ELEPHANT ISLE, called by the natives Gharipoor, a small island situated between Bombay and the main land, about five miles and a half from Bombay. It is nearly five miles in circumference, and contains about a hundred inhabitants, who are employed in the cultivation of rice, and in rearing sheep and poultry for the Bombay market. The island is nearly overgrown with wood of a luxuriant growth, and contains several springs of good water. But it owes its chief celebrity to the mythological excavations and sculptures of Hindu superstition which are contained in it. Opposite to the landing place is a colossal statue of an elephant, cracked and mutilated, from which the Portuguese gave the island the name which it still bears. At a short distance from this is a cave, the entrance to which is nearly sixty feet wide and eighteen feet high, supported by pillars cut out of the rock; the sides are sculptured into numerous compartments containing various representations of the Hindu deities, but the figures have many of them been defaced by the blind zeal of the Mahommedans and Portuguese. In the centre of the excavations there is a remarkable bust of the Hindu Triad, or three-formed god, namely, Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Seva or Mahadeva the Destroyer. The heads are six feet in length, well cut, and the countenances, with the exception of the under lip, are handsome. The head-dresses are curiously ornamented; and one of the figures, that 0l the destroyer, holds in its hand a cobra capella snake, whilst on the cap are, amongst other symbols, a human skull and a young infant. On each side of the Trimurti is a pilaster, the front of which is filled up by a human figure leaning on a dwarf, both much defaced. There is a huge compartment to the [7:8:664]right, hollowed a little, and covered with a great variety of figures, the largest of which is sixteen feet high, representing the double figure of Seva and Parvati, named Viraj, half male and half female. On the right is Brahma, four-faced, on a lotus; and on the left is Vishnu. On the other side of the Trimurti is another compartment with various figures of Seva and Parvati, the most remarkable of which is Seva in his vindictive character, eighthanded, with a chap]βt of skulls round his neck. On the right of the entrance of the eave is a square apartment, supported by eight colossal figures, containing a gigantic symbol of Mahadeva or Seva cut out of the rock. There is a similar chamber in a smaller cavern, having the walls covered with sculptures, which however can hardly be seen, owing to the rubbish with which the place is filled. This singular seat of Hindu superstition is said to have been dedicated to Seva, but it contains numerous representations of all the Hindu deities. It has, however, from time immemorial been forsaken by its priests or Brahmins; and it is not even the resort of pilgrims; its only devotees being married women, who offer up their prayers here for an increase of their family. This place is a most wonderful monument of antiquity and superstition. The work must have been one of incredible labour; and there is not the least trace or tradition to point out the time when this temple flourished, much less the period of its formation. Yet it clearly shows that the Brahminical religion must have flourished in India at a very remote period of antiquity. Long. 73. E. Lat. 18. 57. N.