and to compete with the fashionable worship of Siva. Both these religions have borrowed an immense amount of nomenclature from the more abstract religions of the Aryan races, and both profess to venerate the Vedas and other scriptures in the Sanscrit language. Indeed it is all but impossible that the intellectual superiority of that race should not make itself felt on the inferior tribes, but it is most important always to bear in mind that the Sanscrit-speaking Aryan was a stranger in India. It cannot indeed be too often repeated that all that is intellectually great in that country--all, indeed, which is written--belongs to them; but all that is built--all, indeed, which is artistic--belongs to other races, who were either aboriginal or immigrated into India at earlier or subsequent periods, and from other sources than those which supplied the Aryan stock. * * * * * There does not seem to be any essential difference either in plan or form between the Saiva and Vaishnava temples in the south of India. It is only by observing the images or emblems worshipped, or by reading the stories represented in the numerous sculptures with which a temple is adorned, that we find out the god to whom it is dedicated. Whoever he may be, the temples consist almost invariably of the four following parts, arranged in various manners, as afterwards to be explained, but differing in themselves only according to the age in which they were executed:-- 1. The principal part, the actual temple itself, is called the _Vimana_. It is always square in plan, and surmounted by a pyramidal roof of one or more storeys; it contains the cell in which the image of the god or his emblem is placed. 2. The porches or _Mantapas_, which always cover and precede the door leading to the cell. 3. Gate pyramids, _Gopuras_, which are the principal features in the quadrangular enclosures which always surround the _Vimanas_. 4. Pillared halls or _Choultries_, used for various purposes, and which are the invariable accompaniments of these temples. Besides these, a temple always contains tanks or wells for water--to be used either for sacred purposes or the convenience of the priests,--- dwellings for all the various grades of the priesthood attached to it, and numerous other buildings designed for state or convenience. CHAPTER II. DRAVIDIAN ROCK-CUT TEMPLES. CONTENTS. Mahavellipore--Kylas, Ellora.