Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-07-02
THE CAVE TEMPLES OF KARL.
An Illustration of the Lapse of the Ethnic
Faiths of India.

An ILLUSTRATION OF the Lapse OF the
Faiths of India.
The monks of Albania and other re-
gions between the Adriatic and the
Egean sea, dug out many cell in the
early days, and honeycombed vast re-
gions. where they spent their lives. and
were laid away when the long monot-
ony was over.
The Karli cave temple is very differ
ent in construction. 1t is by far the
finest in India. To reach it you take
the train from Bombay, and go nearly
hundred miles eastward. on the gen.
eral 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 compelled
to leave the carriage road and take
a 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 a
little thing. My white pith hat, with
turban of light cloth folded about it
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 of the Indian
November. When we reached the cool
and shaded vestibule and threw our
selves down on the first broken stones
we saw and looked up into the face
of the colossal stone goddess who sat
on an elephant of stone, we were glad
enough to rest.
The temple walls and every part of
their adjoining sculpture are hewn out
of the stone mountain. Were there no
statuary of pagan deities, no remind
ers of an early worship. and were the
country any other than India, one
would take this wonderful structure for
a superb cathedral. Not many serious
changes would need to be made in or
der to convert it into an English min
ster. The nave is 124 feet long,
forty-five feet broad, and forty-six feet
on either side of the temple, separated
from the nave by octagonai pillars.
The capital of each pillar is crowned
with two kneeling elephants. on whose
backs are seated two figures, repre-
senting the divinities to whom the tenn
pie is dedicated. These are of beautiful
features, as. indeed, are all the repre-
sentation of deities in the Karli Cave
Temple. There is nothing of that re-
pulsive sculpture which one sees at
Puma and IN other modern Hindu pago-
das. / saw no figures which were in
part human and in part beast-like.
Each was true to its class, from vesti-
bule back to altar. The altar. and the
place where it stands, keep up the re-
semblance to Christian Church. Be-
hind it there are seven pillars. which
separate it from what in achurch would
correspond with the choir. There are
altogether thirty-eight columns in the
temple. The grandest 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 be
nothing softer than porphyry itself.
The statuary is massive relief, and con-
sists of figures also cleft from the rock,
like Thorwaldsen' lion, in Lucerne.
The great pillars are chastely proper
toned columns, both base and capital
proving that they have not been intro
duced, but like all other portions OF the
temple. have been cut from the solid
mass of which the whole mountain con-
sists. There is an outward porch. or
vestibule, fifty-two feet wide and fifteen
deep, and on the heavy holding above
there are figures of man, a woman,
and dwarf. ALL this. too. like the