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Updated: May 2, 2025
The cliff from which this immense block was separated surrounds the temple, on three sides, at a distance of 100 feet, forming colossal perpendicular walls, in which, as at Adjunta, enormous colonnades, larger and smaller temples, from two to three stories high, are excavated.
In order to reach Bombay, I had two routes before me; the one leads past Simla to the foot of the Himalayas, the other to the famous rock temples of Adjunta and Elora.
Towards 11 o'clock in the morning I returned to Roja, and immediately continued my journey to the famous fortress Dowlutabad, having safely received the admission in Roja. The distance was only eight miles; but the roads were execrably bad, and there was a mountain-pass to cross similar to that near Adjunta.
Captain Gill resides in Adjunta, and I had letters of introduction to him from Mr. Hamilton. When I expressed a wish, after the first greeting was over, to visit the famous rock temples of Adjunta, he deeply regretted that he had not received a letter from me four-and-twenty hours sooner, as the temples were nearer to Furdapoor than to Adjunta. What was to be done?
During the whole night they remained still and quiet, and were not the slightest annoyance. 2nd March. Furdapoor, a small village at the foot of beautiful mountains. As the poor oxen began to be wearied with travelling, the driver rubbed them down every evening from head to foot. 3rd March. Adjunta. Before coming to this place we passed a terrible rocky pass which might be easily defended.
The house in which Captain Gill lives at Adjunta is very remarkably situated: a pleasant little garden, with flowers and shrubs, surrounds the front, which commands a view of a fine plain, while the back stands upon the edge of a most fearful precipice, over which the dizzy glance loses itself among steep crags and terrible gorges and chasms.
I did not visit them, because I was assured that they were not half so interesting as those at Adjunta and Elora. Kundalla lies upon a mountain plateau. There are several pretty country-houses here, to which many European families, from the neighbourhood of Bombay, resort during the hot weather.
The principal temple is called Rameswur, and somewhat exceeds in size the largest vichara at Adjunta; its breadth is ninety-eight feet, it extends into the rock 102 feet, and the height of the ceiling is twenty-four feet; it is supported by twenty-two pilasters, and covered with the most beautiful sculptures, reliefs, and colossal gods, among which the principal group represents the marriage of the god Ram and the goddess Seeta.
The country between this and Adjunta is a flat plain; the parched heaths and poor jungles are interspersed with beautiful plantations. The land near Pulmary was especially well cultivated. 6th March. But, as it frequently happens in life that the proverb, "man proposes and God disposes," proves true, such was the case in the present instance instead of the temples, I saw a tiger-hunt.
A second vichara, nearly as handsome as this last, is called Laoka; the principal figure in this is Shiva. Not far distant, a number of similar temples are excavated in another rock. They are much more simple, with unattractive portals and plain columns; therefore, not to be compared with those at Adjunta.
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