for more than two abreast, till we come to the city, all cut out of a rock, where is presented Vulcan's forge supported by two mighty colosses, bellied in the middle with two globes. Next comes a temple with a beautiful frontispiece. Within the porch on each side stand two monstrous giants, where two lesser and one great gate give a noble entrance; it can receive no light but at the doors and windows of the porch, whereby it looks more solemnly. The roof is arched, seeming to be borne by huge pillars of the same rock, some round, some square, thirty-four in number. The cornice work is of elephants, horses, and lions; at the upper end it rounds like a bow; near where stands a great offertory somewhat oval, the body of it without pillars, they only making a narrow piatzo about, leaving the nave open. It may be a hundred feet long and sixty or more in height. Beyond this, by the same mole-like industry, was worked out a court of judicature (West's No. 10), or place of audience, fifty feet square, all bestuck with imagery well engraven, according to old 'sculpture. On the side over against the door, sate one superintendent to whom the Brahman who went with us, paid great reverence, not speaking of him without a token of worship; whom he called Jogi, or the holy man. Under this, the way being made into handsome marble steps, are the king's stables not different from the fashion of our noblemen's stables. Only at the head of every stall seems to be a dormitory or place for devotion, with images, which gave occasion to doubt if ever for that end, or rather made for a heathen seminary of devotees; and these their cells or chapels, and the open place their common hall or school: more aloft stood the king's palace, large stately and magnificent, surrounded with lesser of the nobility. To see all would require a month's time. But that we might see as much as could be in our allotted time, we got upon the highest part of the mountain where we feasted our eyes with innumerable entrances of these cony burrows, but could not see one qnarter part. Whose labour this should be, or for what purpose, is out of memory; but this place by the gentiles is much adored. It is probably a heathen fane or idolatrous pagod, from the superstitious opinion they still hold of its sacredness; wherefore the Portugals, who are now masters of it, strive to eraze the remainder of this Herculean work that it may sink into the oblivion of its founders.' [New Account, 71, 72,]

1695.

About twenty years later (1695), the Italian traveller, Gemelli Careri, gives the following details: The first piece of workmanship that appears, consists of two large columns two spans high, the third part of them from the bottom upwards is square, the middle part octangular, and the top round. Their diameter is six spans; they are fifteen spans distant from one another, and each of them eight from the rock which is cut after the same manner. These columns support a stone architrave forty-four spans long, four in thickness and eight in breadth, cut like the rest out of the same rock. These three porticoes lead into a sort of hall or passage-room four spans long, cut in the same rock. At the end of it are three doors, one fifteen spans high and eight in breadth, which is the middlemost, and two others four spans square on the sides, which are the way into a lower place. Over these doors is a cornice four spans broad, of the same stone; over which, thirty spans above the ground, there are other such doors or windows cut in the rock. At the same height there are little grots or dens six spans high, of which the middlemost is the biggest. Thirty-four spans above the ground, in the same place, is such another grot. It is no easy matter to conceive what the use of all this was. Ten paces towards the right, is a sort of grot, open on two sides twenty-four spans in length and fifteen in breadth, over which was a round cupola fifteen spans high and ten wide, with a square cornice like that about the grot. Here there is an idol cut in the rock in half relief, which seems to hold something in its hand, but what it is does not appear. The cap it has on is like the cap of the Doge of Venice. By it stand two statues in a submissive posture, as if they were servants. They have conical or sugar-loaf caps. Over their heads are two small figures, like angels painted in the air; below two little statues, holding their hands on a staff and two children by their sides with their hands put together, as if in prayer; on their backs is something like a piece of wood. Close by is another round cupola all of one stone, and shaped like the other; the top of it is broken. Both this and the other are supposed to have been sepulchres of the ancient gentiles; but there is no ground to make this out, no opening appearing to put in the bodies or ashes; on the contrary, it is clear they are not hollow within, only cut without in the shape of the cupolas. About this second there are four great figures carved in half relief, holding in the left hand, something like a garment, and the same sort of caps on their heads with small figures at their feet, and two above. Opposite to them, there are three little ones sitting, and six other large ones, and three of a middling size standing, all cut in the rock after the same manner. That in the middle, which seems to be the idol, in its left holds a tree with fruit on it. On the other side are sixteen figures, all sitting with both hands on their breast, and the same caps; one of them seems to be superior to the rest, because there are two figures standing by its side, and two children above. At a small distance northward is a little grot eight spans square, and in it, as it were a bed of the same stone, four spans broad and eight long. On the other frontispiece is a statue sitting on its legs, after the manner of the east, with the hands together on the breast; and another standing with the branch of a fruit tree, and above a winged infant. Beyond the grot, and on the same front, which runs sixty spans within the rock, there are two statues sitting after the same manner, their hands placed the same way, with conical caps on their heads, and two like servants standing by them. On the same side is the famous Pagod of Canarin. The entrance to it is through an opening forty spans long, in a wall of the same stone, fifty spans long, end eight spans thick, on which there are three statues. On the right hand, before you go into the pagod, is a round grot, more than fifty spans in circumference, in which, round the wall, there are many statues sitting, and some standing and one on the left is bigger than the rest. In the middle rises a round cupola, cut out of the rock, like a pillar of the same stone, with several characters carved about it, which no man can explain. Going into the first porch of the pagod, which is fifty spans square, there are on the sides two columns sixty spans high, with their capitals, and six spans diameter. On the column, on the right as one comes in, there are two lions, with a shield by them; on the other upon the left two statues. Beyond these columns at the entrance of a grot, on the left, there are two great statues standing, and looking at one another. Still further in are two vast big statues on the left, and one on the right of the door, all standing, with several little statues by them, only within the space of that porch; for going into the adjoining grot, which is twenty-four spans square, there is nothing worth observing. On the right hand, where the lions are, there are no statues, but two large vessels upon convenient pedestals. Hence there are three equal doors thirty spans high and eight broad, but that in the middle even with the floor, those on the sides five spans above it, into another plain place. Here there are four columns twelve spans high, standing on the rock itself, between the five windows that give light to the pagod. On the right side of the door there are some unknown letters worn with age, as is all the rest of the work. In this place, on the sides, besides several small figures, there are two vast statues of giants standing, above twenty-five spans high; showing their right hands open, and holding a garment in the left, on their heads the same caps, and in their ears pendants after the Indian fashion.

At the entrance of the great gate of the pagod, which is fifteen spans high and ten in breadth, there are on the right four statues standing, one of which is a woman holding a flower in her hand; and twelve others, some sitting and some standing, with their hands on their breasts, and something in them. On the left are four other statues, two of women, with large rings about their ankles of the same stone, and sixteen little statues on their sides, some sitting, some standing, and some with their hands on their breasts as was said before. Over the said door there are other two great ones, and as many opposite to them, with three little ones standing.

On the left hand within, is another inscription in the same character; over the arch of this door is a window forty spans wide, which is the width of the pagod, with a stone like an architrave in the middle, supported on the inside by two octangular pillars. The pagod is arched, forty spans in breadth, and one hundred in length, and rounded at the end; besides the four columns at the entrance, there are thirty more within, which divide it into three aisles; seventeen of them have capitals and figures of elephants on them; the rest are octangular and plain; the space between the columns and the rock, that is, the breadth of the side aisles is six spans. At the end of the pagod, there is a sort of round cupola, thirty spans high and sixteen paces about, cut in the same rock, but not hollow within. All that has been hitherto described is cut in the rock, without any addition to the statues or anything that may be parted. But on the floor of the pagod there are several hewed-stones which perhaps served for steps to some structure.

Coming oat of the pagod, and ascending fifteen steps, all cut in the rock, are two cisterns of rain water, good to drink; and as many steps above that a grot sixteen spans square, and a great one further on with much water standing in it. Mounting twenty paces higher, is another grot twenty spans square, which led to another of the same dimensions, and that into one of twelve. In the first was a rising window with steps to it cut in the rock, with two columns near a small cistern.

At a small distance from these grots is another pagod, with a handsome plain place before it, and little walls about to sit down, and a cistern in the middle. Five doors cut in the rock lead into the first arch; and between them are four octangular pillars; all but the middle door are two spans above the ground. On the sides of this arch, whose length is the breadth of the pagoda, that is eight spans, there are on the left several statues sitting like those above mentioned, and others on the right standing. All about the frontispiece, there are many sitting and standing, no way different from the rest already described. Then there are three doors to the pagod, that in the middle twelve spans high and six in breadth, the two on the sides ten spans high and four broad. The pagod is sixty spans square, no way proportionable, being but twelve spans high. On both the sides, and over the entrance, there are above four hundred carved figures great and small, some sitting, some standing, like those before spoken of; two on the right, bigger than the rest, are standing, as is that in the middle of the frontispiece, which is of the biggest idol, and another on the left in the same posture; but all worn with age, which destroys everything. On both sides there are two grots fourteen spans square with a low wall within two spans above the ground.

Going up ten steps further northward is a grot and within that another less. On the right is another like it, with another little one within it, in which is a low wall like those before mentioned. The great one is about twenty spans in length and ten in breadth; the other ten square, and all of them have small cisterns. On the right side, is another of the same bigness, with two small pillars before it, two little grots, and three cisterns, one on the right and two on the left; and another adjoining to it, with another within it, and a cistern of the same size as the other. It is likely these were the' dwellings of the priests of the pagod, who there led a penitential life, as it were in a pagan Thebaida.

Descending from that great height by fifteen steps cut in the rock, there is a little pagod, with a porch before it thirty feet square through three doors, between which there are two square pilasters. On the left hand there are four statues, two sitting and two less in the middle standing. On the right hand a little open grot and another pagod, with a cistern before it, the way into which is first through a door ten spans in height and six in breadth into a room twenty spans square, which has on the right another very dark room twelve spans square, which makes the pagod somewhat dark. In the midst whereof is a round cupola of one solid piece, fifteen spans high, which is the height of the pagod. Descending fifty upright steps there is a plain space cut in the rock, which is not very hard, and eight octangular columns twelve spans high, which leave nine intervals to ascend five steps that lead into an arch. In this place on the left side, which is ten spans, is a great idol sitting bareheaded; two other great statues standing, and some small ones; on the right side two other statues sitting and two standing, besides many little ones about them. Then the way into the pagod is through three doors, twelve spans in height and six in breadth, with two windows over them. The pagod is a hundred spans in length, fifty in breadth, and ten in height. About it runs an arch eight spans broad, with ten square columns. Here are four rooms or grots twelve feet square, besides seven in the front and left side of the pagod, where the cistern is, all which seem to be rooms for the priests of the temple. In the niche of it, which is ten feet square, is a great idol sitting, with two statues standing, and another sitting on the left, by which also there are two statues standing, and several small figures in half relief about it. Ascending ten spans over against it is a little grot, supported by two small columns, ten spans high. There is a door ten spans high, and four in breadth out of it, into a room or grot, sixteen spans square, and thence into another of twelve, where there is a large idol sitting, holding his hands on his breast.

Then descending twenty steps there is a plain space, whence four steps on the left lead up into an arch where there are four pilasters twelve spans high, the distances between which are the way into three little rooms cut in the rock. Twenty steps lower there are other grots cut in the rock, with small cisterns, but for what use cannot be imagined, unless we suppose all these cavities were dwellings of the idolators. [Churchill's Voyages and Travels, IV. 194-196.]

1720.

In 1720 Hamilton calls Canra the only city on Salsette island and hewn out of the side of a rock. It was nearly a mile in length and had antique figures and columns curiously carved in the rock and several good springs of water. At present, he writes, it is inhabited only by wild beasts and birds of prey. [New Account, I 181.]

Mr. Boon, who was Governor of Bombay between 1716 and 1720, had drawings made of the temple columns and of the colossal statues. He gives a good description of the great temple cave and notices several channels cut from all parts of the hill to supply the cisterns, many of which were continually full of very good water. 'This stupendous work' he writes ' must have been the labour of forty thousand men for forty years. Time and the zeal of the Portuguese have defaced a great deal. When they first took the island, imagining those places to be the habitations of spirits and demons, they used constantly to discharge their great guns at them, which has left so many of them in a very maimed and broken condition. [Archaeologia, VII. 335, 337.]

1760.

Anquetil du Perron, who travelled through Salsette in the beginning of December 1760, has left a detailed' account of the Kanheri caves. He came by the road from Vehar, and leaving his palanquin and several of his people at cave 8 of the lowest tier, perhaps West's 93, he crossed the ravine to the caves on the smaller bill. Beginning in the west he walked eastward up the valley till he reached the line of the old dam. On his way he passed nine caves which seem to correspond to West's 79 to 87. The cave most to the west, West's 79 or 80, was a great cavern about thirty-six feet long by twenty-four broad with many low openings. The next (81) had in front a porch with two pillars. At the end was a room with a shrine in which was a seated man. The cave was called the shop and the figure the Banian. The third (82) was a porch four feet deep with two windows four feet broad and inside a room fourteen feet broad by eight deep and six high. At the back of the room in a shrine were three seated men. The man on the left was between two standing servants with whips, probably fly-flaps, in their hands. Under the two other men were seated figures like servants and under the middle one two little figures holding the pillar that supported the throne on which the figure was seated. To the right and left of the three first figures were other figures holding a string in their raised left hands. On the left at the cave mouth was an opening in the rock below. The fourth cave (83?) was a ruined room 20 x 10. The fifth (84) was a veranda 20 X 20 X 8 and inside a room 20x20 with a stone bench along the east and north walls. To the left a room eight feet square with a stone bench on the west side. Above a little cistern which had once held water was a writing in fair order on a stone 3½ feet square. The sixth (85) was a ruined cave sixteen feet square. The seventh (86) was a cave 60 x 24. At the end were six rooms, each eight feet square except the third, which was twelve feet broad and twelve long and had an inner chamber eight feet square. Outside of the cave to the left was a cistern. The eighth (87) had a veranda twenty feet broad and six deep, with two broken eight-cornered pillars, and within the veranda a room twenty feet broad and sixteen deep furnished with a stone bench. At the end was a niche with the figure of a seated man. Outside above the cistern mouth was an eight line inscription on a stone two feet high and two and a half broad, of which only eight inches remained. The three first lines and the fifth were nearly complete; the rest were almost worn out. The ninth (88) cave was about the same size as the eighth. Inside of a veranda was a room and on its right a second room. At the back of this last was a third room eight feet square. There was a little cistern outside of the entrance.

