It is, of course, impossible, without a much greater amount of illustration than is compatible with the nature of this work, to convey to those who have not seen them any idea of the various points of interest found in these caves; but it is to be hoped that a complete series of illustrations of them may be one day given to the world. The materials for this nearly existed when the disastrous fire at the Crystal Palace, in 1860, destroyed Major Gill’s facsimiles of the paintings, which can hardly now be replaced.[194] A good deal, however, may be, and it is hoped will be, done, as they afford a complete series of examples of Buddhist art without any admixture from Hinduism, or any other religion extending from 200 years before Christ to 600 or 700 years after his era; and besides illustrating the arts and feelings of those ages, they form a chronometric scale by which to judge of, and synchronise other known series with which, however, they differ in several important particulars. For instance, at Ajunta there is no single example of those bell-shaped Persian capitals to pillars, with waterpot bases; nor is there any example of animals with riders crowning the capitals, such as are found at Bedsa, Karli, Nassick, Salsette, and elsewhere in the Ghâts. These differences seem to point to a western influence, Persian, Saka, or Scythian, or by whatever name we like to designate it, which did not penetrate so far inland as Ajunta or Ellora, but was confined to those regions where we know the foreign influence prevailed. These, and many more ethnographic distinctions in architecture will, no doubt, be brought out by careful examination and comparisons, from which, when made, it can hardly be doubted that the most important results will be derived. BAGH. At a distance about 150 miles a little west of north from Ajunta, and thirty miles west of Mandu, near a little village of the name of Bagh, there exists a series of viharas only little less interesting than the later series at Ajunta. They are situated in a secluded ravine in the side of the range of hills that bounds the valley of the Nerbudda on the north, and were first visited or at least first described by Lieutenant Dangerfield, in the second volume of the ‘Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay.’ They have since been described more in detail by Dr. Impey in the fifth volume of the ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.’ Unfortunately the plates that were to accompany that paper were not published with it, but being deposited by the author in the library of the India Office, they are now before me, and from them and from this paper the principal details that follow have been gleaned.