Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833/The Kylas, Caves of Ellora
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FRONT VIEW OF THE KYLAS, CAVES OF ELLORA.
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THE KYLAS, CAVES OF ELLORA.
The East, it is thy birth-place, thou bright sun;
There, too, the mind of man first felt its power,
And did begin its course. These mighty fanes
Were of its earliest efforts: that fine skill
And high imagination, which called forth
These giant temples, have, in other shapes,
Gone forth to civilize the world—oh! sun,
Still following in thy track, and, like thy light,
Leaving thick darkness when it past away.
All things are signs in nature, still there are
Subtle analogies we dimly trace.
Perhaps our moral world has but its day,
Of which the great sun is the glorious type;
And intellect will run its course, and set.
If so, we touch on the extremest verge
Of our horizon; and our arts, our power,
Our conquests o’er the many realms of mind,
Wealth, painting, sciences, and poetry,
Are but that rich magnificence of hues
Which heralds in the closing of our day.
These giant fabrics were the first great signs
Of man's dominion o’er his mother earth:
We have had other triumphs, have achieved
Victories o’er all the other elements;
And having run mankind's appointed race,
Perchance the night comes on, and what we deem
Meridian is our setting.
Lord Munster, in his "Overland Journey from India," observes, when speaking of his visit to the Caves of Ellora—"I felt a sensation of gratitude, and almost of esteem, towards the religion which had effected a labour so immense and so remarkable. Every thing around me spoke of other times, of individuals, nations, and arts long since past away; and I took a hurried view of the present state of India, looking in vain for any power or class of men, great, or I may almost say omnipotent enough, to venture on so prodigious an undertaking."— — —"As I stood in Keylas, casting a rapid glance from those ages concealed in impenetrable darkness, in which the stupendous monuments of art before me had arisen, down to the present moment, I sought in vain for any incident in the lapse of time, which could convey an equal conception of the power of man over matter." The writer might well proceed to ask, "Whether the object of amazement, next to this, in the history of India, was not that of the inhabitants of an island in the outskirts of Europe, unknown even by name in these regions, till they were first seen as merchants, and then as conquerors; and who, during little more than half a century, had, by a gradual extension of military operations, established over the country an influence or dominion which may now be said to be universal."