trusted by
the Takurs.

A similar story is told concerning the libraries and subterranean
passages of Karli. As for the archaeologists, they are unable even to
determine whether this temple was built by Buddhists or Brahmans.
The huge daghopa that hides the holy of holies from the eyes of the
worshippers is sheltered by a mushroom-shaped roof, and resembles a low
minaret with a cupola. Roofs of this description are called "umbrellas,"
and usually shelter the statues of Buddha and of the Chinese sages.
But, on the other hand, the worshippers of Shiva, who possess the temple
nowadays, assert that this low building is nothing but a lingam of
Shiva. Besides, the carvings of gods and goddesses cut out of the rock
forbid one to think that the temple is the production of the Buddhists.
Fergusson writes, "What is this monument of antiquity? Does it belong
to the Hindus, or to the Buddhists? Has it been built upon plans drawn
since the death of Sakya Sing, or does it belong to a more ancient
religion?"

That is the question. If Fergusson, being bound by facts existing in
inscriptions to acknowledge the antiquity of Karli, will still persist
in asserting that Elephanta is of much later date, he will scarcely be
able to solve this dilemma, because the two styles are exactly the same,
and the carvings of the latter are still more magnificent. To ascribe
the temples of Elephanta and Kanari to the Buddhists, and to say that
their respective periods correspond to the fourth and fifth centuries
in the first case, and the tenth in the second, is to introduce into
history a very strange and unfounded anachronism. After the first
century A.D. there was not left a single influential Buddhist in India.
Conquered and persecuted by the Brahmans, they emigrated by thousands to
Ceylon and the trans-Himalayan districts. After the death of King Asoka,
Buddhism speedily broke down, and in a short time was entirely displaced
by the theocratic Brahmanism.

Fergusson's hypothesis that the followers of Sakya Sing, driven out by
intolerance from the continent, probably sought shelter on the islands
that surround Bombay, would hardly sustain critical analysis. Elephanta
and Salsetta are quite near to Bombay, two and five miles distant
respectively, and they are full of ancient Hindu temples. Is it
credible, then, that the Brahmans, at the culminating point of their
power, just before the Mussulman invasions, fanatical as they were, and
mortal enemi