After finishing this row of caves in the smaller hill, Du Perron crossed the ravine at the old dam and turned to the right walking down the ravine apparently to Cave 11, then turning sharp to the left he took a row of ten caves which he calls the first tier going from south-west to north-east. This row he divides into two groups a western group low down, corresponding to Caves 11 to 15, and an eastern group higher up, probably including West's 16 to 21. Of these groups he gives the following details: The first cave (West's 11) had a porch 24 X 8 with a little cistern on the right, on the left a niche with two seated women and a child standing between them; inside of the porch a room twenty feet square and six high; at the back a shrine with a strangely shaped lingam (this is a relic shrine or daghoba) in the middle, and to the right of the shrine a second room eight feet square. The second cave (perhaps West's 12) had a porch twenty feet broad six deep and eight high, with two eight-cornered pillars. At the back was a room twenty feet square and on its right a second room twelve feet square. Facing a little cistern was a writing on a stone five feet broad, above another cistern of the same breadth as the stone. The top of the stone was broken. The writing had 5½ lines, then a line and a half division, and then five, lines more. The third cave (West's 13) was twenty-four feet broad and twenty deep. At the entrance were two rooms, the outer twelve feet square and the inner four feet square. Three other rooms were in ruins. Outside on the little cistern was an almost worn-out writing of five or six lines cut on a stone three feet broad and one and a half high. The fourth cave (West's 14) had a porch 32 x 12, and on the left a dry cistern. The porch led into a hall 24 x 20, with at each corner a room eight feet square. At the back was a recess with two pillars, the wall opposite the entrance being covered with figures. At the two ends of this recess on either side were standing men. Within this room was an empty chamber eight feet square.

Climbing a little up the hillside the second or eastern groups of the first tier had six caves, corresponding to West's 15 to 21. Of these the first (15) was sixteen feet large and eight deep forming two openings; the second (16) was six feet square and six feet high with a lingam or relic shrine in the middle; the third was 24' x 20' with a stone bench along the east and west sides and three small rooms on the left; the fourth was a room ten feet square with a plain entrance; the fifth (19) was a damaged cave 16' x 4' with a stone bench; and the sixth, probably 21, was a porch supported by four pillars forming two arches. On the left, at the back of the porch, was a cistern full of water, on the right a seated man with two small men standing beside him, holding in their left hands a tree whose fruit was like an apple. In front at. the end of the porch was a seated man and opposite him another man standing, holding a bush with a flower (a lotus), like a sunflower, growing as high as his ear. Within the porch was a room 24' x 20', and on either side another room eight feet square. At the end was a shrine and in front of the shrine a seated man with standing attendants. On the side walls were nine seated figures one of which had two attendants.

Du Perron next climbed the hill to the east end of what he calls the second tier of caves. Beginning from the east he travelled west passing sixteen caves, an eastern or lower group of nine and a western or higher group of seven. This second tier of caves seems to correspond to the irregular row in West's map that runs in a broken line from 69 on the east to 8 in the west, and includes 69,70, 71, 72, 42, 43, 99, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 10, 9, and 8. According to Du Perron the opening, most to the east (West's 69), is a porch 16' x 6' with two pillars, and inside of the porch a room sixteen feet square and. on the left another room six feet square. The next cave (West's 70) was a porch without pillars and inside of it a room twenty feet square. To the left of that room were two small rooms of eight feet and to the right a recess. This cave had many figures of men both standing and seated, among others a bas-relief of a seated man and two attendants. Under this man, were two men holding the pillar that supported his seat. At the entrance was a large inscription on a stone five feet broad and three high. At the top about a quarter of the stone was broken. The inscription contained eleven lines of which seven were in large and four in small characters. No. 3 (West's 71) were plain cut reservoirs, a small cistern, and a ruined room, the whole sixteen feet square. Cave 4 (West's 72), a porch 16' x 12', with two pillars one of them broken, with two rooms at the ends one on the right the other on the left. Inside was a great hall sixteen feet square, into which a room opened on the left. At the back was a shrine with a seated figure, and on the wall to the right two seated figures one over the other. Cave 5 (West's 42?), a porch twenty-four feet long with three broken pillars with fluted shafts. On the capital were four tigers with a child seated behind them. At the two ends of the hall were seated men each with two attendants or servants, one of whom held a whip and the other a fair-sized branch. Within were two large rooms sixteen feet square with a small room at the left of each. In the middle of the second room was a niche, and, outside of the niche, a well carved statue of a man or woman with a cap pointed in the form of a mitre, seated cross-legged like a tailor, and the breast adorned with jewels. Cave 6 (West's 43?) was in the same style as cave 5, only four feet smaller. At the back was a niche with a small figure. Cave 7 (West's 44?) was twenty feet long with side rooms each with two pillars. Within was a room sixteen feet square in which were three recesses with two pillars eight feet large. In this cave there were altogether eleven rooms. Two ruined caves 8 and 9 (perhaps West's 99 and 73) were twenty feet square with two rooms each and a cistern. These completed the eastern group of the second tier. The western group of the second tier, a little further up the hill than the eastern, included six caves apparently corresponding to West's 75, 76, 77, 10, 9, and 8. Cave 10 (West's 75) was a damaged cave about the same size as Cave 9. Cave 11 (West's 76) was like Cave 10 with two rooms and two entrance pillars, and an inscription showing the remains of six lines on a stone two feet high by three broad. Cave 12 (West's 77) was four feet larger than Cave 11, with two pillars and a well preserved inscription of nine lines, on a stone 3½ feet broad and two high. Cave 13 (perhaps part of West's 77) was about the size of 12, and lay above 8 (perhaps West's 93), with a room more to the right and an inscription of four lines much worn, on a stone one foot high and five broad facing the water cistern beyond the room to the right. Cave 14 (West's 10), the school or Darbar cave, had a porch 26' x 6' with six pillars. In the porch, on the right of the entrance, was a standing figure holding an apple and a branch as high as his ear, and on his side two standing women. In the porch were fifty-seven seated figures seven of them large. Beyond the porch was a room about twenty-nine feet square round which ran a stone bench. The wall was covered with figures to the floor. The people called the cave the School because of the number of figures, but Du Perron thought it more like a Prince's court. On either side of each Prince were two ministers, one with a raised whip, the other holding in his left hand a bush, like that in the porch. There were 100 figures on each of the three walls, Du Perron thought they were twenty Indian Princes with their retinues. The cave also contained four rooms two on either side without figures. The next two caves 15 and 16 (West's 9 and 8?) were small openings one with two, the other with three rooms.

Next comes Du Perron's third tier of six; caves taken from the west-eastward. They seem to correspond, but this is doubtful, to West's 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, and 35. These were small openings of little interest except that Caves 2 and 3 had inscriptions, the one in 2 much worn, the one in 3 with seven lines on a broken stone. Du Perron next passed from the end of his third tier to a fourth tier with sixteen caves. These he divided into an eastern group of seven and a western group of nine. The eastern group seems roughly to correspond to West's 47 to 68, and the western group to West's 48 to 55. But the arrangement is confused and the identification doubtful. Du Perron begins about the middle, perhaps near West's 56, and mentions seven going east. Cave 1, perhaps West's 56, had three rooms with six pillars. It had a writing of eleven lines on a broken stone 2½ feet broad and three high above the outside cistern; Cave 2 (West's 57?) was a ruined cave twelve feet square with two pillars; Cave 3 (West's 58?) was a little lower down eight feet square; Cave 4 (West's 59) was like 3 with two inscriptions one of three lines on a stone 2½, feet broad above a water cistern, the other with longer lines over the entrance; Cave 5 (West's 60) was a little higher and well preserved; Cave 6 (West's 62?) was an opening of the same size with two small rooms and an inscription of two lines in the front wall; Cave 7 (West's 63?) was a porch 16'X 4' with two pillars, a large room inside, another room on the left, and at the back a pillared shrine in ruins

Du Perron then retraced his steps along these seven caves till he passed his first cave (West's 56). Between this and the west end of the tier he mentions eight caves; Cave 8 (perhaps West's 50) was about the size of Cave 7 and was reached by three steps. Below, at the entrance on the right, were two rooms. At the back was a great square room and to the left of it a little room; Cave 9 (West's 51) was like 8 and had damaged figures in the porch; Cave 10 (West's  52) was twelve feet square and in ruins; Cave 11 (West's 53) had a porch 14' x 6' with two pilars, and an inner room with the same figures as the School Cave (14 of the second tier; West's 10). To the right were two other rooms with doors opening into the outer room. In the middle of the back room were two attendants but no figure. There were two inscriptions, apparently modern, each of twelve upright lines lightly graven in Mongolian characters. [This reference is supposed to be to the Pahlavi inscriptions, but the number of caves does not agree as the Pahlavi inscriptions are in West's 66, Du Perrons 6 of this tier, in the extreme east of the row.] Cave 12 (West's 54) had a porch with two pillars, on the right broken figures, on the left no figures, within a hall twelve feet square. In the shrine was a seated figure with two attendants. In the wall, between the hall and the shrine, was an opening about ten inches in diameter, through which women accused of bad conduct were made to pass and stuck half way if they were guilty. Cave 13 (West's 55) was a similar cave without figures. It had a small cistern and a much worn inscription of nine lines above the cistern on a stone 2½ feet high and three broad. Cave 14 was twelve feet square and had one pillar.

On the top of the hill were two rock-cut cisterns, 8' x 6' x 3'. Below was an open space with seats where the priests came for fresh air. These Du Perron numbers 17 and 18. From the top of the hill Du Perron climbed down to the lowest tier joining it at West's 1. He follows this tier along eight caves, which, like West, he numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. The first seven correspond to West's one to seven. Du Perron's 8 is perhaps West's 93. Cave 1, known as the Prison, was forty feet high and twenty-four broad, with an upper story of windows without any rooms and with no stair leading to them. Below were two wells and at the back three dark rooms. At the entrance were two pillars ten feet high. Cave 2, measuring 48' x 28' x 40', had two rooms at the back with a stone bench running round. At the entrance were two strangely shaped lingams (relic shrines). Cave 3 was a great cave reached by three steps. The central hall, which was vaulted, was 76' x 28' x 32'. The Jesuits had made a church of it and it was still called the Church. There were fourteen pillars in the length, separated from the wall by an aisle. At the end was a headless lingam (a relic shrine). On the first two pillars were tigers, and on the others four elephants. On each side were six pillars in this style. The portico was about fourteen feet deep. At each end was the figure of a man sixteen feet high, and above each figure was a belt adorned with flowers and winged figures and with fluted pillars. In front were eight chief figures four of men and four of women, two men and two women on either side. The entrance to this cave was open with two pillars twenty-four feet high. On the right pillar was a reversed grindstone. On the left was a room whose walls were covered with figures of sitting men and women. This first part of the cave had a passage into the portico by windows. There were two inscriptions on the pillars, the first of twenty-three and the second of eleven lines; the inscription stone was four feet high and three feet broad. Cave 4 was a small room, in a hollow within was the lingam (relic shrine), and, on the left, attendants. Cave 5, higher up, was an opening four feet square with two figures holding fire. In front was a great cistern with two openings. On a broken stone, above the two mouths of the cistern, was an inscription of two long lines. Cave 6, lower down, measured 20'x 10' and had two rooms; above a cistern on the left was an inscription of seven lines. Cave 7 was an opening with five windows and three rooms measuring altogether 20' x 14'. Above the four mouths of the cistern were traces of an inscription of two lines. Cave 8 (perhaps West's 93), a great cave called the Stable, measured 60' x 24'. At the back were six rooms, the fourth of which was a shrine with a seated figure and attendants and other figures on the sides. In the central hall on the left were the doors of four rooms, and, on the right, a recess with four pillars. The centre of the cave had five pillars on each face. The entrance was a gallery upheld by eight pillars joined by walls. On the left of the gallery was a little room where were three seated men surrounded by attendants. Above the cistern was a great inscription of eighteen lines, and in front a second inscription of six lines in modern Sanskrit. [Zend Avesta, I. 394-408.]

1760 -1804.

This ends Du Perron's account of the caves. About three weeks after Du Perron (28th December 1760), a party of Englishmen from Bombay visited Kanheri. They specially notice one cave, apparently No. 3, which was 84 feet long by 21 wide and 50 high, ornamented with thirty-two pillars each twenty-seven feet high and 8¾ feet round the base. At the upper end of the cave was a large pillar fifty feet round at the base. It was still worshipped by the people. The cave was entered by a portico 36 x 15, with at each end a figure twenty feet high. Round the portico were small idols. After passing several caves cut into small square rooms, they entered a veranda 75 x 12 supported by nine pillars. Then was a hall 63x25½x9. Within this were ten small rooms for living in, neatly cut and measuring 11x6. In the veranda were several English names, among others W. Aislabie, E. Baker (1708), John Hanmer (1697), and J. Courtney. They noticed the great number of cisterns of excellent water. The writer repeats the story that the caves were the work of a Gentoo king who wished to secure his son against the attempts to gain him over to another religion. The Marathas, he states, made a yearly pilgrimage to the caves and held them in great honour. [Quoted in Du Perron's Zend Avesta, I. 408-411.]

