Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1885 — The Cave Temple of Karli. [ARTICLE]

The Cave Temple of Karli.

The temple carve of Karli is an illustration of the fearful lapse of the ethnic faiths of pagan India. The monks of Albania and other regions between the Adriatic and the iEgean sea, dug out many a cell in the early days, and’ honev-combed vast regions, where they spent their lives, and were laid, away when the long monotony was over. r - . ' t The Karli cave temple is very different in construction. It is by far the finest in India. To reach it yon take the train from Bombay, and go nearly a hundred miles eastward, on the general line to Calcutta. From Khandala to the Karli cave temple we had a ride of five miles on horseback. It was not long before we were compelled to leave the carriage road and take a path through the fields toward the range of mountains on our left, and by the time we were getting accustomed to the path we had to leave our horses and begin climbing in downright earnest. •Now, a climb in India, even to see its finest temple cave, is not a little thing. Mv white pith hat, with turban of light cloth folded about it, and then a double umbrella of gray cloth, white within, seemed to help hut little in keeping oflj the pressure of the on a late day of the Indian November. "When we reached, the cool and shaded vestibule, and threw ourselves down on the first broken stones we saw, and looked up into the face of the colossal stone goddess who sat on an elephant of stone, we were glad enough to rest The temple walls and every part of their adorning sculpture are liewn out of the stone mountain. Were there-no statuary of pagan deities, no reminders of an early worship, and were the country any other than India, one would take this wonderful structure for a superb cathedral. Not many serious changes would need to be made in order to convert it into an English minster. The nave is 124 feet long, forty-five feet broad, and forty-six feet from floor to ceiling. There are aisles on either side of the temple, separated from the nave by octagonal pillars. The capital of each pillar is crowned with two kneeling elephants, on whose backs are seated two figures, representing the divinities to whom the temple is dedicated. These are of beautiful features, as, indeed, are all the representations of deities in the Karli cave temple. There is nothing of that repulsive sculpture which one sees at Puna and in other modern Hindu pagodas. I saw no figures which were in part human and in part beast-like. Each was true to its class, from vestibule back to altar. The altar, and the place where it stands, keep up the resemblance to a Christian church. Behind it there are seven pillars, which separate it from what in a church would correspond with the ohoir. There are altogether thirty-eight columns in the temple. The grandest is the large lion pillar in front, which has sixteen sides, and is surmounted with four lions.

All this great recess has been cut from the solid rock, which seems to be nothing softer than porphyry itself. The statuary is massive relief, and consists of figures also cleft from the rock, like Thorwaldsen’s lion, in Lucerne. Thh great pillars are chastely proportioned columns, both base and capital proving that they have not been introduced, but, like all other portions of the temple, have been cut from the solid mass of which the whole mountain consists. They are part and parcel of floor and ceiling. There is an outward porch, or vestibule, fifty-two feet wide and fifteen deep, and on the heavy molding above there are figures of a man, a woman, and a dwarf. All this, too, like the whole spacious temple itself, has been patiently cut from firm rock. The only thing which is not of native rock is a wooden covering or ceiling. This has been the puzzle of all the toilers in Indian archaeology, and they seem to-day to be no nearer a solution of the difficulty than when they began. The entire immediate covering of the temple is of teak, a native wood, almost the only one which resists the white ant and every Indian insect.—Correspondence Neiv York Independen t

Ruins of the Synagogue* at Capernaum. Perhaps the most interesting spot in the world to those deeply under the influence of that charm which association lends to places hallowed by the ministrations of the Founder of Christianity is to be found in a desert, rockstrewn promontory on the northwest shore of the Lake of Tiberias; for among these piles of hewn blocks of black basalt still remain the ruins of a great synagogue, within whose walls, the foundations of which may still be distinctly traced, were collected the multitudes who flocked to hear the teachings of Christ. While modern tourists resort in crowds to Jerusalem to visit the mythical sites which are supposed, upon the vague basis of ecclesiastical tradition, to be identified with episodes in the life of the great Teacher, scarcely one ever finds his way to this remote locality, lying just out of the beaten track along which Cook leads his herds of sight-seers; and yet it is probable that the greater part of that period in the life ot Christ, the record of which is contained in the four Gospels, was at Capernaum, which the most careful investigation by the highest authorities in such matters has identified with these ruins of Tell Hum. Sir Charles Wilson, whose research on this spot led him to identify it as being the site of the City .of Capernaum, believes this synagogue was, “without doubt, the one built by the Roman centurion (Luke vii, s),*and, therefore, one of the most sacret spots on earth.” It was in this building, if that bo the case, that the well-known discourse contained in the sixth chapter of John was delivered; and it was not without a strange feeling, says the same explorer, “that on turning over a large block we found the pot of manna engraved on its face, and remembered the words: ‘I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead.’" ' ,; Apart from "their associations, the ruins themselves are not particularly striking. They coyer an area of about half a mile in length by a quarter in breadth, and consists chiefly •Of the black blocks 6f basa tic stone which ormed the walls of the botisee. The traces of the synagogue, however, re-

mfein sufficiently for the building to be planned. Built of white limestone bloeks, it must have formed .a conspicuous amid the black basalt by which it was surrounded. It waft sev-enty-five feet by fifty-seven, built north and south, and at the southern end had three entrances. Many of the columns and capitals have been carried aw ay, but enough still remain to convey some idea of the general plan and aspect of the building/ The capitals are of the Corinthjan order, and there were episiylia which rested upon the columns and probably supported wooden rafters. There are also remains of a heavy cornice and frieze. The exterior was probably decorated with attached pilasters.— Haifa Letter, in New York World.