Ghasi is now at work upon the outline of two of the remaining shrines, and has promised to give up ten days to the details of the ceilings, the columns, and the rich varied ornaments, which the pencil alone can represent. One of these shrines, having a part of the Singar Chaori still standing, is amongst the finest things in Asia, not for magnitude, being to all appearance merely receptacles for the inferior divinities surrounding some grand temple, but for the sculptured ornaments, which no artist in Europe could surpass (vide Plate). Each consists of a simple mandir, or cella, about twenty feet square, having a portico and a long open colonnaded vestibule in front for the priests and votaries. Every one of these numerous columns differs in its details from the others. But the entrance chiefly excites admiration, being a mass of elaborate workmanship of a peculiar kind, and the foliage and flowers may be considered perfect. It is deeply to be lamented that no artists from [734] Europe have made casts from these masterpieces of sculpture and architecture, which would furnish many new ideas, and rescue the land sacred to Bhavani (Minerva) from the charge of having taught nothing but deformity: a charge from which it is my pride to have vindicated her.
SCULPTURED FOLIAGE IN CHANDRAVATI TEMPLE.
To face page 1786.
While I remained with Ghasi, amidst the ruins, I dispatched my Guru and Brahmans to take diligent search for inscriptions; but many of these, as well as thousands of divinities, the wrecks of ancient Patan, have been built up in the new town or its immense circumvallation; but our efforts were not altogether unrewarded.
The oldest inscription, dated S. 748 (A.D. 692), bore the name of Raja Durgangal, or ‘the bar of the castle.’[[15]] It is very long, and in that ornamented character peculiar to the Buddhists and Jains throughout these regions. It contains allusions to the local traditions of the Pandu Arjun, and his encounter with the demon Virodhi[[16]] under the form of Baraha, or the boar; and states that from the spot where the Varaha was wounded, and on which his blood fell, a figure sprung, originating from the wound (khat), whose offspring in consequence was called Khatri: “of his line was Krishna Bhat Khatri, whose son was Takshak. What did he resemble, who obtained the fruits of the whole earth, conquering numerous foes? He had a son named Kaiyak, who was equal to the divinity which supports the globe: in wisdom he was renowned as Mahadeo: his name sent to sleep the children of his foe: he appeared as an avatar of Buddha, and like the ocean, which expands when the rays of the full moon fall upon it, even so does the sea of our knowledge increase when he looks upon it: and his verses are filled with ambrosia (amrita). From Chait to Chait, sacrifice never ceased burning: Indra went without offspring.[[17]] The contributions from the land were raised with justice, whilst his virtues overshadowed the three worlds. The light which shines from the tusks of his foe’s elephant had departed; and the hand which struck him on the head, to urge him on, emitted no sound. Where was the land that felt not his influence? Such was Sri Kaiyak! when he visited foreign lands, joy departed from the wives of his foe: may all his resolves be accomplished!
“S. 748 (A.D. 692), on the full moon of Jeth, this inscription was placed in the mandir, by Gupta, the grandson of Bhat Ganeswar, lord of the lords of verse of Mundal, and son of Hargupta: this writing was composed, in the presence of Sri [735] Durgangal Raja, to whom, salutation! that forehead alone is fair which bows to the gods, to a tutor, and to woman! Engraved by Ulak the stonecutter.”[[18]]
On this curious inscription we may bestow a few remarks. It appears to me that the wild legion of the creation of this Khatri, from the blood of Baraha, represented as a Danava, or demon in disguise, is another fiction to veil the admission of some northern race into the great Hindu family. The name of Baraha, as an ancient Indo-Scythic tribe, is fortunately abundantly preserved in the annals of Jaisalmer, which State, at the early periods of the Yadu-Bhatti history, opposed their entrance into India; while both Takshak (or Tak) and Kaiyak are names of Tatar origin, the former signifying ‘the snake,’ the latter ‘the heavens.’ The whole of this region bears evidence of a race whose religion was ophite, who bore the epithet of Takshak as the name of the tribe, and whose inscriptions in this same nail-headed character are found all over Central and Western India. If we combine this with all that we have already said regarding Raja Hun of Bhadravati, and Angatsi the Hun, who served the Rana of Chitor at this precise period,[[19]] when an irruption is recorded from Central Asia, we are forced to the conclusion, that this inscription (besides many others) is a memorial of a Scythic or Tatar prince, who, as well as the Gete prince of Salpura,[[20]] was grafted upon Hindu stock.