In 1781, a Dr. Hunter published a short account of the Kanheri, Elephanta, and Jogeshvari caves. In his account of Kanheri he notices only the great temple and the two statues of Buddha. [Archaeologia, VII. 299.] Dr. Hove the Polish traveller, who visited the caves in 1787, noticed only the Great Cave No. 3. The relic shrine was still worshipped. 'At the head of the caves,' he writes, 'stands a round pillar resembling the crown of a hat, to which the Hindus to this day pay their adoration.' He noticed two cisterns close to the entrance which were fed by a spring of water that issued' very spontaneously' out of a chasm from the upper adjacent rock of the cave. [Tours, 13, 14. Dr. Hove notices that Mr. Wilmouth a painter had come from Bengal and taken squeezes of the writings on wetted cartridge paper. He died at Canton on his way to England and his papers were lost.] In 1804, Lord Valentia wrote: ' The Kanheri caves are formed out of a high knoll in the middle of the range of hills which divides Salsette into two equal parts. The great cavern, like the Karli cave, is oblong and has a carved roof, but is inferior to it in size, in elegance of design, and in beauty of execution. It has the same singular building at the upper end and the vestibule is equally adorned with figures. Its peculiar ornaments are two gigantic statues of Buddha nearly twenty feet high, each filling one side of the vestibule. They are exactly alike and are in perfect preservation, in consequence of their having been christened and painted red by the Portuguese, who left them as an appendage to a Christian church, for such this temple of Buddha became under their transforming hands. The image of the presiding deity, in all the usual attitudes, embellishes several other parts of the vestibule; and one in particular is ornamented with the conical cap worn by the Chinese Fo. The entrance, on which there are several inscriptions in the unknown character, faces the west. In a large cave close to the chief temple are many figures, especially one of Vishnu fanning Buddha with a fly-whisk. The innumerable caves which have been formed in every part of the hill are square and flat-roofed. They cannot but be intended for the habitations of the attendant Brahmans. [ Travels, II. 196-198.]

1825.

In 1825 Bishop Heber considered the caves in every way remarkable from their number, their beautiful situation, their elaborate carving, and their marked connection with Buddha and his religion. The caves, he writes, are scattered over two sides of a high rocky hill, at many different elevations, and of various sizes and forms. Most of them appear to have been places of habitation for monks or hermits. One very beautiful apartment of a square form, its walls covered with sculpture and surrounded internally by a broad stone bench, is called the Darbar, but I should rather guess had been a school. Many have deep and well-carved cisterns attached to them, which, even in this dry season, were well supplied with water. The largest and most remarkable of all is a Buddhist temple, of great beauty and majesty. It is entered through a fine and lofty portico, having on its front, but a little to the left hand, a high detached octagonal pillar surmounted by three lions seated back to back. On the east side of the portico is a colossal statue of Buddha, with his hands raised in the attitude of benediction, and the screen which separates the vestibule from the temple is covered, immediately above the dodo, with a row of male and female figures, nearly naked, but not indecent, and carved with considerable spirit, which apparently represent dancers. In the centre is a large door and above it three windows contained in a semicircular arch. Within, the apartment in fifty feet long by twenty, an oblong square terminated by a semicircle, and surrounded on every side but that of the entrance with a colonnade of octagonal pillars. Of these the twelve on each side nearest the entrance are ornamented with carved bases and capitals, in the style usual in Indian temples. The rest are unfinished. In the centre of the semicircle, and with a free walk all round it, is a mass of rock left solid, but carved externally like a dome. On the top of the dome is a sort of spreading ornament like the capital of a column. The ceiling of this cave is arched semicircularly and ornamented in a very singular manner with slender ribs of teakwood of the same curve with the roof and disposed as if they were supporting it. [Narrative, II 189-91.] The caves were next described by Mr. Vaupell in 1837, [Trans. Bom. Geog. Soc. VII. 147 -152.] and six years later Mr. Fergusson gave a short account of them in his paper on the Cave Temples and Monasteries of Western India. [Jour. R. A.S., VIII.63-69.] In 1850 Dr. Stevenson translated some of the Kanheri inscriptions and brought to light some historical names and facts. [Jour. B. B. R. A. S., V. 1-34.]

1837-1882.

In 1860 Dr. Bhau Daji numbered the caves. [Fergusson and Burgess' Cave Temples of India 355.] He was followed in 1860-61 by Mr. E. W. West, who published a plan of the caves and copies of the inscriptions with short notes on their position and condition. Mr. West also in the same year gave an account of some of the topes in galleries 38 to 41 and of some stone pots and seals found in digging cave 13. [Jour. B. B. R. A. 8., VI. 1-14, 116-120, 157-160.] Of late the caves have been taken in hand by Dr. Burgess the Government Archaeological Surveyor. A short notice has recently been given in Fergusson and Burgess' Cave Temples. But the full description of the caves and their inscriptions is not yet (April 1882) published.

Details.

This completes the chief notices of the Kanheri caves. In the following account the cave details have been contributed by Mr. H. Cousens, Head Assistant to the Archaeological Surveyor, and the substance of the inscriptions by Mr. Bhagvanlal Indraji from facsimiles taken in 1881. Mr. Bhagvanlal's study of the inscriptions is not yet complete so that the renderings given in the text are tentative and liable to revision. As noticed in the introduction most of the caves are cut in two knolls of bare rock separated by a narrow stream bed. Of the 102 caves all are easily entered, except five small openings. Of the rest about twenty-seven are good, fifty-six are small, and fifteen are partly or entirely ruined. Except temples or chaityas, and the peculiarly planned cave 10, which was probably a place" of assembly, nearly all the caves bear marks of having been used as dwellings, and many of them have stone sleeping benches running round the walls. The doorways were fitted with frames and doors, which were fastened by horizontal bars held in holes in the stone jambs. The windows were either latticed or provided with wooden frames and shutters. The whole monastery was well supplied with water. On the hill top are several rock-cut ponds, and almost every cave has its cistern filled from channels cut above the eaves of the cave. To the east of the caves a massive stone wall, now ruined, ran across the stream that separates the two cave-cut knolls and formed a small lake whose bed is now silted and full of reeds.

For a hurried visit of one day, perhaps the best order for seeing the hill is, after visiting 1, 2, and 3, to pass to the left across the ravine, and, keeping up the sloping face of the knoll, see the sites of relic shrines or burial-mounds and the remains of an old temple behind. Then come back to the ravine and pass along its north bank examining the line of caves from ninety-four to eighty-seven. Next struggle up the stream bed, pass through the breach in the dam, and, crossing to the south bank of the stream, come down along the lowest tier of caves from 21 to 10. At 10 turn back and up to 77 and pass as far as possible in front of the second tier of caves to the quarry on the hill top. See the view, the cisterns, quarries, remains of the retaining wall, and the ruins of a relic mound. Then pass down seeing as many as possible of the third tier of caves 68 to 90. Pass from 90 to 36 and 37 and then along a flight of steps to the burial gallery 38 to 40, returning by the same way. The path from 41 to 1 is difficult and should not be attempted without a guide.

Caves 1-2.

Climbing the footpath from the valley, the group of three temples 1, 2, and 3 attracts attention. They face west and have in front of them a large level space covered with bushes and with some remains of the stupa or relic mound of which an account is given later on. Passing a little to the south of 3, the most striking of the group, cave 1 should first be examined. It is the beginning of a large temple or chaitya, the only finished portions being two large pillars supporting the front screen, whose general clumsiness seems to show that this is one of the latest caves on the hill; 2 is a long low excavation, irregular in plan, being originally more than one excavation, the partition walls of which have been broken down. At the south end are three rock-cut relic shrines or dagobas. On the wall behind the first relic shrine, is the curious sculptured panel which occurs again in caves 21 and 66, at the Aurangabad caves, at Elura, and at Ajanta. This is known as the Buddhist litany, a prayer to the good lord Padmapani to deliver his worshippers from the different forms of battle, murder, and sudden death. In the centre a life-size image of the Bodhisattva Padmapani or Avalokiteshvar, stands at attention holding in his left hand a lotus stalk and flowers; on his right and left are four shelves each supporting a couple of little figures. In front of each of these little groups, and between it and Padmapani, is a human figure with wings. In the upper group to the left, that is, on Padmapani's right, a kneeling figure appears to be praying for deliverance from a lion, which is in the act of springing upon him. In the next group below, a kneeling woman with a child in her arms tries to avoid an old hag, disease or death. In the third compartment a kneeling man prays a winged figure to save him from one who holds a drawn sword over his head. [See Representation of Litany at Aurangabad in Arch. Survey Report, III. 76.] In the lowest compartment the figure prays to be saved from a cobra which is crawling towards it from an ant-hill. At the top on the other side the kneeling figure is about to be attacked by an enraged elephant; in the west compartment a man in the back ground has his hand raised in the act of striking the kneeling figure. In the next, perhaps the petition against false doctrines, heresies, and schisms, an orthodox Naga is attacked by a flying Garud, the type of Vaishnavism. In the last, two figures pray from deliverance from shipwreck. The winged figure to whom each suppliant turns for help is probably a saint, an intercessor between him and the deified Padmapani. On either side of Padmapani's head are cherubim with garlands, and at his feet kneels a devotee. Other figures of Padmapani and Buddha which adorn the wall on either side of this panel seem to have been added by different worshippers. There are three inscriptions in this cave. In one corner of the recess behind the large relic shrine, partly on the left and partly beneath a standing figure of Buddha saluted by nine men near his feet, is an inscription of six short and one long lines. The length of the lines is six inches and twelve inches. The inscription gives nine names, probably of the nine persons represented bowing to Buddha. The names are Nannovaidya, Bhano (Sk. Bhanu), Bhaskar, Bharavi, Chelladev, Bopai (Sk. Bopyaki), Bhattabesu, Suvai (Sk. Suvrati), and Pohoi (?). The characters seem to be of the fifth century. In the back wall, above a long bench set against the wall, is a deeply cut distinct inscription of two lines two feet two inches long. It is inscribed in letters of the time of Vasishthiputra (A.D. 133-162) and records the gift of a refectory or satta (Sk. satra), by Nakanak (inhabitant) of Nasik. A few feet to the north of the second inscription, and nearer to the cistern in front of the cave, is a third deeply cut and distinct inscription, of two lines two feet nine inches long. It is inscribed in letters of the time of Vasishthiputra (A.D. 133-162) and records the gift of water (?) [The word in the inscription is Panika which means in Sanskrit a vendor of spirituous liquor. This is perhaps an instance of the use of liquor which did not differ in colour from water. (See above, p. 137). Near the inscription is a niche where, perhaps, water or some other beverage was kept and given to the monks after they had finished their dinner in the adjoining dining hall.] by Samidatta (Sk. Svamidatta) a goldsmith of Kalyan.

Cave 3.

