of the other deities, with a painted screen before them; but there are no images, or none that are permanently placed; in some of the ceremonies temporary images are made of rice, or of some other material equally perishable. In some instances, as at Lankátilaka, near Kandy, the wihára and déwála are under one roof.

The cave-temple at Dambulla is one of the most perfect wiháras now existing in Ceylon, and as it is also one of the most interesting spots in the island, the following description of it will not be regarded as out of place. It is from the pen of Forbes, to whom the island is greatly indebted for the manner in which he has illustrated its early history and present antiquities.

"The rock of Dambulla appears to be about 400 feet in height. On the north side it is bare and black. To the south its huge overhanging mass (about 150 feet from the summit) by some art and much labour, has been formed into wiháras. The ascent to them is over a bare shelving rock, except where the steep path leads through a patch of jungle, and the entrance to the platform. in front of them is through a miserable gateway.

"The wihára called Maha Dewiyo (supposed to have been built by the assistance of Vishnu) is narrow, and requires to be lighted by torches. It contains a gigantic figure of Budha recumbent, the statue, as well as the bed and pillow on which it reclines, being formed from the solid rock. The figure is well executed, and is 47 feet in length. At its feet stands an attendant, and opposite to the face a statue of Vishnu. This long, narrow, and dark temple, the position and placid aspect of Budha, together with the stillness of the place, tend to impress the beholder with the idea that he is in the chamber of death. The priest asserts that the position and figures are exact, both in resemblance and size; that such was Budha, and such were those who witnessed the last moments of his mortality. To favour this illusion, the priest takes care to place the few lights in the best position, and to keep the face shaded.

"The front of the Maha Rája, and indeed of all the temples, is formed by a wall under the beetling rock; and these sacred caverns are partly natural and partly excavated. The Maha Rája wihára is 172 feet in length, 75 in breadth, and 21 feet high at the wall; but the height gradually decreases to the opposite side. The bad effect of this angular shape is in part done away by a judicious distribution of the figures and their curtains. In this temple there are

upwards of fifty figures of Budha, most of them larger than life; also a statue of each of the déwas, Sáman, Vishnu, Nátha, and the déwi Pattiné, and of two kings, Walagam Báhu and Kirti Nissanga. Walagam Báhu was the founder of this temple, B. c. 86. Kirtti Nissanga, after he had repaired the dilapidations occasioned by the Malabar invaders, A. D. 1195, caused all the statues to be gilded; and so ornamented the place that it obtained the name of Rangiri, or the Golden Rock. There is a very handsome dágoba, the spire of which touches the roof at its highest part; and in a small square compartment, railed in, and sunk about two feet below the level of the floor, a vessel is placed to receive the water which constantly drops from a fissure in the rock, and is exclusively kept for sacred purposes. The whole of the interior, whether rock, wall, or statue, is painted with brilliant colours, but yellow much predominates. In one place the artist has attempted to depict part of the early history of the island, beginning with the voyage of Wijaya, which is represented by a ship with only the lower masts, and without sails; and alongside are fishes as large as the vessel. In representing the building of the great dágobas at Anuradhapura, the proportions are not better preserved; and these artificial mountains appear to be little larger than the persons employed in finishing them. . . . . The ornamental paintings, where proportion was not of paramount consequence, are very neat; and all the colours appear to be permanent and bright, although some have not been renewed for upwards of fifty years.

"The Pass Pilama and two Alut Wiháras are formed on the same plan, but are inferior in size and ornament to the Maha Rája. In one of them is a statue of king Kirtti Srí, the last benefactor of Dambulla, and a zealous supporter of Budhism. On the rock platform, which extends in front of all the temples, a bó-tree and several cocoa-nut trees, have been reared, and have attained a great size, despite their bare situation, equally exposed to tempests, and to the scorching heat and long droughts to which Dambulla is liable. Near the Maha Dewiyo wihára, neatly cut in the rock, is a long Singhalese inscription of considerable antiquity, and on other parts of the rock are several inscriptions.* The summit of the rock commands a delightful view. . . . It was once surmounted by three

These inscriptions are in the character deciphered by the late James Prinsep, a name that ought never to be mentioned by the orientalist without some expression of respect for his varied accomplishments, and of regret for his loss.

dágobas, which have been crumbled down and been washed away. About fifty feet from the summit there is a pond in the rock, which the priests assert is never without water."*

The author of this description possessed great facilities for giving an accurate account of the places here mentioned, as he was many years the agent of Government for the district in which they are situated, a respectable artist, and well-acquainted with the Singhalese language. I visited Dambulla in 1829; and again in 1838, with my wife and infant, who were returning from Trincomale, after being shipwrecked on the eastern coast of the island. Upon my last visit I noticed a considerable difference in the brilliancy of the colours. When upon the summit of the rock, alone, I was surrounded by a tribe of white monkeys. By their antics and incessant chattering they appeared anxious to impart to me some matter of grave import; but as it is probable that none of them were ever Englishmen in former states of existence, nor I a monkey, we could hold no communication with each other, and our interview led to no practical result.

