The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-02-17

they had been shipped for England, where
they had been tumbled out on the ard of Fife
House. 70 ask how they came to be lying on
the wharf at Madras was like going back 70
the Deluge: yet when curiosity pushed its way
backwards these stones were traced to Mr..
Walter Elliot, who, when acting as commits
siener at Guntoor, twenty four years ago, had
employed his leisure in grabbing among the
green slopes and mounds on the river kstna,
after the fashion then heing set by Botta and
| Layard on the Tigris. Ri lot had met with much
| success in his labOrs, having uneartbed a city
and recovered an ancient temple, the details OF
I which were of exceeding richness aud import
ance. Nay, he had actually forwarded his
| wealth of examples to Madras, in the hope of
their reaching London, and making his name
| immortal. But-ala5 for human hopesl-Ellot
was no writer. He could not tell his story in
a way to arrest the public eye. Amravati
was not Biblical city; and, unlike the Tigrls,
| the river Kistna had a foreign sound. The
| temple which he had found was called a tope;
the name and Office of which were alike uu-
familiar to the English mind. The temple
was Buddhistic; aud as GOtama Buddha is
| not mentioned in the Scriptures, the
| stones of which his temple had been
built in AmIavau could not serve to
! illustrate the form and site of Solomon's tenn
pie in Jerusalem. Hence they lay on the
wharf at Madras, sexposed to wind and rain
| for dozen years, until some one happily
found that these heaps of stone were in the
| way, and thought that, as they had cost bag
OF money for carriage, they might as we'll be
sent to the India Museum in London. Hence
they were shipped from Madras, and brought
| to London, where, on arrival, they had the
| fortune to be stored away in the stables Of
| Fife House, with SO much secrecy that not
one soul beyond the clerks and officers of the
| Museum had any knowledge of their ex-
| istepce.
| Yet all these years there lay in these waste
places OF our power, among these broken
| fragments OF stone, as much curious and i'm
portant history as anything found by our ex-
plorers on the Tigris and the Euphrates
When Mr.. Cole was laying out plans for our
share in the French Exhibition, he proposed
to Mr.. FERGUSON, as the chief authority on
Indian architecture, that some casts and
models of old Indian temples should be pre-
| pared under that gentleman's eye. Mr.. Fer
gusson, who fell in with the suggestion, set to
work; meaning at first to confne the display
mainly to Photographic studies of Brahminical
and Buddhistc works, backed by four or five
casts from the curious and beautiful marbles
| which had long been shown in the old In
dian Museum in Leadenhall street. These
marbles, we need not say, had been greatly
admired and no one will be surprised
to hear that good judges tEt.ousbt
them so fine as to warrsar an artist In going
to India to see their fellows. Well, MIR. Fer
| gusson went down to F.ie House, for quiet
study OF tneir COR psrstive merits, with a
view TO castlp%1 those which would best
convey lotion of the whole. He had
turned .nem round and round, made plans
and drawings, and in the end had selected
I0ur examples for the caster, when, to his great
amazement, the clerk mentioned, 'just pro-
miscuously," that there were heaps of such
things in the coach in the yard! Yes,
there they were-shafts, frie2es, figures; q
! nf ofio frno NJ
beauty, all of singular interest-lyipg in
SHE'D, exposed to slush and snow.
OF course the Indian authorities awOke to
sudden sense of their treasure the moment
their eyes were drawn to the stable-ysrd. DR..
Watson and Mr.. Griggs, with laudable cele-
rity, came to the rescue. The pieces of stone
were now picked mp and set in order. The
separate slabs were copied. Soon these gem
temen began to find that they had something
more in hand than a mass Of stones. The
pieces fitted to each other. 1t was possible to
build them up; and as the pile grew higher,
it took wondrous and oomely shape. In fact,
the old Buddhsto Tope, under these sl<iliul
hands, came back, as it Were, to life.
M, ny of orr readers will remember the
specimens of these Indian marbles which were
shown in the French Exhibition, along with
the rare and costly collection of photographs
of Inoian buildings. II is doubtful whether
Epglsn nj sent to that gathering Of the worlds
UeSt any Olner btCieS WINCH 10 sbCpugly en-
gagged the interest Of continental scholars.
But this recovery of an ancient Buddhi5tic
temple is far from being all that we have
gained from Mr.. Coles happy thought. The
recovery is that of al original record and we
have not only got possession of this record,
but of its secret. The tope is q religious edi-
flee, and the stones of which it is built are
covered with fgures-fgures of men, animals,
trees, and reptiles. They are especially
covered with trees and reptiles; that is to
say, with figures which appear to be symbols
of trees and reptiles.
The fact is not quite new, but II has not
heretofore been shown so clearly and COM
pletely as in these remains. Buddha was an
idol breaker. He denounced images and sym
bols; he prohibited his followers from repre-
eentirg God by any visible shape. His reli-
eon was one Of contemplation and abstra0-
ton; and in his sanity eyes a sign or image
of the uncreated and inetfAble God was q
profanity not to be endured. Yet here, 10
very early temples, we find the House of God
proiaped by types and images of what Go
tama Buddha himself would certainly have
denounced as devil worship. In fact, these
slabs ia Fife House cast flood OF light
upon the dark history OF Asiatic reli-
gons, which are not only curious as
regards the past, but important in connection
with the iuture. Men are governed through
their religious feelings; and the first step
towards knowledge of these feelings Is q
perfect study of their religious rites.
In our opinion, Sir Stafford Northe9te acted
wisely and economically in ordering these
monuments TO be photographed and published