Close to No. 2 comes No. 3, the cathedral or chaitya, the most important of the Kanheri caves. The style and plan are much the same as in the great Karli cave, but, owing to its softness, the rock is much destroyed. The measurements are 86½ feet long, 39 feet 10 inches wide including the aisles, and 37 feet 7 inches high. In front is a spacious court, entered through a gateway in a low parapet wall, whose outside has been prettily decorated with the rail pattern and festoons along the top. In bas-relief, on either side of the doorway, stands a rather stunted gatekeeper, and attached to the walls of rock on each side of the court are great eight-sided columns on square basements with broken shafts. The capital of the northern column supports three fat figures holding behind them something like a great bowl, and on the capital of the southern column are four seated lions. A great rock screen separates this court from the veranda. This screen has three large square openings below, separated by thick massive pillars, the central opening being the entrance to the veranda. Above it is divided by four pillars into five open spaces which admit light to the arched front window. These pillars support the outer edge of the roof of the veranda. In each end of the veranda, cut in the end walls, a gigantic figure of Buddha twenty-five feet high stands on a raised plinth. Low on the left leg of the figure in the north end of the veranda, are cut, in old English characters, A. Butfer, K. B., J. B., J. S., 78, initials, which, as is shown by a writing in another cave, stand for Ann Butfer, K. Bates, John Butfer, and John Shaw, who visited the caves in 1678. [These letters puzzled Dr. Bird, who, in 1839, wrote, " On one of the legs of the left hand statue we met with a cross (the old fashioned letter J written as an I with a stroke across the centre) and inscription, in Roman letters, which might be taken to be not more ancient than the times of the Portuguese, were it not for the Ethiopic or Arabic term Abuk, meaning thy father ; and which accompanied by the date 78, with a resemblance of the cross and the letters for Kal Buddha, Buddha Sakya may indicate its connection with primitive Christianity; whose doctrines introduced into India are supposed by Wilford to have given rise to the era of Shalivahan which dates 78 years after Christ."] Between the two side and the central doorways, the front of the cave is adorned with life-size statues in bas-relief of men and women after the style of the Karli figures. The men wear the same curious head-dress, and the women the same heavy earrings, bracelets, and anklets. Above these are rows of seated Buddhas, and above the Buddhas again is the great arched window, through which light passes into the cave. Beneath this arch the central doorway opens into the nave of this great Buddhist cathedral. The roof is high and vaulted, and at the far end is a semicircular apse, in the centre of which stands the object of adoration a relic shrine. Separated from this central space by two rows of pillars are two aisles. These are continued round behind the relic shrine where they meet forming an unbroken row of pillars. It is from the plain entablature above these pillars that the vaulted roof springs, the ceilings of the aisles being flat and very little higher than the capitals of the pillars. Of these pillars only eleven on the north side and six on the south side have been finished, the others are plain octagonal columns from top to bottom. The finished pillars have water-pot bases and capitals. The base rests on a pyramidal pile of four or five flat tiles or plates and the capitals support a similar pile of plates in inverted order. Over each of these pillars is a group of figures. In two cases the figures worship a relic shrine which is placed between them, on another a tree is worshipped, and on the rest are men riding elephants and horses. Some of the pillars have traces of plaster with painted figures of Buddha. The relic shrine is plain and has lost its umbrella which was supported by a pillar of which the base may still be traced. Round the drum or cylindrical base are square holes at equal intervals apparently for lights. The roof of the nave has had arched wooden ribs similar to those at Karli, their positions being marked by dark bands on the rock. A few fragments of the old woodwork remain here and there generally in the form of stumps and beam ends standing out from sockets. Under the great arched window and over the central doorway is a wide gallery supposed to have been used by musicians. There are now no means of getting to it except by a ladder. There are nine inscriptions in and about this cave. In the right gate-post is a deeply cut and distinct but rather defaced inscription of 22½ lines. The right side is imperfect as that part of the gate-post was built of squared stones which have been removed. The original length of the lines was three feet eight inches, which by the removal of the stones has been reduced to two feet in the upper part and three feet one inch in the middle. This is a valuable inscription, but much of importance has been lost in the upper lines. As it now stands, all that can be gathered from it, is that the cave was made in the time of king Yajnashri Shatakarni Gotamiputra (A.D. 177-196), by two merchant brothers Gajsen and Gajvir from Datamiti (?) (Sk. Dattamitri) in Upper India, and that the temple was dedicated to the Bhadrayani school of Buddhism. [The Bhadrayani school rose in the third century after Gautama from the sect of Vatsiputra, an oftshoot from the Sarvastivadina, a subdivision of the Sthavira school. They seem to have believed in a first cause, and that the soul or I is immortal. See Vassilief's Bouddisme, 172, 230, 233, 253, 269. Beal in Ind. Ant. IX. 300. The chief Nasik cave (No. 26) is also dedicated to the Bhadrayani school, which seems to have been in high favour with the rulers of Western India during the second and third centuries after Christ.] The inscription mentions the names of several Buddhist monks, Kalvarjit, the reverend Thera (Sk. Sthavira), Achal, the reverend (Bhadanta) Gahala, Vijaymitra, Bo.......... Dharmapal, and Aparenuka, the son of a Buddhist devotee and merchant. The inscription closes with the words ' Finished by Badhika, the manager [The word in the original is Uparakhita which may mean the manager as given in the text or it may be a name.] and the pupil of the old Buddha monk Seul. The cave was carved by the great mason Vidhika with Shailvatak, Kudichak, and Mahakatak.' Cut into the left gate-post is another inscription of eleven lines, originally three feet four inches long. It is deeply cut, and the rock being smoother and of a lighter colour it is more distinct than the last. The left side is imperfect in the upper lines owing to the outer angle of the gate-post having been broken off. The inscription, which is in characters of the second century, records gifts. The name of the giver is lost. It mentions gifts made in several places, in the Ambalika monastery in Kalyan, something given in the district (Sk. ahar) of Sopara (Sk. Shurparaka), a monastery, vihar, in (Paithan (Sk. Pratishthan), a Chaitya temple and thirteen cells in the cave of (Pra) tigupta, the grant of an endowment to support the Rajtadag reservoir on the way to Paithan, Asana and Chulkappikuti (?), a cistern and some other things. The third inscription is under a standing figure of Buddha, on the inside of the outer wall of the veranda, between the left gate-post and the left colossal figure of Buddha. It is of three lines each two feet eleven inches long. The letters belong to about the fifth century. It refers to the carving of the image of Buddha below which it is set, and states that the image was made by the Shakya friar Buddhaghosha, residing in Mahagandhkuti a disciple of Dharmavatsa and teacher of the three great Buddhist books, tripitakas. There is a fourth inscription of one line, three feet one inch long, under a sitting Buddha sculptured on the back wall of the veranda, above the dancing figures on the right side of the doorway. It is cut in letters of about the fifth century, and is tolerably distinct but high up. It records, 'The meritorious gift of the Shakya mendicant Dharmagupta.' The fifth inscription, of one line ten inches long, is cut into the square shaft of a small bas-relief relic shrine on the right wall outside the veranda. It is deeply cut in characters of about the fifth century, and, as it stands, is complete. It gives the well known Buddhist formula. [The Buddhist formula is, " Ye dharma hetu prabhava hetun teshan tathagato, hyavadat teshancha yo nirodha evam vadi Mahashramana," that is: The object of those (the Adi Buddhas) who for the sake of religion came into the world before him (that is, before Gautama), the Tathagata (that is he who came as they came, namely Gautama) has explained; what they forbade the great Shramana (that is Gautama) tells as follows: See above, p. 103.] The sixth inscription, of nine lines each ten inches long, is cut into a pilaster on the right side of a standing Buddha which is sculptured on the western wall inside the small chamber to the left of the entrance. It is faintly cut in letters of about the fifth or sixth century and records that the image was the gift of Acharya Buddharakshita. A seventh inscription, of three lines, was found on the face of a squared stone, 19½ inches long by 10¼ broad, that lay on the outside terrace under the trees in front of this cave. The letters are of the fifth or sixth century, and the inscription is about the building of a house or ghar (Sk. griha). The name of the person who built the house is doubtful. An eighth inscription, of two lines, was found on the face of a smaller stone in front of the cave. It is probably part of the same inscription and seems to contain a portion of the lower two lines. The letters are of the sixth century. On the right of the inner doorway an inscription of four lines is painted in white upon one face of the octagonal column. It is very faint in places, but the date is fairly clear, especially in the afternoon sun. The date may be either " Samvat 921 or 927 Ashvin Shuddha 1............. " A similar inscription occurs on the next face of the column, and two others on two faces of the column on the opposite side of the doorway. These are fainter and less legible.

Stupas.

In the open space in front of cave 3 were once two or three large relic mounds, of which the largest was built of stone and brick and was from twelve to sixteen feet high. Dr. Bird gives the following account of the opening of this relic mound in 1839: " After digging to the level of the ground and clearing the materials, the workmen came to a circular stone, hollow in the centre, and covered at the top by a piece of gypsum. This contained two small copper urns, in one of which were some ashes mixed with a ruby, a pearl, small pieces of gold, and a small gold box containing a piece of cloth; in the other were a silver box and some ashes." Two copper plates accompanied the urns containing legible inscriptions in the cave character, of which the following is believed to be the translation: Salutation to the Omniscient (Buddha)! In the year 245 of the increasing rule of the Trikutakas, in the great monastery of Krishnagiri, Buddharuchi, an inhabitant of Kanak? (? Kabhoka or Katoka) a village in the Sindhu country, the son of the glorious Buddhashri and Pushyavarman, intent on religious duties, of the religion of Shakyamuni (who was) strong in the possession of the ten powers, revered, possessed of perfect knowledge, an Aryagana of his (that is Shakyamuni's) Shravaks, erected this relic shrine, chaitya, of dressed stone and brick to last while the moon sun and ocean endure, to the great Shravak of the Paramamuni (Buddha), the noble Sharadvatiputra. Therefore let the Devas, Yakshas, Siddhas, Vidyadharas, Ganas, and Manibhadra, Purnabhadra, Panchika, Arya Vajrapani, Vankanaka(?) and others be propitious. Moreover, as long as the milky ocean, the waters of the whirlpools of which are whirled round by the sea monsters which are driven about by its thousand waves, is an ocean of milk, as long as the rugged Meru is piled with great rocks, and as long as the clear rivers flow into the ocean; so long may this enduring and auspicious fame attach itself to the excellent son of him named Pushya (varman).' [Archaeological Survey, X. 59.] Only the faintest traces of this relic mound remain.

Stupas were originally cairns or mounds raised either over the dead or in memory of some famous act. [Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, 9, 10.] The practice of raising these memorials seems to date from before the time of Gautama. [Before the time of Gautama the Hindus gave up their custom of burial and practised burning, a tomb being raised over the ashes. Buddha Gaya, 119.] The previous Buddhas are said to have stupas raised over their bones, [Kashyapa, Gautama's predecessor (perhaps B.C. 1000), is said to have been buried near Benares, where as late as A.D. 400 he had a stupa. Rhys Davids, 181.] and there is a tradition that Gautama urged his followers to reverence monuments and to build them in his honour. [Bhilsa Topes, 12.] The earliest stupas, of which there is certain knowledge, were those built by Ashok (B.C. 250), partly over Gautama's relics, partly to mark places which his life had made sacred. Perhaps the only one of these monuments of which traces remain is the Bharhut stupa in Central India. Though the building is now a ruin, there is evidence to show that it was a hemisphere on a cylindrical base with small holes for lights; that, on the top of the dome, was a square platform, fenced with a railing and supporting a crowning umbrella decorated with streamers and garlands; that large flowers sprang from the top as well as from the base of the square summit; and that a cylindrical ornament hung round the hemisphere. [Bharhut Stupa, 6; Bhilsa Topes, 10-14.] As time passed, the form of the relic mound changed from a hemisphere (B.C. 500?), through a dome raised a few feet above the basement (B.C. 200), to a dome on a plinth equal to its own height (A.D. 50), and from that to a tall round tower surmounted by a dome. [Bhilsa Topes, 177, 178, plate III.] The relic mound of Sarnath near Benares, which was built in the seventh century after Christ, has a plinth equal in height to the diameter of the hemisphere. [Bhilsa Topes, 166. Cunningham describes the Sanchi tope, which he places at B.C. 550 (Bhilsa Topes, 177) and Fergusson at B.C. 250 (Tree and Serpent Worship, 90), as a solid dome of brick and stone, 106 feet in diameter, springing from a plinth 14 feet high with a projection 5½ feet broad used as a terrace. The top of the dome was flattened into a terrace surrounded by a stone railing in the Buddhist pattern. From the flat centre of the dome rose a colonnade of pillars and within the pillars was a square altar or pedestal, from the centre of which rose a cupola or umbrella pinnacle. The total height to the top of the cupola was over 100 feet. (Bhilsa Topes, 185-186). The tope was surrounded by a colonnade and by a richly ornamented rail. (See Bhilsa Topes, 190, plate VII.; and Ferguason's Tree and Serpent Worship, 90).] Besides in memory of Gautama or over one of his relics, towers were built in honour of his disciples, Sariputra, Mogalan, Ananda Gautama's nephew and successor whose shrine was specially worshipped by nuns, and Rahula Gautama's son, whose shrine was the novice's favourite object of worship. Towers were also raised in honour of the three baskets of the law tripitakas, the vinaya or religious discipline for the monks, the sutras or discourses for the laity, and the abhidharma or metaphysical creed. [Beal, 57; Rhys Davids, 18-21.] Finally towers were raised either over distinguished members of the monastery who had risen to the rank of saints, [The ceremonies observed on the death of a saint are thus described by Fah Hian. In the Mahavihara monastery in Ceylon a famous monk, perfect in the precepts, had the credit of being a saint or Rahat. When he died the king came, and, calling the monks together, asked if their dying brother had attained reason. They answered he is a Rahat. Then the king, consulting the holy books, ordered that the funeral should be performed according to the rules laid down for the funerals of Rahats. Accordingly nearly a mile to the east of the monastery they raised a pyre of wood, thirty-four feet square and thirty-four feet high, the top of sandal, aloe, and all kinds of scented wood. Steps were laid up the four sides and the pyre was bound with clean white cloth. Then the dead body was brought in a funeral car followed by crowds of people. The king offered flowers and incense, the hearse was placed on the pyre, oil of cinnamon was poured over it, and the whole set alight When all was over they searched for and gathered the bones to make a tower over them. Beal, 160.] or over the ashes of the ordinary monks. [On the Bhojpur hill there are four tiers of topes, the lowest to the members of the monastery, the next to Pratyek Buddhas (Beal, 47), the next to Bodhisattvas, and the highest to Buddhas. Bhilsa Topes, 13-14.]

The following details of the building of the great tope in Ceylon, about B.C. 150, probably give some idea of the services that accompanied the building of the larger Kanheri topes. [Bhilsa Topes, 169-176.] A foundation was first laid of round stones, which were trodden in by elephants; then came courses of fine clay, brick, cement, iron-plates, incense, steatite, stone, brass, and silver. To lay the foundation stone on a full-moon night, the king with his ministers, thousands of troops, dancing and music marched to the site of the new tower. After making handsome presents the king stepped into the holy place and traced a circle with a pair of gold-tipped silver compasses. In the centre of the circle he placed gold and silver vases, cloth, and fragrant cement, and, in a relic chamber made of six slabs of stone, laid golden images of Buddha and a golden relic casket brought to the spot with a special procession. The casket was then placed in the relic chamber and offerings heaped round. The shape of the tope was a hemisphere, crowned by a square pinnacle-enclosed parapet wall and supporting in the centre a double canopy. [Bhilsa Topes, 169-176.] The better class of relic mounds contained seven substances, gold, silver, lapislazuli, crystal, carnelian, amber or coral, and a ruby. [Beal, 41.]

Cavas 4-5.

