DETAILS OF CAVERN ARCHITECTURE. 35 
We have here the outline of an orna- 
ment in the front of one of the Indian 
caves, resembling the general form of a 
constructed temple. In fact, the resem- 
blance between the Caves and the Struc- 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
tures 1s so close, that we may rest assured 
  
of their practical intimacy. Whether they 
  
  
  
  
were formed contemporaneously, or whether 
  
(as we rather imagine) the excavations had 
a prior existence, the reader is as capable to decide as 
ourselves. | 
The difference between them is chiefly such, as their 
different localities naturally induce. The same feeling 
pervades both. 1In both, is found the (— 
bracket-headed capital; in both, the fre- 
quent use of the globular-compressed 
cushion-form ; and in both, the same love 
  
of certain fixed, and many capricious de- 
  
corations, including imitations of the human 
figure, of animals, monsters, and foliage. The elegant 
and the grotesque address us by turns in each; but 
in neither can we decide as to the real motive of the 
designer. 
It would, in short, savour of pedantry to profess any 
material knowledge of the governing laws of ancient 
Indian design. That there is a peculiar and pervading 
feeling, and a frequent repetition of certain outlines and 
particular forms, we admit; but we seek in vain to esta- 
blish that classification which is so marked in the several 
Orders of Greece, and in the successive periods of Pointed 
Design. The colonnades of Athens, the arcades of Rome, 
  
R G S A A