200

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

[JuiT,-1879.

In one of the domed caves I was fortunate enough
to find unmistakable traces of fresco painting.
The dome was surrounded with two rows of Bud-
dhas, bust-size, enclosed in borders, the whole
being imitations of panelling. The roof, as in other
cases, was dreadfully obscured with the effects of
smoke, and the plaster had evidently been wilfully
broken; but enough remained to show that there
were twelve Buddhas in each row; that round the
head of each Buddha was the ninilns, giving the
whole representation greatly the character of
pictures of the saints; and that some of the colours
used by the old artists were certainly blue, yellow,
and black. Thus the ground of the dome was blue,
and on this blue ground were painted the I* iddhas,
apparently in black with yellow outlines. In an-
•other cave of the ordinary kind I found the arched
ceiling had been painted in a similar manner; but
in this case black only had been used. What were
these small, black, domed caves P Were they
separate shrines ? And why were the domes in
their "»ofs painted blue ? Were they typical of
the vault of Heaven P

The immense ^tope called JDiai&ta, or the
" Beautiful," deserves a few words of description,
I visited it in company with two other officers—
Dr. Creagb, of I Battery, G Brigade, Royal Horse
Artillery, and Captain Bax, of the licit Bengal
Lancers. After passing through Jell&l&bad we
rode along the right or southern bank of the Kabul
until we reached its tributary, the Rud-i-Bala
Bagh, a mile beyond which there rises a precipi-
tous ridge of rocky mountains with an .eastern
aspect The triangular piece of ground at the foot
of this ridge contains, probably, three or four
square miles of the richest land, and is enclosed
by the ridge on the west, the river Kabul on the
north-east, and the Bud-i-Bala Bagh on the south-
east. Scattered over this magnificent estate there
are the ruins of no fewer than twelve topes. They
are all extremely ruinous, but some of them are less
miaous than others. Of these latter, the Ehaista
iope is by far the most perfect and the most
beautiful. It is situated on the apex of a conical
hill at the very foot of the mountains. Much
of the square base is still entire, as well as most
of the round base which stands upon the square
base, and about half of the dome-shaped top.
Bach side of the square base measures 115 ft. in
length, and the diameter of the round base is
about 60ft The height of the entire tope Cannot
be lees than 100 ft. The exterior masonry consists
of dabs of dark^blne schist, most carefully cut
to Biro, measuring about a foot square, .and not
awe than an inch in thickness. Built in with

these at regular intervals are blocks of quartz.
The lower as well as the upper part of the sides
of the square base were ornamented with numer-
ous mouldings, bold and deep, and the sides of
this base were further ornamented with pilasters
a foot wide, divided from each other by spaces in
width 5 ft. 9 in. The upper half of the circular
base was likewise richly ornamented with mould-
ings and shallow pilasters, with round arches
between and a cornice of Grecian type. These
pilasters were very narrow, and the spaces between
them only $ ft. They were all built with thin
pieces of well-dressed schist. It is curious that all
the other topes here still exhibit traces of the
plaster which once covered them, giving smooth-
ness and polish to their exteriors and complete*
ness to their mouldings. From the entire absence
of any trace of plaster on the Khaista tope, and
from the existence in every alternate panel on the
round base of small square holes, which I imagine
to be scaffolding holes,11 suppose that this beau*
tifol tope was never "completely finished. But,
finished or not, it still forms one of the most
imposing and graceful objects the mind can con-
ceive, and its commanding position, in the midst
of so much beautiful scenery of mountain, plain,
and river, is striking and picturesque to the last
degree.

At the foot of the conical hill on whiclj this tope
stands there is an old Ituhammadan graveyard,
and within the precincts of one of the tombs which
this graveyard contains lives an ancient, gray-
bearded Faqir. This old man remembers perfectly
well the former Afghan war and our occupation
of the country. With reference to the tope, he
informed us that the English employed a gang of
coolies to drive a gallery to the centre of the tope,
and then to sink a shaft, and that they discovered
a small stone chamber, in which were several
brazen vessels. In one of these vessels there
were ashes, in another a string of pearls, and in
another records in manuscript. It is well known
that all our documents, both official and private,
were lost in the disastrous retreat from Kabul.
It may be, however, that some reference to the-
opening of this iope and to that of the other topes
in the neighbourhood is preserved in the corres-
pondence, either published or not, of some who
took part in the events of the occupation of Af-
ghanistan. The publication of any such reference
just now, when the archaeological treasures of the
country are once more .undergoing -examination,
would be exceedingly interesting.—Je
Feb. 3.

—Th* Times, 12th April 1879.

* Pciiobly holet for a wooden coTOring.—En.