Cave 4 is a small circular chamber to the left of Cave 3 containing a relic shrine. It has an inscription of three lines and two letters, cut into one side of the square tee of the relic shrine. It is cut in letters of about the fifth or sixth century, and states that the relic shrine was made to hold the relics of the reverend old Buddhist monk Dharmapal by Shivpalitanika, wife of the goldsmith Dhamanaka. Turning north, up a broad flight of steps, is Cave 5, a plain two-mouthed water cistern with a long inscription cut over it. The original length of line was probably nine feet ten inches of which one foot ten inches on the left have entirely peeled off. Though deeply cut the inscription is much defaced, which is specially to be regretted as it is one of the oldest and most important in the series. It is inscribed in rather corrupt Sanskrit, the letters being of the age of Vasishthiputra (A.D. 133-162). It records the gift of a water-pot by the minister Shatoraka. [It is curious that the word in the original is bhajan a pot. A good many inscriptions at Kanheri record gifts of cisterns of water, but bhajan is found only here.] Though nothing distinct can be made out of the rest of the inscription, it appears from the fragments that this Shatoraka was the minister of the queen of Vasishthiputra. The queen is mentioned as belonging to the Kardamaka dynasty and it further appears that she was connected with the Kshatrapas, the word Mahakshatrapasya being distinct. She was perhaps a grand-daughter on the maternal side of a Mahakshatrap.

Caves 6-9.

Entering the ravine or watercourse, between the two knolls, and continuing on from Cave 5, come caves 6 and 7, both much ruined and of little consequence. Above the two mouths of the cistern, at the left end of Cave 7, two deep distinct inscriptions, one of three and the other of four lines, are cut into the rock side by side and about six inches apart. The length of line in the first is two feet four inches and in the second two feet nine inches. Both inscriptions refer to the cisterns. One records that one cistern is the gift of Samika, a merchant of Sopara; the other that the other cistern is the gift of a goldsmith Sulasdatta of Chemula, the son of Rohini Mitra. The letters are of the time of Vasishthiputra (A.D. 133-162) or perhaps a little earlier. After passing two great rocks in the stream bed and up some notches in the rock, is number 8, a water cistern, and beyond it Cave 9, a large plain room with four thick square columns in front. It is unfinished and forms the lower story of Cave 10 above.

Cave 10.

Following the ravine, a long flight of steps leads to Cave 10 generally called the Darbar Cave, the next largest cave to 3. Its arrangement differs greatly from that of most other caves. The frontage is a long veranda 72' 6" by 8' 4" supported outwardly upon eight octagonal columns. A little chapel at the eastern end has some figures of Buddha and attendants. Three doorways and two windows communicate with the inner hall which is a long rectangular room, the same length as the veranda. Round the two sides and back of this inner hall runs an aisle separated from the room by pillars. In a shrine, that stands out from the middle of the back wall across the full depth of the aisle, is a large seated figure of Buddha, and in the back walls of the aisles are two small cells. The most curious feature in the cave are two long low seats or benches running down the whole length of the centre. They seem to show that, like the Maharvada at Elura, the cave was used as a place of assembly or as a school. [This cave is especially interesting as its plan more nearly resembles that of the hall erected by king Ajatashatru (B.C. 543?) to accommodate the first convocation at Rajagriha (Rajgir in Behar) than that of any other known cave. It is not a monastery or vihar in the ordinary sense of that term, but a dharmshala or place of assembly. According to the Mahavanso (Turnour, 12), " Having in all respects perfected this hall, he had invaluable carpets spread there, corresponding to the number of priests (500), in order that being seated on the north side the south might be faced; the inestimable pre-eminent throne of the high priest was placed there. In the centre of the hall facing the east, the exalted preaching pulpit, fit for the deity himself was erected." So in this cave the projecting shrine occupies precisely the position of the throne of the president in the above description. It is occupied, in the present case, by a figure of Buddha on a lion seat, with Padmapani and another attendant. In the lower part of the hall where there are no cells is a plain space, admirably suited for the pulpit of the priest who read bana to the assembly. Other caves of this sort are the Nagarjuni at Barbar, Bhim's Bath at Mahavallipur, the Maharvada at Elura, and probably cave 20 at Ajanta. Fergusson and Burgess Cave Temples, 353.] In this cave are two inscriptions one much older than the other. On the left wall, outside the veranda and above a recess over the cistern, is a minute inscription of sixteen lines, six feet four inches long, with part of another line and two half lines. Where not defaced it is tolerably distinct, and seems to be written in letters of about the fifth century. The language is pure Sanskrit and the whole inscription is in verse. It records the excavation of the cave by a merchant whose name is gone. In the fourth line he is described as famous among the millionaires of the great city of Chemula, as one whose widespread fame had bathed in the three seas. In the fourteenth line is mentioned the grant, to the Kanheri friars, of a village called Shakapadra [The village is probably Saki near Povai. It is mentioned as aupatyayika, that is situated at the foot of the hill, on the lower slopes or upatyaka as opposed to the upper hill land or adhityaka. The first letter of the name is doubtful. It may either be ga or sha.] at the foot of the hill. In the last part of the inscription some account is given of a preceptor, acharya, named Kumar. The other inscription is on the architrave over the veranda colonnade. It consists of three upper lines eleven feet long, three lower lines eleven feet seven inches long, and two additional lines five feet six inches long, to the left of the three lower lines and on the same level. It is faintly cut but distinct, and the letters apparently belong to about the ninth century. The inscription records an endowment, akshaya nivi, of 100 drammas by a great Buddha devotee from Gaud (Bengal) or Upper India, on the second day of the dark half of Margshirsh (December-January) in the Prajapati year, after seven hundred and seventy-five years, in figures Samvat 775, of the Shak king had passed, during the victorious and happy reign of Amoghvarshdev, the great sovereign, the great king of kings, the noble lord, meditating on the feet of the great sovereign, the chief of kings, the majestic lord, the illustrious Jagattung; and during the flourishing and victorious reign of Kapardi, king of the Konkan, who by Amoghvarsh's favour has gained the five great titles, a jewel among the chiefs of districts, meditating on the feet of Pulashakti, the gem of the great chiefs of districts............. [Arch. Sur. X. 61.] On the wall, cut in thick plaster, to the right of the middle door, are some records of English visitors with the dates 1697, 1706, 1710, and 1735.

On the opposite side of the ravine, Cave 70 has a long inscription of about the same date as that over the pillars in Cave 9 and very likely from the same hand.

Cave 11.

The next cave on the original side is Cave 11, which is further up the ravine and is hard to get at, as the path climbs the rock for some distance, runs across for about twenty yards, and again falls to the original level. It consists of a veranda supported outwardly on two small pillars, an inner room about fourteen feet square, and a chapel with a large relic shrine in the centre. Opposite Cave 11, on the other side of the ravine, is Cave 79. Next to Cave 11 on the original side is Cave 12, a plain small room with a veranda and a water cistern on one side. On the left wall, outside the veranda and over a large recess, is an inscription of about ten lines, five feet six inches in length. The letters, which are of the time of Vasishthiputra (A.D. 133-162), are deeply cut, and, where they have not peeled off, are distinct. They record the gifts of a cave, a cistern, a seat and a sleeping bench by an inhabitant of Kalyan, (name gone), a merchant, son of Shivmitra. There is a further gift of clothes and karshapanas and one pratika a month to the friars who lived in the cave in the rainy season. [Karshapanas and Pratikas are coins. The karshapana was of different values; if of gold it weighed sixteen mashas; if of silver it was equal in value to sixteen panas of cowries or 1280 cowries; if of copper it weighed 80 raktikas, or the same as of gold, about 176 grains. According to some the copper Karshapana is the same as a pana of cowries, that is 80 cowries. The pratika appears to be equal in value to the silver karshapana, that is sixteen panas of cowries.]

Caves 12-13.

Over against this is cave 80. Cave 13 is a group of three or four broken caves with some ruined relic mounds. In this cave some interesting discoveries were made by Mr. West in 1853. In the centre of the floor, which was covered with earth, were found the foundations of four small relic shrines of unburnt bricks. In one of these foundations, which seemed to have been undisturbed since the destruction of the shrine, fragments of clay seals were found representing a sitting Buddha surrounded by ornaments. Further search showed many similar impressions in dried clay, also several impressions of round seals of various sizes bearing inscriptions. Some larger fragments of dried clay which had been moulded into peculiar forms, were discovered to have been the receptacles in which the inscription seals had been imbedded. The larger fragments of dried clay were found to be portions of six varieties of seal receptacles. The impressions of inscription seals were laid face to face in pairs, and one pair was imbedded in each receptacle. They were small round pieces of dried clay with a flat face bearing an inscription in relief, evidently the impression of a clay with a flat seal, and a rounded back, which bore the impression of the skin markings of a human palm, showing that the clay was laid upon one hand while the seal was impressed with the other. [Mr. West found sixty-eight seal impressions of various sizes, being the impressions of twenty-two different seals. The number of impressions of each seal were, No. 1 seven impressions, No. 2 two, No. 3 ten, No. 4 three, No. 5 five, No. 6 five, No. 7 three, No, 8 three, No. 9 one, No. 10 one, No. 11 six, No. 12 four, No. 13 two, No. 14 two, No. 15 three, No. 16 three, No. 17 one, No. 18 one, No. 19 one, No. 20 one, and No. 21 one. There was one not figured and two were illegible.]

An examination of the most distinct of the seal impressions showed some words of the Buddhist formula, and this led to the deciphering of the whole inscription. On many of the other seals, the inscriptions, though differently divided into lines, were precisely alike, and represented in letters of about the 'tenth century, the well known Buddhist formula. One seal had an inscription in sixteen lines, the last three of which were found to be the Buddhist formula. All the impressions representing a sitting Buddha seemed to have been made with the same seal as the same defects occurred in all. The figure was represented cross-legged under a canopy, surrounded by ornaments and with three lines of inscription beneath it. Portions of seventy distinct impressions of this seal were found in Cave 13 of which two were broken, fifty-five were pieces containing the whole sitting figure, the rest were in smaller fragments. The flat faces of the impressions were painted red, while the round backs bore distinct impressions of the skin markings of a human hand, showing that the seal was impressed in the same manner as the inscription seals. [Similar impressions in dried clay exist in a museum at Edinburgh where they are labelled as coming from Ceylon, and similar impressions in lac are figured in Moor's Hindu Pantheon and stated to exist in the museum of the East India Company. The meaning and use of these seals is well pointed out by Dr. Rajendralal Mitra (Buddha Gaya, 121). Little clay votive relic shrines were kept in store by the priests to be given to pilgrims and the value of the memorial was increased by bearing the seal impression of an image of Gautama or of the Buddhist creed. The dedication of relic shrines in sacred places was held to be most meritorious. Those who could not afford to make real relic shrines offered small models of stone or of clay. At Sarnath, Sanchi, and Mathura thousands of clay models, not more than three inches high have been found. At Buddha Gaya the models were almost all of stone. Some of the clay models were stamped with the Buddhist seal and others with the image of Buddha. A cheaper form of offering was a small tile stamped with a relic shrine and the Buddhist creed.]

There were a variety of fragments of moulded clay found with the seal impressions. It was doubtful what they represented, but several of them, fitted upon others, formed mushroom-shaped ornaments which would fit on to the broken tops of the receptacles. One was a fragment of a larger umbrella-shaped canopy; another appeared to be one-half of a mould for casting coins, bearing the impression of a coin which might possibly be a very rude representation of a man on horseback. A brass or copper earring was found imbedded in a small ball of ashes.

Two stone pots were found buried in the earth between two topes. They were of laterite or some similar stone, and had covers fitting a sunken ledge on the top of the pots. Each of them held about a table spoonful of ashes, one pot had three copper coins and the other two copper coins. Of the coins, the first three appeared to have been little worn and were covered on both sides with well cut Arabic letters which differed in each coin, though all three bore the date H. 844 coinciding with A.D. 1440-41. The latter two were much worn and the inscriptions were difficult to read and contained no date. [Mr. West in Jour. B. B. R. A. S. VI. 157-160.] On the other side of the watercourse are caves 81 and 82.

Caves 14-15.

Still following the ravine and crossing an upward flight of steps is Cave 14, a well finished cave but infested with bats and bad smells. The shrine off the back of the hall has a little antechamber with two slender pillars in front. The roof has remains of plaster. Opposite Cave 14 is Cave 83. Over the cistern corner of Cave 14 a rough path leads to Cave 15, an unfinished cave that seems to have contained a built relic mound. On a tablet, cut on a detached rock between Caves 14 and 15, is an inscription of four lines one foot four inches long. It is deeply cut and complete but not very distinct. The letters, which are of the time of Vasishthiputra (A.D. 133-162), record the dedication of a pathway by one Kumar Nand (or son of Nanda?) of Kalyan. Opposite to this, on the other side of the ravine, is Cave 84.

Caves 16- 19.

Cave 16 is a small cell cut in the rock with a relic shrine. There are traces in it of red plaster. Cave 17 is open in front with a group of cells walled off in one end, and a low bench running round two of its sides. Across the ravine are Caves 85 and 88. Cave 18 is a water cistern and Cave 19 a small cell. On the left wall of the porch of Cave 19 is a faintly cut and rather indistinct inscription of 2½ lines three feet long. It is cut in letters of the time of Vasishthiputra (A.D. 133-162) and records the gift of a cave by a recluse (name gone, perhaps Asad), brother of the reverend Vir, who also gave an endowment from which to supply a garment to the monk living in the cave.

Caves 20-21.

 Cave 20 is a broken cavern with some low benches. Cave 21 is rather a good cave with a cistern on the right and a projecting porch supported outwardly by two pillars with cushion capitals. Beyond the porch is the veranda, the hall twenty-six feet ten inches long by twenty-two feet four inches wide, and the shrine with a seated figure of a teaching Buddha. There are Padmapanis on each side and Buddhas in the side niches with angels about. The most curious feature in this cave is a figure of Padmapani, on the right of a seated Buddha, in a niche to the west of the porch with eleven heads. Besides his proper head he has ten smaller heads arranged in three rows above, four in the central row and three on each side of it. There is also a litany group, like that in Cave 2, but much damaged. On some plaster to the right of the shrine door are the painted outlines of several Buddhas.

Dam.

