[141] From a photograph and an unpublished paper by Professor Bhandarkur, read before the Oriental Congress.
[142] From Bhandarkur’s paper, ubi supra.
[143] ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. v. p. 55.
[144] ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. v. pp. 152-3.
[145] A few years ago it was reported that this screen was in danger of falling outwards, and I wrote repeatedly to India begging that something might be done to preserve it; but I have never been able to learn if this has been attended to. Only a small portion of the original ribbing of the Bhaja cave now remains. That of the Bedsa cave has been destroyed within the last ten or twelve years (‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. ix. p. 223); and it would be a thousand pities if this, which is the only original screen in India, were allowed to perish when a very small outlay would save it. Like the Iron pillar at Delhi which never rusts, teak wood that does not decay though exposed to the atmosphere for 2000 years, is a phenomenon worth the attention not only of antiquaries, but of natural philosophers.
[146] For further particulars regarding the Ajunta caves, the reader is referred to a paper I wrote in the ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ 1842, and republished afterwards with a folio volume of plates to illustrate it.
[147] These inscriptions are translated in Bhau Dajis’ paper on the Ajunta inscriptions, ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. viii. p. 63, as if found in cave 2. On the accompanying plate they are described as one on cave 10, the other on cave 12.
[148] Kittoe in ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ March, 1847, plate 6.
[149] Sir Charles Mallet, in the second volume of the ‘Bombay Literary Transactions,’ quotes a tradition that the Ellora caves were excavated by a Raja Eelu, 1000 years before his day. This might be true if applied to the Brahmanical Kailas, but hardly to any Buddhist cave in the series.
[150] ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. v. p. 14.