servation by far of the whole, still bears the marks of rapid decay. The shafts of five columns are wanting; and a kind of terrace has been raised with their ruins. The left hand circular column on entering has also once shared the same fate; but has been rebuilt with rude fragments of the same stone, and afterwards plastered to resemble the other pillars. This plaster has, however, almost entirely given way, leaving the rude construction of the column apparent. Leaving this first cave, and proceeding southward twenty or thirty paces by a narrow ledge round a projecting part of the hill, you enter a second cave, evidently never completed, the columns being left in a rude state with deep marks of the chisel still remaining. This cave is nearly the same in length as the first, by about half the depth. It has originally been open in front, but with the exception of a small part it is now choked up with large fragments of the hill from above. It contains little worthy of notice. Leaving the second cave, and returning by the same road, you descend the stone stairs, and proceed along the bottom of the hill southward for about a hundred yards, and then reascend by a rugged steep footpath to the third cave. This cave, which measures eighty feet by sixty, has been nearly similar in its arrangement to the first; but it is now in a ruinous state from the giving way of a great part of the roof, bearing down in its fall several beautiful columns. This cave, which has none of the gloominess of the first, has been once finished and decorated in a very superior style, and it is apparently the most ancient of the whole. It has some similar features with the other. In the inner apartment is the octagon, called The Churn, mentioned in the first; but it wants the recess, or viranda, with the sculptures. The whole of the walls, roof, and columns of this cave have been covered with a fine stucco, and ornamented with paintings in distemper of considerable taste and elegance. Few colours have been used, the greatest part being merely in chiaro scuro; the figures alone, and the Etruscan border (for such it may be termed), being coloured with Indian red. On the walls near the top of the cave has been the border A. (sketch No. 2.), the greatest part of which, however, is now obliterated. The present sketch was taken from a small piece near the entrance, which is in tolerably good preservation. The roof, it is easy to perceive by the falling fragments beneath, had once an elegant centring, with the remaining part divided into small square ornamented compartments filled up with designs of fruits, flowers, and the like. At present, however, these are so much obliterated as to prevent any correct judgement being formed of the merits of the design. By some few parts more perfect than the rest, they appear, however, to have been executed with considerable effect and correctness of light and shade. Some fruit, in the part to which I allude, had considerably the appearance of peaches and peach leaves grouped. Surrounding the tops of the columns are many yet brilliant traces of the border B. (sketch No. 2.) which I have termed Etruscan, coloured as in the design. Beneath this are represented two dragons, or animals somewhat resembling these (C.), fighting, and the whole finished underneath with a festoon of small flowers now too indistinct to furnish a correct sketch. On many places of the lower parts of the wall and columns have been painted male and female figures of a red or copper colour; the upper parts of the whole of which have, however, been intentionally erased. Such of the lower parts (the legs and feet) as remain, show them to have been executed in a style of painting far surpassing any thing in the art which the natives of India now possess. Leaving this cave by the right hand doorway, and proceeding a few paces further along the hill, you enter a fourth cave nearly similar in dimensions and arrangement to the second. It has however been finished, and is falling fast to decay. There appears at the extremity of this cave the rude commencement, or perhaps the ruins, of a fifth. It is not however sufficiently accessible, on account of the large fragments of fallen rock, to admit of any correct judgement of its former state. |