At this point the ravine widens into a large basin and has, across its mouth, the remains of the massive stone dam of which mention has already been made. On a detached rock, between Caves 21 and 22, is an inscription about the making of the dam. It is deeply cut and distinct, but most of the first line and part of the second have peeled off. The letters are of the time of Vasishthiputra (A.D. 133-162) and record the gift of a reservoir by a merchant named Punaka.

Caves 22-28.

Continuing in the same direction is 22, a small cave, neatly cut, with a veranda and a cell furnished with a sleeping bench. Cave 23 is a long straggling excavation much like 13 with some benches along the back wall; Cave 24 is a small cell; 25 is the beginning of a cave and 26 another small cave; 27 which comes next was meant to be large, but never went much beyond a beginning. In front are two half-cut pillars with cushion capitals. Some little distance lower is 28 which is of no importance.

Caves 87-78.

From this, as 29 is back towards 3, it is best to return by the other side of the ravine taking the caves from 87 to 78. Cave 87 is a little room and veranda with a water cistern'; 86 is similar in plan but rather larger; 88 is the beginning of a cave up above between 85 and 86; 85 is a small room much ruined; 84, which has a cistern, is like 85, and has a figure of Buddha in a niche in the back wall and one of the more modern inscriptions; 83 is a long straggling cave with a row of six cells in the back wall and the remains of one or more built relic mounds. 82 is a small broken cave; 81 is a neat little cave with a long inscription and a doorway and little lattice window on either side. The veranda is open and pillarless. 80 originally included three rooms, which are now broken into one another and much destroyed; 79, a plain little room with a veranda and two pillars, is apparently unfinished. In the back wall is a long rectangular niche with a number of small seated Buddhas. In the inner dark chamber of cave 78, on the front of a pedestal or altar before a sitting figure, is an inscription of four letters. The surface of the stone is much honey-combed and the first two letters are illegible. The letters are of the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196), or a little later, and the language may be Sanskrit. On the architrave, over the veranda colonnade, is another inscription in Sanskrit of two sets of five lines, each line seven feet long. Each line is over the space between two pillars and the short line below is on the capital of a column. The first part, which is inscribed in letters of the ninth century, records the gifts, by the reverend Nainbhikshu, of an endowment of 100 drammas to the friars living in the large monastery of Krishnagiri during the reign of Kapardi (II.), king of the Konkan, the humble servant of Amoghvarsh, Shak 799 (A.D. 877). Near the above but separated by a line to avoid confusion is another inscription which seems to mean: During the reign of Pulashakti, governor of Mangalpuri in the Konkan, the humble servant of (the Rashtrakuta) Amoghvarsh beloved of the world, the great devotee Vishnuranak, the son of Purnahari, living on the lotus-like feet (of the king)", requests the honourable brotherhood (of monks) living in Krishnagiri to 'Read three leaves of the revered (books) Panchvinshati and Saptasahasrika.' Vishnuranak gave 120 drammas to keep up this sacred reading. On the left wall, outside the veranda of Cave 81 over a recess, is an inscription of twelve lines, each line three feet nine inches long. It is cut rather deep and is fairly distinct, the last four lines being clearer and probably later than the rest. It records the gift of a cave and cistern by the devotee Aparenuka, son of Ananda, inhabitant of Kalyan, on the fifth day of the 1st fortnight of Grishma (April) in the sixteenth year of Gotamiputra Yajnashri Shatakarni (A.D. 177-196). Also of 200 karshapanas and a field in the village of Mangalthan [Mangalthan is the present deserted village of Magathan whose site lies about three miles west of Kanheri hill. It has Buddhist caves and remains. A large plot of land is still marked in the survey maps as Kanherichi jaga or Kanheri's land. See below Magathan.] (Sk. Mangalasthana), as an endowment to provide sixteen clothes and one pratika a month during the rainy, season. On the right wall, outside the veranda of cave 82, is an inscription of probably more than five lines, originally three feet three inches long. It is cut rather deep, but the rock is honeycombed and weather-worn so that in places the letters are very indistinct. About three letters are wanting at the end of the first line and a corresponding number below. The letters are of the time of Gotamiputra II (A.D. 177-196), and record a gift by a nun (name gone), the disciple of some reverend friar. On the right wall, outside the veranda of Cave 84 and above a recess over a cistern, is an inscription of eight lines, three feet three inches long. It is faintly cut on a tablet surrounded by an ornamental border, the surface of the tablet being much corroded. The letters are of about the fifth century. It probably records the gift of a cave.

Cave 29.

About fifteen yards to the north of, and on a much higher level than, number 3 the cathedral cave, is 29, an ordinary sized cave with a hall twenty feet nine inches by eighteen feet five inches. A low bench runs round two sides of the hall, and the walls are adorned with numerous Buddhas, seated on lotus thrones supported by Naga figures. There is a plain open window on the left of the hall door and a latticed window on the right. The cave is provided with the usual water cistern on one side. On the inner wall of the veranda, over and between two grated windows, is an inscription of one line seven feet six inches long, and of seven lines three feet one inch long. The inscription, which is deeply cut on a rough surface and tolerably distinct, records, in letters of the time of Grotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196), the gift of a cistern and a cave by a merchant Isipal (Sk. Rishipal), son of Golanaka, inhabitant of Kalyan, and (the gift) of a field in the village of Saphad as an endowment from which to supply a garment to a monk during the rains, and, in the hot season, a monthly grant of one pratika, and, from what remained, to make an awning, mandap. [The word in the original is mandap, by which is perhaps meant a temporary bower-like structure in front of the cave to ward off the summer sun.]

Caves 30-34.

30 and 31 are small caves of little interest. 32 differs in plan from any cave except 45. A long veranda is supported along the front on four plain thick octagonal pillars. Instead of having the doorway of the hall in the centre of the back wall of the veranda it is pushed towards one end, the other end being occupied by a group of cells. Two oblong windows, much larger than usual, light the hall, one on either side of the doorway; and, further along the wall, another similar window opens into the cells. Round two sides of the interior of this hall runs a low bench. A water cistern is attached to this cave. Passing up the steps between 30 and 31, keeping to the left, is 33, a much damaged cave with a water cistern and long benches against the rocks outside. 34 is a small cave with two pillars supporting the front of the veranda, and two little lattice windows, one on either side of the doorway, admitting light into the little room.

Cave 35.

Cave 35, next in size to 10, has the floor considerably raised above the outer court and has a well cut flight of steps leading to the veranda. The front of the veranda is supported on four thick plain octagonal pillars. Between each of the pillars, except the middle pair, is a low bench with a back that forms a low parapet wall from pillar to pillar. The outside of this wall continues straight down to the floor of the court. The upper part is adorned with the Buddhist rail pattern and an upper horizontal edging of festoons, which, in timber fashion, are shown as if resting on the cross beams of the veranda floor, the square ends of which are allowed to project a little beyond the face. These again rest on a long horizontal beam which runs the whole length of the front of the cave, the beam itself resting upon vertical props which at intervals rise from the ground. [This construction is well represented at Nasik where gigantic figures, half of whose bodies are above ground, supported the ends of the horizontal cross beams on their shoulders.] The veranda walls are covered with representations of Buddha in different attitudes. A central and two smaller side doorways enter on a large hall, forty-five feet six inches by forty feet six inches, with a bench running round three sides and cells off the two side walls. These inner walls are also covered with sculptured figures of Buddha and Padmapani. A good water cistern is attached to the cave. From 35 the path leads up the rock, over the cistern near 33, southwards, across an upward flight of steps, about fifteen yards to 36 a much damaged cave.

Cave 36.

Outside the veranda on the right and left walls of cave 36 are two inscriptions. The right inscription of seven lines, three feet eight inches long, is faintly cut on a somewhat honeycombed surface. The lines seem to have originally been ten inches longer and in this part have become illegible. The left inscription, probably of eight lines three feet six inches long, is faintly cut on a honeycombed surface and is indistinct. Both inscriptions relate to the same subject and have the same date. The names of the donors are different. The inscription runs: ' In the eighth year of king Madhariputra the lord Shirisena, in the sixth fortnight of Grishma (April) on the tenth day, a merchant householder, the son of Venhunandi, merchant, living in Kalyan, made this cave of Satta (?) with the respectable...., with his father Venhunandi, with his mother Bodhisama, with his brother.... hathi, with an assembly of all co-religionists.' On the left wall, outside the veranda and near a recess over a cistern, is a third inscription of ten lines three feet long. It is faintly cut, on a rough surface exposed to the weather, in letters of about the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196). It records the gift of a cave, a cistern, and a bathing cistern by Lavanika, wife of Ayal (Sk. Achal), a merchant, son of Nandana and inhabitant of Kalyan, and of an endowment of 300 karshapanas. The inscription also mentions something done in the Ambalika (monastery?) in Kalyan.

Caves 37-38.

Further in the same direction, passing a dry cistern, is 37, a small cave with two front pillars broken away. It has a latticed window on either side of the doorway to the inner room and a cistern outside. On the rock, near the entrance to the open gallery (38), is a deep cut and distinct inscription of one line fifteen inches long. At a little distance below it, to the left, is this symbol□□, 10½ inches square and apparently of the same age.

Galleries 38-41.

The four long open galleries, under the south-western brow of the hill, 38, 39, 40, and 41, though rarely visited, have several objects of interest. From the Tulsi side, 38 is the first to come in sight, as the path passes under it about a mile from the Cathedral Cave (No. 3). Like the three other galleries, 38 seems to be an enlarged natural hollow in the face of the cliff, where a band of soft rock lies between two harder layers. The harder belts are blackened by the rain, while the soft band has worn into dust and been blown away, leaving a long hollow under the brow of the hill, where the rock, being sheltered from the rain, keeps its natural sandy colour. [Many such hollows occur in the valleys to the north-east of the caves, Some of them have been enlarged by art, but it is most difficult to get at them.] The only safe entrance to 38 is from above, where a path, cut in the rock and furnished with steps, crosses the lower plateau of rolling ridges, and may be reached either down the steep slope of 55, or by keeping below the terrace wall in front of 36. Following this path southwards, it turns suddenly to the right over the brow of the precipice, alongside which it descends by broken steps cut in a semi-detached rock, which end in another rock-path leading north to 39 and south to 38, The path to 38 goes down some steps and up others to the level of the floor of the gallery, and is soon sheltered by the rock above. The floor of the gallery is covered with brick-dust, the foundations of fifteen to twenty small brick topes or relic mounds buried in their ruins.

Stone Stupa.

Beyond the brick ruins are the remains of a large stone tope, and, behind the stone tope, are three small chambers, with much sculpture, greatly decayed owing to the perishable quality of the rock. The first chamber has a group on both sides and at the back, each consisting of a large sitting figure with attendants, two of the attendants in each group being life-size. Between the first and second chambers is a small sitting figure with two larger figures below. The second chamber has a sitting figure with attendants on the left wall; a standing figure with attendants on the back, and several small sitting and standing figures on the right. The third chamber has a standing figure with attendants on both side-walls, a sitting figure with attendants on the back, and, outside, the remains of some sculptures. All these chambers have remains of plaster and traces of paint. Beyond the large stone tope, the floor of the gallery suddenly rises about fourteen feet to a short level space, on which are the foundations of eleven small brick topes, buried in their ruins. Another rise of three feet leads to a level containing the foundations of thirty-three brick topes, also buried in their ruins. These topes have been built on a platform paved with brick, and in some places the rock above has been cut to make room for them. Brick ruins, the remains of other topes, extend beyond the fourth chamber, which is semicircular, with a small ruined relic shrine in the centre and a small recess at the back. From this point, brick disappears for about eighty feet, the floor beginning to rise past another semicircular chamber, above the level of the gallery, with a small rock relic shrine in the centre and an umbrella-shaped canopy cut in the ceiling. It then passes a relic shrine in bas-relief and the beginning of a cell, where broken bricks again appear and go on for about two hundred feet, no doubt covering the foundations of brick topes. The floor of the gallery then rises rapidly to the end, where a bench is cut in the rock, commanding a fine view of Bassein. Near the end of the gallery are three recesses, with benches from six to ten feet above the level of the floor; and below the first recesses are three sockets cut in the rock for fixing, wood work. A rock-path formerly passed the end of the gallery, leading to steps up the hill. But the first part of this path has slipped down the cliff and communication is cut off.

