Siva's paradise began at the north-west corner, near the entrance gopuram, where a beautiful two-storied shrine, dedicated to the holy rivers of Hindustan which are supposed to spring from the Great God's hair, is carved in the face of the rock. Gangā occupies the centre with a crocodile-dragon at her feet. On her right is Sarāsvati with a lotus flower as her pedestal. Jumna on the left stands on a tortoise. Other streams which fertilise Aryāvarta's sacred soil are symbolised in the seven sculptured panels on the architrave above, and by the water-jars ornamenting the balcony of the upper chamber, which is only partially excavated. A pair of life-size elephants, symbols of the rain-clouds which often gather round the Himalayan snowy peaks, stand at the foot of the flight of steps leading to the inner courtyard. There three long cloisters cut into the faces of the rock form the ambulatory of the temple, filled with sculpture, as were the procession paths of Buddhist stūpas, for the edification of the pilgrim. Opposite the north and south porches of the assembly-hall the rock is more deeply recessed, to mark what in a structural temple would have been two towering gopurams. Above the northern recess a spacious chapel 75 feet long and 50 feet wide, known as the Lankēsvara,[1] is carved still deeper into the rock, nearly on a level with the assembly-hall of the temple. This chapel was an addition of a later date, though doubtless contemplated in the original scheme. The noble simplicity of its massive piers, the broad surface of smoothly dressed stone above it, and the mysterious gloom of its dark recesses, make a wonderful foil to the temple itself, coruscating jewel-like in the sunlight, and elaborated with the finesse of chased silver-work. Opposite the chapel, on the south side of the court, a
- ↑ See Pl. XXVII, on the left.
