The Rock-cut Temples of India/The Caves of Ellora/Sculpture, Kylas—Ellora 2
SCULPTURE, KYLAS.—ELLORA.
BETRAYS the same rudeness in execution as the last, and the same inelegance of detail, but possesses a wild picturesqueness and vigour which charms in spite of its defects.
The figure on the right is a giant Dwarpal, or porter, guarding the entrance. Behind him a figure in a chariot, apparently Arjuna, with his bow; and behind him again one of those figures to whom the Brahmans on the spot give the name that occurs most readily to their memories.
It is not, however, the art of these sculptures that makes the Kylas so wonderful so much as their quantity and variety; for after you have examined all those of the Temple itself, with its porches, and those of the stone bridges that connect one part with the other, there is still the cloister, and above this the beautiful Temple of Lanka and others cut in the rock on the sides of the pit, which make up together an exhibition of human labour and perseverance seldom surpassed.