Of the numerous topes in this gallery, the ruins of the large stone tope have been fully explored, and many of the brick topes have been cleared. In 1853 the large stone tope presented the appearance of a heap of dust and stones decaying into bluish earth, which had probably not been disturbed for ages. It was noticed that one or two of the stones were covered with small sculptured figures, and the whole heap was carefully turned over and cleared in search of sculptures. The result was the discovery of the lower part of a large tope, built of stone, differing from the neighbouring rocks, and of some architectural merit. This stone tope has been a sixteen-sided polygon for a greater height than the present ruins, and above that it must have been circular. The many sided base of the tope, which measured about twenty-two feet in diameter, was, for twenty-seven or twenty-eight feet from the ground, ornamented with level belts or friezes of sculpture, separated by narrower bands of tracery, and, perhaps, divided into panels by upright pillars and pilasters. Too little of the tope is left to show for certain the number of tiers or friezes of sculpture which encircled the base. There seem to have been nine tiers or belts, several of which were sculptured into figures or tracery. Portions of the two lowest belts remain in their original position; the other fragments that have been recovered were found scattered among the ruins. The lowest belt seems to have been plain and less than an inch broad. The second belt was about two inches broad and had figured panels. One of these (Mr. West's 1), measuring eighteen inches square, has a central and two side figures. The central figure is a broken spirit or Yaksha-like form, which with both hands steadies on its head a relic shrine, apparently a copy of the tope. Its many sided base seems carved into six level belts and supports a semicircular cupola, from the centre of which rises a tee of five plates each plate larger than the one below it. On either side of the central tope bearer are two larger human figures, and behind are damaged figures which seem to bring offerings in dishes. Mr. West's fragment two, which he thinks may belong to a higher belt, is about six inches broad, it has two rows of heading, and is divided into three small panels. On the right (visitor's left) is a central kirtimukh or face of fame with a boy and an elephant's head on both sides. The next panel is a man holding a rosary, beyond him are two elephants' heads neck to neck, and at the end is a panel of tracery. The next four fragments (Mr. West's 3, 4, 5, and 6) perhaps belonged to a fourth belt about six inches broad. They are groups of lions, tigers, cattle, and deer, peaceful and undisturbed, showing how under Shakyamuni's influence the lion and the lamb lay down together. Mr. West's fragment seven, which he thinks may have belonged to the fifth belt, is about nine inches broad. Above is a scroll of tracery about three inches broad, divided by upright lozenge panels. Below is a plain rounded moulding, about six inches broad. The sixth frieze was about eighteen inches broad. What remains of it in its place is plain. But Mr. West thinks that the groups of figures in his fragments 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 may have belonged to this belt. In fragment eight (3' 6" x 1' 3" x 7") in the extreme right (visitor's left) a man, probably an ascetic, without ornaments, and with his hair standing out from his head in a great circle of curious tufts, sits under a tree on a stone bench, perhaps draped with cloth; his right leg is drawn up across the bench and his right hand holds near his chest a short broad-bladed dagger. His left leg rests on the ground and his left hand is set on his left thigh. On the ascetic's left a man, who has dismounted from his horse, kneels on stones before the ascetic, and, with joined hands, seems to ask his help. This figure has a curious shock head of hair falling below the ears, or it may be a cap, and wears a waistcloth tied in a knot behind, and a belt or waistband. His horse, a sturdy long-tailed cob, has a bridle without a head-piece, a saddle except for its high pommel much like an English saddle, a girth and two belts, one passing round the chest the other under the tail. To the left of the horse the ascetic apparently again appears though the head-dress is a little different. He is seated and rests his right hand, in which lies something perhaps bread, on his right knee, and he holds up his open left hand as if forbidding. A male figure, apparently the same as the kneeling figure in the last, stands with shock hair and a dagger in his right hand, and something, perhaps bread, in his left hand. Behind and above, a woman seizes the hands, and a man the feet, of a male figure who struggles to get free. It is difficult to make out the meaning of this group. Perhaps two travellers have been waylaid by thieves, one is carried off, the other escapes. The traveller who escapes goes to a holy man who takes from him his sword and gives him food to offer the thieves and induce them to give up his friend. To the left (visitor's right) of this group the stone is bare and worn. It was once written with letters of the fourth or fifth century. One letter ko is still plain. On the same slab, separated by a plain pilaster, is a group of three figures under a tree. In the back ground a standing man, his hair tied in a double top-knot and with a plain necklace and bracelet, blows a conch. Below on the left (visitor's right) a woman, with big round earrings, a necklace, and a top-knot, kneels holding her hands in front. On her right is a kneeling male figure with a double top-knot and bracelet with something broken, perhaps a musical instrument, in his raised left hand. The object of worship, which these figures are reverencing, has gone. Fragment ten measures 2' x 1' 3". In the right (visitor's left) is a standing woman with a sword in her left hand, and, behind her, another woman. These figures are separated by a pillar square below and rounded above, in the fourth or fifth century style. To the left (visitor's right) of the pillar, under a tree, is a standing woman, with bracelet, waistcloth, and anklets. Her right hand is on her breast and her left is raised to pluck the leaves of a tree. Behind her is a man's face and two male figures stand in the back ground. On her left is a seated figure, apparently an ascetic, with his hair in the dome-coil or jata style, no ornaments, and his waistcloth passed round his knee. His right hand is up to his chest and held something which is broken. His left hand is stretched forward and seems to clutch a sword, which is held in the right hand of a male figure, who seems to be running towards him. This figure, whose head-dress, like a three-plaited tiara, seems to show that he is a king, wears a necklace and armlet, and a waistcloth which falls in a tail behind. A woman, perhaps the same as the woman to the right of the ascetic, with a big earring and back-knot and an anklet, kneels in front and clasps the king's right knee as if in fear. The king seems to brandish his sword as if about to kill the woman, and with his left hand tries to free the sword from the ascetic's grasp. On the king's left a woman, standing under a cocoa-palm, clutches his waistcloth and seems to try to hold him back. On her left is a running figure with a royal tiara, brandishing a sword in his right hand and his left hand set on his left hip. The story of this group seems to be that a king's wife, the standing woman on the ascetic's right, has left her home to live in the forests with the ascetic. Her husband comes in search of her, and, finding her, threatens to kill her, while the ascetic clutches his sword and the wife throws herself at his feet asking for pity. In the right of fragment eleven, which measures 2' 2" x 9", is a seated teaching Buddha under a tree, and, on his right, a seated disciple in the attitude of thought. A man, with a second man on his shoulders, comes from the right and behind them is a band of women dancing and singing. Behind the dancers are lotuses, and, in the extreme right is a dwarf carrying a dish on his outstretched hands. In fragment twelve (2' x 8") in the right panel are elephants and trees, and in the left (visitor's right) panel a man on a barebacked horse with two attendants in front with shields. Fragment thirteen (which measures 1' 6" x 6") is a line of six small broken male figures, some seated, others standing. In fragment fourteen (9" X 7"), an elephant with two riders enters from the right. Before it goes a man on foot with a shock head of hair and a coarse waistcloth. He carries a dagger in his right hand and a long shield in his left hand. Four more fragments (15-18) are believed by Mr. West to belong to a higher belt. They are panels (about 2' 2" X 9") divided by pillars, in the Elephanta Cave style, showing groups of Buddha, alternately teaching and in thought, with, in each case, two attendant fly-whisk bearers. Two more fragments (19 and 20) measure 1' 6" x 6" and 2' x 5''. Nineteen is part of a belt of festooned drapery and twenty has an overhanging belt of rosebuds above and a plain withdrawn band below. The character of the figures, the shape of the letters, and the style of the pillars, seem to show that these sculptures belong to the fourth and fifth centuries. [Of Mr. West's 20 fragments of this tope, Nos. 8, 9, and 14 are in original in the Museum of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Of two others (14 and 15), which are in the possession of the executors of the late Dr. Bhau Daji, plaster of Paris impressions are in the Society's Museum. The rest are probably still at Kanheri.]

At some time after the building of the tope, the sculptures were covered with a thin coat of white plaster, on which the features of the figures were painted in red lines, which do not always correspond with the original features. After the lower sculptures had become broken, a circular brick moulding was built round the basement, so as to hide the two lower friezes; it was covered with a thin coating of white plaster. Besides the sculptures, three flat stones were found, bearing portions of an inscription on their circular faces. These stones probably formed a part of the upper circular portion of the tope, below the level where it began to round into a cupola. Many plain stones were also found of the proper shape for forming portions of the cupola. A stone moulding was also found among the dust round the tope. It is a part of the polygonal port ion, and bears an inscription in Pahlavi letters, cut in vertical lines, and without diacritical points. The letters are finely but superficially cut, like those in the inscription on the three stones above-mentioned, and the inscription extends over only four lines. It reads, ' The year 390 (A.D. 1021) of Yazdakard Shatraiyar. Mah Frobag'. On another stone of the relic shrine is an inscription of which only two or three detached letters can be read. It appears to have consisted of seven vertical lines on a flat space between two groups of sculpture; but the surface of the stone is so decayed that the letters are just sufficient to show that the words have been Pahlavi. The tope was probably solid, the inner portion being of stone cut from the neighbouring rocks. It had already been broken open and the square hole in the rock had been emptied of its relics.

Brick Stupas.

The foundations of all the brick topes that have been cleared are of three sizes, six feet, five feet three inches, and four feet six inches in diameter. They are solid, of large flat segmental bricks shaped in moulds on the outside, and of square flat bricks within. All the brick work has been covered with a thin coat of white plaster, which does not appear to have been painted., As eight of these topes were carefully searched without any relics being found, it is probable that the place of deposit was in the cupola, which, in every instance, was destroyed. In two of the cleared topes a small plain stone was found occupying the place of a portion of two courses of the brickwork just above the mouldings, and this probably existed in all. A similarly shaped stone was found among the broken brick between the topes which had an inscription on its circular face. Many square stones cut in steps, and with a square hole through them, were found among the broken bricks and evidently formed ornamental tops for the topes. The great number of these brick topes, there must have been at least 100 of them, makes it probable that they held the ashes of the priesthood and that this gallery was the burying-ground of the monastery. [Mr. West in Jour. B. B. R. A. S. VI. 116-120.]

Inscriptions.

On the circular edges of three flat segmental stones, which were dug out of the ruins of the large built and sculptured stone tope were three inscriptions one of two lines, another of two lines, and a third of one line. The sizes of the circular surfaces of the stones were respectively 18½ by 5¼ inches, twenty inches by 5½, and 21¼ inches by six. The inscriptions were cut in five lines upon a smooth surface. The beginning of all the lines was distinct, but the stone was corroded at the right end of the second and third inscriptions. They are probably parts of one inscription and the beginnings of the lines were originally in the same vertical line. The first portion begins with the date 921 (A.D. 999) Ashvin shuddha. [These letters were probably carved by some visitor to the caves. The stone bearing this inscription is in the Bombay Asiatic Society's Museum.] Thera was another inscription on one of the friezes of this tope alongside the sculptured representation, perhaps of a road robbery, where some faint traces of more ancient letters were barely visible. On the face of a stone, 8½ inches by 4½ inches and 9 inches deep, found among the ruins of a brick burial mound in the open gallery 38, is a three line inscription. The first two lines were distinct, except the third letter in the second line, but the lower line was much decayed. The letters belong to the fifth or sixth century. In the first line occurs the name of an old friar Aiashivnaga (Sk. Aryashivnaga). On the back wall of open gallery 39, is an inscription of one line six feet nine inches long, written in letters of the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196). It is deep cut, but on a honeycombed surface, and records the gift of a cave.

Caves 42-43.

A little above 13 and 14, close to the steps that run between them, is cave 42, much inferior to it in execution but, in plan, closely resembling Nasik cave 3. The pillars, though now broken, have had the same pot capitals surmounted by the flat tiles and groups of pictures. These groups remain attached to the ceiling and one of the pot capitals lies on the ground. The pilasters at either end have a central lotus rosette, with a half rosette above, and the neck between is cut into three large flutes. These are very poor, and, like the pillars, show inferior and careless workmanship. Instead of the usual large hall, two rooms of equal size open from the veranda, each by its own doorway. A low bench runs round two aides of each room. Close by, separated only by a broken partition wall, is 43, a plain cave, with two octagonal pillars in front of the veranda, and a small square hall with a figure of Buddha cut in a niche in the back wall. On each side of the central doorway is a little lattice window and a cistern. On the right of the entrance over the mouth of the cistern is an inscription of eight lines. The letters are of the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196) and record the gift of a cave and cistern by an old nun, the disciple of the reverend Ghos. There is also the record of an endowment of 200 karshapanas from which to give sixteen clothes and one pratika a month.

Caves 44-49.

Cave 44 is broken and unfinished. It differs from the rest by having a small chapel in each of the three inner walls of the hall, the fronts of each chapel being supported upon two pillars. There is a cell at either end of the veranda and a cistern outside. Cave 45 is identical in plan with 32. The long veranda is supported outwardly by four square pillars with octagonal necks that pass from the ceiling about one-third down their shafts. At either end of the veranda is a Buddha with attendants, and in a niche in the back wall is a seated Buddha. 46, 47, 48, and 49 are small caves, the last much destroyed. Outside the veranda on the left wall of cave 48 is an inscription, of five lines, originally three feet four inches long. The letters, which are of the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196) are clear but not deep cut. The lines are complete at the right hand end, but on the left the rock has peeled off. The upper lines are more indistinct than the rest. It seems to record the gift of a cave and an endowment of some karshapanas from which to supply a monk with a garment during the rainy months. On the left wall outside the veranda of cave 49 is an inscription, probably of nine lines, which may have been four feet long. It is very imperfect, indistinct, and faintly cut. The few legible letters show that, like the last, the inscription is of the age of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196).

Beyond 49, passing over the rock to the south, is 50, a neat cave with a cistern, double veranda, a ruined front wall and a bench running round three sides of the interior. Further, in the same direction, comes 51, a tolerably large cave with a nicely finished front. The outside of the parapet is of much the same style as 35. Cave 52 is plain but very neat. On the right wall, outside the veranda of cave 52 and above a recess over a cistern, is an inscription probably of 9½ lines, three feet four inches long. It is deeply cut, in letters of the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196), but on a honeycombed surface.

Caves 50-66.

The upper three lines and part of the next two have peeled off, and it is difficult to make out anything of what remains. Cave 53 is like 52. On the right wall, outside of the veranda and above a recess over a cistern, is an inscription of eleven lines, three feet four inches long. It is deep cut, but on a honeycombed surface, and the centre has peeled off. The letters, which are of the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196), record the gift of a cave. Across a small torrent from 53, are caves 54 and 55, small and unimportant. From 55 the path runs back to the north-east, where, above 45, is 56, about the cleanest cave on the hill. It is of fair size and makes an excellent dwelling. As in many of the other caves four octagonal pillars support the front of the veranda; a low bench runs round two sides of the interior, two lattice windows aid in lighting the hall, and there is a cell in one corner with a small window opening into the veranda. In front, a fine open terrace with stone couches, commands a beautiful view of the sea, Bassein creek, and Bassein. There are two inscriptions in this cave. Outside the veranda, on the left wall and above a recess over a cistern, is one of eleven lines, three feet four inches long. It is cut to a moderate depth, but, owing to the honeycombed state of the rock, is not very distinct and part of the centre has peeled off. The letters are of the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196) and record the gift of a cave and an endowment by a Kalyan worshipper (name gone). On the pilaster, at the right end of the veranda, is the other inscription of 6½ lines, one foot seven inches long. It is faintly cut and indistinct, and is very modern (9th or 10th century). A groove has been cut through its centre at a still later date to fix some wooden framing. The inscription refers to something done in the old cave, probably the setting up of some Brahmanic or Jain image.

