Connecticut western news., 1885-07-08
HEWN OUT OF SOLID ROCK
India's Wonderful Temple
 Gave of KaPli.
A MaVelous Structure that One would Take
 for Superb Cathedral

for Superb Cathedral
 The temple-cave of Karli, says a letter to the New York Independent, is an illustration of the fearful lapse of the ethnic faiths of Pagan India. The monks of Albania and other regi- ons between the Adrlatic and the Egean Sea, dug out many a cell in the early days, and honey-combed vast regions, where they spent their lives, and were laid away when the long monotony was over.
 The Karli cave-temple is very differ ent in construction. It Is by far the finest in India To reach it, you take the train from Bombay. and go nearly hundred miles eastward, on the general line to Calcutta. From Khandala to the Karli cave-temple we had ride of five miles on horseback. It was not long before we were com pelled to leave the carriage road, and take path through the fields, toward the range of mountains on our left, and by the time we were getting accustomed to the path, we had to leave our horses, and begin climbing in downright earnest. Now, climb in India, even to see its finest temple cave, is not little thing. My white pith-hat, with turban of light cloth folded about 1t, and then a double umbrella. of gray cloth, white within, seemed to help but little in keeping off the pressure of the heat on a late day ot the Indian November. When we reached the cool and shaded vestibule and threw ourselves down on the first broken stones we saw, and looked up into the face of the colossal stone god dess who sat on an elephant of stone, we were glad enough to rest.
 The temple walls, and every part of their adorning sculpture, are hewn out of the stone mountain. Were there no statuary of pagan deities, no reminders of an early worship, and were the country any other than h. dia, one would take this wonderful structure for superb cathedral Not many serious changes would need to be made in order to convert into an English minister. The cave Is 124 feet long, forty-ive feet broad, and forty-six feet from floor to ceiling. There are aisles on either side of the temple, separated from the nave by octagonal pillars. The capital of each pillar Is crowned with two kneeling elephants, on whose backs are seated two figures, representing the diVinities to whom the temple is dedicated. These are of beautiful features, as, indeed, are all the representations of deities in the Karli cave temple. There is nothing of that repulsive sculpture which one sees at Puma and in other modern Hindu pagodas. ] saw no figures which were in part human and in part beast-like. Each was true to It's class, from vestibule back to altar. The altar, and the place where 1t stands, keep up the re- semblance to a Christian church. Be- hind it there are seven pillars, which separate 1t from what, in a church, would correspond with the choir There are altogether thirty eight col. umns in the temple. The grsndest is the large lion pillar in front, which has sixteen sides, and is surmounted with four lions
 All this great recess has been cut from the solid rock, which seems to bt nothing softer than porphyry itself The statuary is in massive relief, ant consists of figures also cleft from tht rock, like Thorwaldsen's lion, in Lu cerne. The great pillars are chastely proportioned columns, both base ant capital proving that they have not been introduced, but, like all othe portions of the temple, have been GU from the solid mass of which tn, whole mountain consists. They ar part and parcel of floor and ceiling There is an outward porch, or vesti bule, ffty-two feet wide and fifteel feet deep, and on the heavy moldinl above there are figures of man,
 woman and dwarf. All this, too like the whole spacious temple itself has been patiently cut from firm rock
 The only thing which is not of na tive rock is a wooden covering or ceil ing. This has been the puzzle of d the toilers in Indian archaeology, an they seem to-day to be no nearer solution of the difficulty than whe they began. The entire immediat covering of the temple Is teak,
 native wood, almost the only on which resists the white ant and ever Indian insect.
 ]
 A Good Reason.
 "No, gentlemen" exclaimed a mic dle-aged man, who was talking to
 crowd on Austin avenue, nothing