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XVII. Remarks on certain Sculptures in the Cave Temples of Ellora
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 November 2009
Extract
It being deemed desirable that some explanation should accompany the interesting drawings, particularized in the preceding article on ancient Hindu sculptures from the Cave Temples of Ellora, made by Captain Grindlay, I hasten to fulfil the wishes of the council.
There are two modes by which they might receive illustration: one, supposing them to contain an astronomical allusion, as suggested by Dr. B. G. Babington; the other, from an allegory in the Hindu theogonies. A knowledge of the relative position of these sculptures in the Cave Temple would materially influence my decision on this point, as regards the two plates to which I shall chiefly confine my observations, viz. one, (No. 1) which I designate “The Fable of Dacsha Prajapáti, or Máhádéva, Dacsha, and Nanda;” the other (No. 2) Víra-Bhadra.” If these sculptures are contiguous to each other in the cave, then I have no doubt they represent the fable of the sacrifice of Sati, the consort of Máhádéva, and the formation of the giant Víra-Bhadra, to revenge her death by that of Dacsha: though even this allegory may possibly conceal an astronomical period.
- Type
- Papers Read Before the Society
- Information
- Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , March 1830 , pp. 328 - 339
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1830
References
page 329 note * Vide “Ruins of Empires.”
page 329 note † In this word we should find the origin of the Persian crest, the Lion and Sun; Bál being the type of the sun, as in Bálbec (the sun-idol) of Syria, and Césár a lion.
page 330 note * It may be objected to this, that there are not so many Avataras as zodiacal signs.
page 330 note † Praja-Pa′ti, lord of creatures.
page 330 note ‡ This is the origin of the immolation of females, and of the term sati (vulg. suttee).
page 330 note § In all ages, cutting off the lock appears to have been a sign of grief.
page 330 note ∥ Here we see the junction of the powers of life and death
page 331 note * This is accordingly done, the cheeks are inflated, and beaten by the hands (gál bajaôná) to resemble the bleating of a goat.
page 331 note † Termed in the dialects cupra, and with which, as the God of war (Hur), he drinks the blood of the slain, in which he is exactly the Scandinavian Thor.
page 331 note ‡ The Phenicopteros. These birds are always in pairs, and afford continual metaphors to the Hindu poet when describing domestic affection.
page 331 note § Herodotus says, Mendes is alike the name of Pan and a Goat. Méndá is a ram in Sanscrit. and the ram-headed divinity in the caves of Ellora is termed Ménd-íswara, or Ram-God. The statue of Priapus was degraded into the scare-crow Terminus, as a land-mark, or territorial boundary, by the Romans. In Rajpútana we have the ass depicted on boundary-stones; and the gadha-ghál to whosoever removes the land-mark, has a penal allusion, probably equally obscene with that of the god Terminus, of the Romans.
page 332 note * ‘The ornament of Hart.’
page 333 note * The serpent which supports the globe on its head.
page 333 note † Scripture terms the giants, Zumzumín; to which a mixed Sanscrit and Persian etymology could be given, in Jenem, birth, and Zumín, earth.
page 333 note ‡ Jupiter Olympus (Kailas), and Terra, are thus made the parents of the Dytes (Titans).
page 333 note § My father (Taut'h)—, the universal father; probably the Toth of the Egyptians, ànd the Teutates of the German races.—Buddha, father of the lunar race, is likewise Taut'h.