Caves 57-59.

57 is much decayed. 58 is a small but neatly cut cave in good preservation. On the inner wall of the veranda of 58, and to the left of a grated window, is an inscription of two lines, three feet long. It is deep cut, distinct, and perfect. The letters are of the time of Vasishthiputra (A.D. 133-162). It reads, 'The meritorious gift of a cave named Sea View (Sk. Sagara Pralokana) by the reverend elder Mitrabhuti' This cave is rightly named Sea View as it commands a fine stretch of the Bassein creek and of the sea beyond. 59 is like 58. On the back wall of the recess over the cistern mouth is an inscription of three lines originally two feet nine inches long. It is deeply cut and distinct, but about five letters in the first line, three in the second, and two in the third have peeled off. The letters are of the time of Vasishthiputra (A.D. 133-162) and record the gift of a cave and (cistern) by a nun named Damila. The rest cannot be made out. On the inner wall of the veranda of the same cave, and above a small grated window, is an inscription of one line, five feet three inches long. It is clear, though not deeply cut, and all the letters are perfect; three small letters under the line can also be easily read. The letters are of the time of Vasishthiputra (A.D. 132-162), and the inscription records the gift of a cave and a cistern by a nun Damila of Kalyan.

Cave 60-66.

60 is plain and larger than the last two; it has a low bench running along one of the inner walls. 61 is like 60 but smaller; 62 is unfinished. A small chapel in the back wall has two pillars supporting its front. It is probably the antechamber of a shrine that was never begun. Caves 63 to 68 run parallel to these, on a higher level. Of late years almost all of these caves have been used as dwellings by Jogis and other ascetics. The last Jogi died two or three years ago and they are now (1881) deserted. 63 is a large well cut cave in the style of 35. 64, a fairly large cave, has had its front pillars broken away. The veranda walls are covered with sculpture, and two large oblong windows light the hall which is a large plain room with a low bench round two sides. On the back wall of a recess over a cistern mouth, to the right of the entrance of cave 64, is an inscription probably of six lines, faintly cut and indistinct. The two lowest lines have disappeared, and nearly half of the third and fourth lines is illegible. The letters are of the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196). It records the gift of a cistern by the recluse Jamadevika, daughter of the very rich Shivtana (Sk. Shivtanu) and the mother of Mahasakdeva. 65 is small and much ruined. 66 is rather an interesting cave from the amount and nature of the sculpture. It has the best representation of the Buddhist ' litany' that occurs at Kanheri. The arrangement of the little groups is much the same as in cave 2. Padmapani has two female attendants one on either side. The fourth compartment from the top on the right side represents a man on his knees praying for deliverance from a fire, in the middle of which is a human head. The figures are generally cut with greater spirit and more variety of pose than in cave 2; they are also in much greater relief. The rest of the wall is covered with relic shrines and figures of Buddha on his lotus throne upheld by Nagas. In the back wall is cut a throne for a seated Buddha, but the seat is empty and a wretched attempt at a ling supplies its place.

On two of the outer pilasters and on the wall just above the cistern are three Pahlavi inscriptions, the work of Parsi visitors of the eleventh century. [These inscriptions run, (1) In the name of God. Through strong omens and the good Judge this year 378 of Yazdakard, on the day Auharmazd of the month Mitro (10th October 1009) there have come to this place the co-religionists Yazdan-panak and Mahaiyyar sons of Mitraaiyyar Panjbukht and Padarbukht sons of Mahaiyyar, Mardanshad son of Hiradbahram, and Hiradbahram son of Mardanshad, Mitraaiyyar Son of Bahrampanah, and Bahrampanah son of Mitraaiyyar, Falanzad and Zadsparham sons of Aturmahan, Nukmahan, Dinbahram, Bajurgatur, Hiradmard and Behzad sons of Mah........... (2) In the name of God, in the year 378 of Yazdakard, the month Awan and day Mitro (24th November 1009) there have come to this place the co-religionists Yazdanpanak and Mahaiyyar sons of Mitraaiyyar, Panjbukht and Padarbukht sons of Mahaiyyar, Mardanshad son of Hiradbahram, and Hiradbahram son of Mardanshad, Mitraaiyyar son of Bahrampanah, and Bahrampanah son of Mitraaiyyar, Falanzad and Zadsparham sons of Aturmahan, Nukmahan, Dinbahram Bajurgatur, Hiradmard and Behzad sons of Mahbazae, and Bahrampanah son of Mitrabandad. In the month Atur, Auharmazd son of Avanbandad died, (3) In the name of God, in the month Mitro and day Dino of the year 390 of Yazdakard (30th October 1021), there have come from Iran to this place Mah Frobag and Mah-aiyyar sons of Mitraaiyyar, Panjbukht son of Mahaiyyar, Mardanshad son of Hirad Bahram, Behzad son of Mitravindad, Javidanbud son of Bahram-gushnasp, Bajurgatur son of Mahbazae, Mahaiyyar and Bandesh sons of Hiradfarukho, and Mahbandad son of Gehankhash, the listener to instruction. Arch. Sur. X. 62-65.]

Cave 67-76.

In the rock under 66 is a cave whose front is nearly filled up. 67, a small cave with much sculpture like that in 66, has a shrine in the back wall of the hall with a life-size seated Buddha with numerous little figures on the shrine walls. 68 the last of this group is a small plain cave neatly finished. On the left wall, outside the veranda is an inscription of seven lines, deeply cut and distinct but the upper lines partly defaced. The letters are of the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196) and record the gift of a cistern and a cave (?). The name and residence of the giver have been lost. He seems to have been a recluse named [Bu] dhak. A little way down the hill to the north-west is 69, a plain much damaged cave. There is an inscription in this cave mentioning the eighth year of some king but too faint and worn to be read. 70 is a larger cave but much destroyed. On the left wall outside the veranda are two inscriptions one above the other, of seven and four lines respectively, originally six feet three inches long. The upper inscription is deep cut and distinct except at the top and left end. There is a blank space in the fifth line. The lower inscription is faintly cut and in places indistinct, the last two lines being very faint. The words used closely resemble Sanskrit and the language, though Prakrit, differs much from the Prakrit of the other inscriptions. 71 is smaller and in equally bad order; 72 is a large well finished cave probably of late date with a shrine and seated Buddha; 73 and 74 are much decayed; 75 is a plain cave in rather better order than either of the last two. On the right wall outside the veranda of cave 75 is an inscription of eight or nine lines originally three feet long. It is deep cut, and tolerably distinct, though on a rough surface; the upper two or three lines and much of the other lines have peeled off. The letters are of the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177 -196) and appear to record the gift of a cave and cistern perhaps by the daughter of Samaka. 76 is much ruined, but on the right wall outside its veranda is a deep cut and clear inscription. The rock is rough and the upper two or three lines and much of the other lines have entirely peeled off. The letters are of the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196) and record the gift of a cave and cistern by a recluse the daughter of Ramanaka, beloved of his family and inhabitant of Dhenukakata and the disciple of the old reverend monk Bodhika. She also gave an endowment from which to distribute sixteen clothes. 77 is much like 76. It is only about twenty yards to the east of 35. On the right wall outside of its veranda and over the entrance to a side chamber is an inscription of five lines originally six feet long. It is rather faintly cut on a rough surface. Nearly the whole of the first line, and about eighteen inches of the left end of the second line have peeled off, with a corresponding portion of the following lines. The letters are of the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196) and record the gift of a cave....................by the mother of Khandnagasataka...............

Caves 89-102.

On the left of the entrance of cave 77, on the back of the recess over the cistern, is an inscription of ten lines, three feet six inches long. It is faintly cut on a honeycombed surface, very indistinct and almost completely illegible. The letters are of the time of Gotamiputra II, (A.D. 177-196) and appear to record the gift of a cave. The ten next, 78 to 88, have been mentioned on the way down the ravine from 28. The remaining caves are 89, south of 66, on the edge of the stream-bed, which is not worth a visit. 90 and 91, between 36 and 50, are both much ruined; 92 is a little to the south-east of 3 the cathedral cave; 93 and 94 are close to the stream across from 8 and 7; and 95, 96, 97, and 98 are ruined caverns and cells further up the ravine bank. 99 is a small cave near 44. 100 is high in the rocks over against 24 and 26, and 101 and 102 are broken cells in a great black hillock on the east of the hill above 100. On the back of a bench, the remains of cave 94, on the north side of the ravine opposite cave 7, is an imperfect inscription of two lines. The bench is ten feet six inches long, but only three feet six inches of the end of the last line of the inscription are legible. The inscription is deep cut, but the surface of the rock is much honeycombed and weather-worn. The letters are of the time of Gotamiputra II. (A.D. 177-196), and, in the second line, there appears the name of a village perhaps Gorpad. On the back of a low bench, along the flight of steps just above cave 95, is a deep cut distinct and perfect inscription of 2¼ lines, three feet nine inches long. It is of the time of Vasishthiputra (A.D. 133-162) and seems to refer to the dedication of a pathway by a Chemula goldsmith Dhamaka, the son of Rohanimitra (and brother of the giver of the cistern in cave 7). The pathway consists of a long flight of steps beginning on the side of the stream bed opposite the cistern recess of cave 5, and climbing the northern hill as far as the ruins of the great relic mound. Above a recess, over a bench in the left veranda of cave 96, is an inscription of two unequal lines, three feet eleven inches and four feet eight inches long. Though faint and somewhat rude the letters are distinct and perfect. It seems to record the gift of a field as an endowment by the merchant Mudapal (Sk. Mundpal) son of the devotee Vhe(nu?)-mitra. The letters are of the age of Gotamiputra II. (A.D, 177-196). Outside cave 99, on the left wall, above a recess over a cistern mouth, is an inscription of six or more lines originally three feet long. It is deep cut but indistinct, the rock being much decayed. About one foot eight inches of the left end of the inscription and all the lower lines have disappeared. It records the gift of a cave in the eighth year of some reign probably that of Gotamiputra II (A.D. 177-196). There is an inscription of one line on the front of a small low platform cut in the surface of the rock near the top of the main hill. The platform is six feet long, but there are no letters on the first eighteen inches. The letters are very new and seem to have been scrawled by some nineteenth century ascetic.

Besides the caves, interesting remains crown the fiat tops both of the main spur and of the smaller knoll to the north of the narrow ravine. Above the tiers of caves the upper slope of the main hill is in places cut into cisterns and crossed by long roughly traced flights of steps. Along the flat top are cut a line of quarries and cisterns, and, in several places, scattered lines of large dressed stones lie as if bought together for some large building.

Remains.

Along the eastern crest of the hill run the foundations of a wall, and, near it, are one or two mounds covered with blocks of dressed stone apparently the remains of relic shrines or of burial mounds. Further along, towards the south, is a quarry with blocks of dressed stone, some ready to be taken away, others half cut as if the work of building had been suddenly stopped.

To the north of the small stream-bed, behind the line of caves, a flight of eighty-eight shallow roughly-traced steps leads from the south up a gentle slope of rock. Along each side of this flight of steps three clusters of prickly-pear bushes mark the sites of what seem to have been small temples or relic shrines. Most of these sites are too ruined to show the form of the building that stood on them. But enough of the third site on the right hand is left to show that it stood on a stone plinth about seventeen feet by twenty-two, and apparently rose in steps into a central building of brick and stone. Close to this ruin is a little rock-cut cistern. The building to which the flight of steps led is completely ruined and thick covered with brushwood. It seems to have been a round building of dressed stone, with a diameter of about forty feet, surrounded, at a distance of about twenty-four feet, by a rail or stone-wall apparently square. In a hollow, about fifty yards to the west of this mound, lie some large broken pillars, and behind them is a hole which seems to have been worked as a quarry. A second knoll, about fifty yards further west, seems to have once been crowned by another burial mound or relic shrine. Behind these knolls a deeply wooded ravine cuts off the Kanheri spur from the main Kaman range. Beyond the wooded ravine the rocky scarp of Kaman seems to have been cut into several cave mouths.

Worship.

To the common people the caves have no connection with Buddhism. The people have fully adopted the Brahman story that the caves are the work of the Pandavs. Several of the figures are worshipped, notably the two huge Buddhas on either side of the entrance to the Cathedral Cave (No. 3). Their feet are reddened with pink powder and spotted with yellow. But the figures are respected not for the sake of Buddha, but because they are believed to represent Bhim the giant Pandav. Besides Hindu visitors, Parsis and Christians come to see the caves during the dry season.

Fairs.

There are two yearly fairs, one on the eleventh of the bright half of Kartik (November - December) the Divali of the gods, and the other on the Mahashivratra or great night of Shiv, the thirteenth of the dark half of Magh (January-February). On both occasions, Brahmans, Gujars, Vanis, Sutars, and Marathas come to the number of about 1000, bathe in the ponds near the hill, examine the caves, and worship the ling in cave 66. Sweetmeats and other articles worth from £10 to £20 (Rs. 100-Rs. 200) are sold in the Darbar Cave (No. 10), which is also called the Market or Bazar Cave.

Kanheri Fort, in the village of Modgaon eighteen miles northeast of Dahanu, stands on a hill about 500 feet high. The walls, which are from ten to twenty feet high, though ruined, are of excellent masonry.