Smaller shrines surround the kund, into one of which I entered, little expecting in a comparatively humble edifice the surprise which awaited me. The temple was a simple, unadorned hall, containing a detached piece of sculpture, representing Narayan floating on the chaotic waters. The god is reclining in a fit of abstraction upon his shesh-seja, a couch formed of the hydra, or sea-snake, whose many heads expanded form a canopy over that of the sleeping divinity,[[15]] at whose feet is the benignant Lakshmi, the Hindu Ceres, awaiting the expiration of his periodical repose. A group of marine monsters, half man, half fish, support the couch in their arms, their scaly extremities gracefully wreathed, and in the centre of them is a horse, rather too terrestrial to be classical, with a conch-shell and other marine emblems near him. The background to this couch rises about two feet above the reclining figure, and is divided horizontally into two compartments, the lower containing a group of six chimerical monsters, each nearly a foot in height, in mutual combat, and in perfect relief. Above is a smaller series, depicting the Avatars, or incarnations of the divinity. On the left, Kurma, the tortoise, having quitted his shell, of which he makes [711] a pedestal, denotes the termination of the catastrophe. Another marine monster, half boar (Varaha), half fish, appears recovering the Yoni, the symbol of production, from the alluvion, by his tusk. Next to him is Narasinha, tearing in pieces a tyrannical king, with other allegorical mysteries having no relation to the ten incarnations, but being a mythology quite distinct, and which none of the well-informed men around me could interpret: a certain proof of its antiquity.
REMAINS OF AN ANCIENT TEMPLE AT BAROLLI.
Near the Chambal.
To face page 1760.
The position of Narayan was that of repose, one hand supporting his head, under which lay the gada, or mace, while in another he held the conch-shell, which, when the god assumed the terrestrial form and led the Yadu hosts to battle, was celebrated as Dakshinavarta, from having its spiral involutions reversed, or to the right (dakshin). The fourth arm was broken off, as were his nether limbs to near the knee. From the nabh or naf (navel) the umbilical cord ascended, terminating in a lotus, whose expanded flower served as a seat for Brahma, the personification of the mind or spirit “moving on the waters” (Narayana) of chaos. The beneficent and beautiful Lakshmi, whom all adore, whether as Annapurna (the giver of food), or in her less amiable character as the consort of the Hindu Plutus, seems to have excited a double portion of the zealots’ ire, who have not only visited her face too roughly, but entirely destroyed the emblems of nourishment for her universal progeny. It would be impossible to dwell upon the minuter ornaments, which, both for design and execution, may be pronounced unrivalled in India. The highly imaginative mind of the artist is apparent throughout; he has given a repose to the sleeping deity, which contrasts admirably with the writhing of the serpent upon which he lies, whose folds, more especially under the neck, appear almost real; a deception aided by the porphyritic tints of the stone. From the accompaniments of mermaids, conch-shells, sea-horses, etc., we may conclude that a more elegant mythology than that now subsisting has been lost with the art of sculpture. The whole is carved out of a single block of the quartz rock, which has a lustre and polish equal to marble, and is of far greater durability.
The length of this marine couch (seja) is nearly eight feet, its breadth two, and its height somewhat more than three; the figure, from the top of his richly wrought tiara, being four feet. I felt a strong inclination to disturb the slumbers of Narayana, and transport him to another clime: in this there would be no sacrilege, for in his present mutilated state he is looked upon (except as a specimen of art) as no better than a stone.
All round the kund the ground is covered with fragments of shrines erected to [712] the inferior divinities. On one piece, which must have belonged to a roof, were sculptured two busts of a male and a female, unexceptionably beautiful. The headdress of the male was a helmet, quite Grecian in design, bound with a simple and elegant fillet: in short, it would require the labour of several artists for six months to do anything like justice to the wonders of Barolli.
There is no chronicle to tell us for whom or by whom this temple was constructed. The legends are unintelligible; for although Raja Hun is the hero of this region, it is no easy task to account for his connexion with the mythology. If we, however, connect this apparently wild tradition with what is already said regarding his ruling at Bhainsror, and moreover with what has been recorded in the first part of this work, when ‛Angatsi, lord of the Huns,' was enrolled amongst the eighty-four subordinate princes who defended Chitor against the first attempt of the Islamite, in the eighth century, the mystery ceases. The name of Hun is one of frequent occurrence in ancient traditions, and the early inscription at Monghyr has already been mentioned, as likewise the still more important admission of this being one of the Thirty-six Royal tribes of Rajputs; and as, in the Chitor chronicle, they have actually assigned as the proper name of the Hun prince that (Angatsi) which designates, according to their historian Deguignes, the grand horde, we can scarcely refuse our belief that “there were Huns” in India in those days. But although Raja Hun may have patronized the arts, we can hardly imagine he could have furnished any ideas to the artists, who at all events have not produced a single Tatar feature to attest their rule in this region. It is far more probable, if ever Grecian artists visited these regions, that they worked upon Indian designs—an hypothesis which may be still further supported. History informs us of the Grecian auxiliaries sent by Seleucus to the (Puar) monarch of Ujjain (Ozene),[[16]] whose descendants corresponded with Augustus; and I have before suggested the possibility of the temple of Kumbhalmer, which is altogether dissimilar to any remains of Hindu art, being attributable to the same people.
We discovered two inscriptions, as well as the names of many visitors, inscribed on the pavement and walls of the portico, bearing date seven and eight hundred years ago; one was “the son of Jalansi, from Dhawalnagari”; another, which is in the ornamental Nagari of the Jains, is dated the 13th of Kartik (the month sacred to Mars), S. 981, or A.D. 925. Unfortunately it is but a fragment, containing five slokas in praise of Siddheswar, or Mahadeo, as the patron of the ascetic Jogis. Part of a name remains; and although my old Guru will not venture to give a translation without [713] his sibylline volume, the Vyakarana, which was left at Udaipur, there is yet sufficient to prove it to be merely the rhapsody of a Pandit, visiting Rori Barolli, in praise of the ‘great god’ and of the site.[[17]] More time and investigation than I could afford, might make further discoveries; and it would be labour well rewarded if we could obtain a date for this Augustan age of India. At the same time, it is evident that the whole was not accomplished within one man’s existence, nor could the cost be defrayed by one year’s revenue of all Rajputana.
We may add, before we quit this spot, that there are two piles of stones, in the quadrangle of the main temple, raised over the defunct priests of Mahadeo, who, whether Gosains, Sannyasis, or Dadupantis, always bury their dead.
Barolli is in the tract named Pachel, or the flat between the river Chambal and the pass, containing twenty-four villages in the lordship of Bhainsror, lying about three miles west, and highly improving the scene, which would otherwise be one of perfect solitude. According to the local tradition of some of the wild tribes, its more ancient name was Bhadravati, the seat of the Huns; and the traces of the old city in extensive mounds and ruins are still beheld around the more modern Bhainsror. Tradition adds that the Charmanvati (the classic name of the Chambal) had not then ploughed itself a channel in this adamantine bed; but nine centuries could not have effected this operation, although it is not far from the period when Angatsi, the Hun, served the Rana of Chitor [714].