Tatva, An Ancient Hindu Book, Treating Of The Geography Of The
Times Of King Asoka (250-300 B.C.), Teaches Us That The Mahratti
Territory Spreads Up To The Wall Of Chandvad Or Chandor, And That
The Kandesh Country Begins On The Other Side Of The River.
But
English people do not believe in Tatva or in any other authority
and want us to learn that Kandesh begins right at the foot of
Chandor hillocks.
- - - - -
Twelve miles south-east from Chandvad there is a whole town of
subterranean temples, known under the name of Enkay-Tenkay. Here,
again, the entrance is a hundred feet from the base, and the hill
is pyramidal. I must not attempt to give a full description of
these temples, as this subject must be worked out in a way quite
impossible in a newspaper article. So I shall only note that here
all the statues, idols, and carvings are ascribed to Buddhist
ascetics of the first centuries after the death of Buddha. I wish
I could content myself with this statement. But, unfortunately,
messieurs les archeologues meet here with an unexpected difficulty,
and a more serious one than all the difficulties brought on them
by the inconsistencies of all other temples put together.
In these temples there are more idols designated Buddhas than
anywhere else. They cover the main entrance, sit in thick rows
along the balconies, occupy the inner walls of the cells, watch
the entrances of all the doors like monster giants, and two of
them sit in the chief tank, where spring water washes them century
after century without any harm to their granite bodies.
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