[261] In his work on the ‘Antiquities of Orissa,’ Babu Rajendra Lalâ Mittra suggests at page 31 something of this sort, but if his diagram were all that is to be said in favour of the hypothesis, I would feel inclined to reject it.
[262] No really satisfactory translation of these Asoka edicts has yet been published. The best is that of Professor Wilson, in vol. xii. ‘Journal of Royal Asiatic Society.’ Mr. Burgess has, however, recently re-copied that at Girnar, and General Cunningham those in the north of India. When these are published it may be possible to make a better translation than has yet appeared.
[263] ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. viii. p. 120.
[264] Ibid., vol. vii. p. 124.
[265] Lieut. Postans’ ‘Journey to Girnar,’ ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ vol. vii. p. 865, et seqq. This, with most of the facts here recorded, is taken either from Mr. Burgess’s descriptions of the photographs in his ‘Visit to Somnath, Girnar, and other places in Kathiawar,’ or Lieut. Postans’ ‘Journey,’ just referred to. Col. Tod’s facts are too much mixed up with poetry to admit of their being quoted.
[266] Mr. Burgess visited this place during the spring of the present year, and has brought away plans and sections, from which it appears these caves are old, but till his materials are published it is impossible to state exactly how old they may be. I am afraid this work will be published long before his Report.
[267] Ram Raj, ‘Architecture of the Hindus,’ p. 49.
[268] Burgess, ‘Visit to Girnar,’ &c., p. 3.
[269] ‘Ferishta,’ translated by General Briggs, vol. i. p. 72. Wilson, however (‘Asiatic Researches,’ vol. xvii. p. 194), is clearly of opinion that it was a lingam. One slight circumstance mentioned incidentally by Ferishta (p. 74) convinces me as clearly it was Jaina. After describing the destruction of the great idol, he goes on to say, “There were in the temple some thousands of small images, wrought in gold and silver, of various shapes and dimensions.” I know of no religion except that of the Jains—and the very late Buddhists—who indulged in this excessive reduplication of images.
[270] A view of this temple, not very correct but fairly illustrative of the style, forms the title-page to Col. Tod’s ‘Travels in Western India.’