The front of this church, all carved in the rock, is especially remarkable by the perfection of the ornaments.  In these it is to be seen that the artist has endeavored to imitate in rock a structure made of wood.  This is the case in nearly all the subterranean temples, and it is presumable that the architects of the time did their composing after the reminiscences of the antique wooden monuments that still existed in India at their epoch, but which for a long time have been forever destroyed.  The large bay placed over the small front door gives a mysterious light in the nave of the church, and sends the rays directly upon the main altar or dagoba, leaving the lateral columns and porticoes in a semi-obscurity well calculated to inspire meditation and prayer.

The temples and monasteries of Ajunta, too, are of the highest interest.  They consist of 27 grottoes, of which four only are churches or chaityas.  The 23 other excavations compose the monasteries or viharas.  Begun 100 B.C., they have remained since the tenth century of our era as we now see them.  The subterranean monasteries are majestic in appearance.  Sustained by superb columns with curiously sculptured capitals, they are ornamented with admirable frescoes which make us live over again the ancient Hindoo life.  The paintings are unfortunately in a sad state, yet for the tourist they are an inexhaustible source of interesting observations.

The excavations, which have been made one after another in the wall of volcanic rock of the mountain, form, like the latter, a sort of semicircle.  But the churches and monasteries have fronts whose richness of ornamentation is unequaled.  The profusion of the sculptures and friezes, ornamented with the most artistic taste, strikes you with so much the more admiration in that in these places they offer a perfect and varied ensemble of the true type of the Buddhist religion during this long period of centuries.  The picturesque landscape that surrounds these astonishing sculptures adds to the beauty of these various pictures.

The temples of Ellora are no less remarkable, but they do not offer the same artistic ensemble.  The excavations may be divided into three series:  ten of them belong to the religion of Buddha, fourteen to that of Brahma, and six to the Dravidian sect, which resembles that of Jaius, of which we still have numerous specimens in the Indies.  Excavated in the same amygdaloid rock, the temples and monasteries differ in aspect from those of Ajunta, on account of the form of the mountain.  Ajunta is a nearly vertical wall.  At Ellora, the rock has a gentle slope, so that, in order to have the desired height for excavating the immense halls of the viharas or the naves of the chaityas, it became necessary to carve out a sort of forecourt in front of each excavation.

[Illustration:  FIG. 2.—­PLAN OF THE TEMPLES OF KYLAS.]