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Excerpts

James Fergusson, the mandarin of Indian art history in the 19th c, undoubtedly a great pioneer scholar, ... never outgrew the indigo planter he had been when he first came to India. p.9 [His "Archaelogy in India" launched a frontal attack on Alexander Cunningham, and his main criticism of Cunningham was that he did not choose his assistants carefully. In part, the main object of his vituperation was Babu Rajendralal Mitra who helped Cunningham in some of the surveys. The book makes no secret of his contempt for the native Indian]:

In these days of discussion on Ilbert Bills... the question is whether the natives of India are to be treated as equal to Europeans in all respects. Under the present circumstances, it cannot fail to interest many to dissect the writings of one of the most prominent members of the native community and understand his motives and mode of action and thus ascertain how far Europeans were justified in refusing to submit to the jurisdiction of natives.

Ellora

The first significant foreign notice of Ellora is by an Arab traveller,
Abul Hassan Ali Masudi. Born in 957 in Baghdad, he visited Egypt, Palestine,
the Caspian, India, Sri Lanka... He writes of Ellora, 

	We have described the temples of India consecrated with idols which
	take the form of Bodrah, that is to say, the principle which appears
	in India from the beginning of time;the great temple named Aladra,
	which Indians visit in pilgrimage from great distances.  The temple
	is an entire city of a pious foundation and it is surrounded by a
	thousand cells where live devotees who have devoted themselves to
	worship of this particular idol.

The first European to record his visit is Jean de Thevenot (1666), who spent
two hours there, starting with the Kailasa:

	I found a Square Court, an hundred paces every way; the walls are
	natural Rock, which in that place is six Fathom high, Perpendicular
	to the Ground-plat, and cut as smooth and even, as if it were Plaster
	smoothed with

	The first thing I saw were very high Chappels, and I entered into a
	Porch cut out of the Rock, which is of a dark grayish Stone, and on
	each side of that Porch, there is · · a Gigantick figure of a Man cut
	out of the natural Rock, and the Walls are covered all over with
	other figures in relief, cut in die same manner.

	Having passed that Porch, I found a Square Court an hundred paces
	every way : The Wails are the natural rock, which in that place is
	six · Fathom high, Perpendicular to the Ground-plat, and cut as
	smooth and even, as if it were Plaster smoothed with a Trewel.

	Before all things, I resolved to view the outside of that Court, and
	I perceived that these Walls, or rather the Rock hangs, and that it
	is hollowed underneath; so that the void space makes a Gallery almost
	two Fathom high, and four or five broad : It hath the Rock for
	Ground, and is supported only by a row of Pillars cut in the Rock,
	and distant from the floor of the Gallery, about the length of a
	Fathom, so that it appears as if there were two Galleries. Every
	thing there, is extreamly well cut, and it is really, a wonder to see
	so great a Mass in the Air, which seems so slenderly underproppcd,
	that one can hardly forbear to shiver at first entering into it.



Ellora: interior of the Bisma Kurm (vishvakarma).  from Elliott's "Views in
India) 18th c. 



amitabha mukerjee (mukerjee [at-symbol] gmail)

2013 Sep 13