Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 4, October 1852Various
General
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 4, October 1852
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Round the
quadrangle runs a veranda supported by a double row of white marble
pillars placed at equal distances (about eight feet) from each other,
and thus dividing the veranda into a number of imaginary squares between
each four pillars; each square has its roof and its cornice round the
lower edge of the roof, while the roofs are of every indescribable
pattern, and two are seldom found alike; the cornices are covered with
men and animals in all situations, hunting, battling, dancing, the whole
executed in white marble; sometimes the roof will ascend gradually,
narrowing with most elaborate and deep carving to a height of many feet,
then the same carving after the same fashion is continued down again,
till it looks like a beautiful stalactite depending from the centre of
the roof. A second court of the same kind is also shown, and I think a
third, but my memory will not allow me to be sure of this last point.
This description I have given, though imperfect, will do for all. I must
not, however, forget to mention the curious room in which a large figure
of a royal personage on horseback, and some twenty or thirty figures of
elephants, about five feet high, stand fully equipped with howdahs and
trappings, the whole of which are carved most beautifully in solid white
marble, and so minutely that even the very strands of the ropes are
executed with the utmost fidelity. In fact, the whole thing is so
wonderfully beautiful that I despair of doing more than conveying a
faint idea of it. These temples are said to be some 800 or 900 years
old, and are held in great sanctity as a place of pilgrimage. At a
certain season of the year, thousands flock thither, and the Brahmins
make a pretty decent thing out of the pious but deluded devotees. I have
often wished that they were rooted out, and that I were made governor of
Aboo, with the temple for my palace, and the top of the mountain for my
park.
The Ghau-Muk, pronounced Gyemook, or cow’s-mouth, is another sweet spot
on the mountain-side; it is a small marble spout, carved in the form of
a cow’s head, through which a stream of pure, cold water flows into a
square tank: it is a sacred spot to Fakeers and Brahmins, who resort
there in great numbers; but its refreshing waters and the cool shade of
the magnificent trees that surround it are far better recommendations to
the tired wayfarer, and give him fresh courage to ascend the steep
staircase of steps leading from it to the mountain-top.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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