It is said that there were sixty-four sacred caves near the city of Anuradhapura, in the days of its Budhistical eminence. In several narratives connected with the history of Gótama Budha cavetemples are spoken of in such a manner as to induce the belief that they were then of common occurrence. The places that he visited are frequently said to be gal-lénas. In some instances there appear to have been monoliths, with conical roofs. Mugalan resided in a place of this description when beset by a band of robbers at the instigation of some rival tirttakas. The keyhole of the door was the only aperture it contained. The spots in which Budha and his disciples had resided would probably be first adopted as places of worship, when it became the custom to adore their relics.

In the ancient legends the wiháras in which Gótama resided are represented as being extremely splendid; indeed they are to be equalled only by the talismanic structures of the Arabian genii. One near the city of Sewet, the capital of Kósala, erected by the merchant Anépidu, is said to have cost 180 millions of golden masurans. From the remains yet in existence upon the continent of India, we are warranted in concluding that at an early period the temples in which the Budhists worshipped, and their priests resided, were of elaborate execution, and some of them extensive. A

*The Ceylon Almanac, 1834.

paper was read before the Royal Asiatic Society, Dec. 5, 1843, entitled, "On the Rock-cut Temples of India, by James Fergusson, Esq." This paper is inserted in the Journal of the Society, No. xv. and was reprinted, with some additions, in illustration of a work he published, containing views of the Ajunta and other rock-cut temples, in one volume folio. Nearly all the temples of this description in India were visited by Mr. Fergusson. The whole are classed under the following heads :-First, wihára, or monastery caves; the first subdivision of this class consisting of natural caverns or caves slightly improved by art; the second, of a verandah opening behind into cells for the abode of the priests, but without sanctuaries or images; in the third this arrangement being extended by the enlargement of the hall, with a recess, in which is generally a statue of Budha, thus making it both an abode for the priests and a place of worship. By far the greatest number of Budhist excavations belong to this last division. The most splendid are those at Ajunta, though one at Ellora is also fine; and there are also some good specimens at Salsette, and perhaps at Junir. The second class consists of chaitya (dágoba) caves, one or more of which is attached to every set of caves in the west of India, though none exist in the eastern side. The plan and arrangement of all these caves are exactly the same. Mr. Fergusson believes that the Karli cave, which is the most perfect, is also the oldest in India. The caves that do not come under these two classes are brahmanical.

As it was stated that the paintings in these caves were rapidly going to destruction, the Court of Directors of the East India Company issued orders that means should be adopted for their preservation. In consequence, the Government of Madras has employed an officer of their establishment, Capt. R. Gill, to clear out the caves of Ajunta, to furnish full details of their construction, and make copies of the paintings. Fourteen paintings have already been transmitted from this interesting spot, and are now in the library at the India House. They are thus artistically described in the Athenæum, Feb. 3, 1849:-"The paintings, considered as the production of so early a period, may be regarded as objects of very high import in pictorial art. In many of them certain striking coincidences with Siennese and Pisan art, under the influence of Byzantine taste, are to be remarked. There are the same diagrammatic manifestations of the human form and the human countenance; similar conventions of action and of feature; a like constraint in

the choice of action and the delineation of form, in consequence of a like deficiency in knowledge of the human subject; and a like earnestness of intention and predominance of dramatic display. That these pictures were executed at distinct times and by various hands there is internal evidence. While however they offer such proofs of the progress of art, there is in some of them one quality too singular not to be remarked on. There is a compliance with the principles of perspective in architectural details in the very pictures in which these same principles are violated in the relative scales of the parts in the assemblage of human forms. The sense of light and shade, or the art of making figures obvious and clear at a distance, is found in these coinciding with the early Italian art before alluded to. The sense of colour is little more advanced in them than in Egyptian art, as made known to us through the medium of Rosellini, or than in most other aboriginal conditions of art. Assigning the date of these pictures to the period suggested by the author of the preceding memoir (a very learned authority on such subjects) it is at least remarkable that evidence of perspective should be found so very much earlier than the date of any existing specimens known in Southern Europe. The earliest examples of the application of perspective principles in Italian art date somewhere about the middle of the fourteenth century."

The temples of Burma are said by Crawford to be inferior to those of Siam, where the sacred edifices have the doors, windows, and roofs of richly carved wood. Whilst the Siamese temples are spacious buildings, much ornamented in the interior, the majority of the modern temples in Burma are mere masses of brick and mortar. But for every temple in Siam there are twenty in Burma; none but the rich and powerful building temples amongst the Siamese, whilst among the Burmans it is a common mode of obtaining merit, even with the inferior classes, who thus exhibit their respect for religion, rather than in endowing monasteries.*

No wihára has recently been erected in Ceylon of durable material or imposing appearance. The enthusiasm of the masses in favour of the religion of their ancestors has passed away, and individuals are too poor to be able to lavish large sums upon the priests.

Attached to one of the wiháras in Kandy, near the burial-place of the kings, there is an area which was regarded as a sanctuary under

* Crawford's Embassy to the Court of Ava.