The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s2.119.1

v2.c16.s2.119.1

⁵⁴ The conclusions I have come to above are at variance with the results of Mr. Fergusson’s latest researches on the subject as embodied in an appendix to the 2nd edition of his *Tree and Serpent Worship*. Although those results are indefinite, to a certain extent contradictory, and avowedly derived from insufficient data, still they are of importance as proceeding from a gentleman who has devoted much attention to the subject, and is deservedly, held in high respect, and it is necessary, therefore, to notice them in detail. After adverting to the character of the caves, he says, “Still these caves must have been excavated for some religious purposes; we can hardly suppose they were the residences of laymen, and the only reasonable conclusion seems to be that they were early Buddhist, of a type coeval, or it may be even anterior to what we find at Sāñchī” (p. 268). Now Sāñchī is usually supposed to belong to the second century B.C., and so these caves, if they represent the Buddhism of that place, must belong to that century. This is, however, to a certain extent contradicted by a statement in which the learned author says : “The inscriptions on the snake and tiger caves prove them, from the form of their characters, to be not far removed from Aśoka's time” (p. 268). This would be the latter part of the third century B. C. The remark, however, is followed by another statement in which the author comes to “the conclusion that some of the Yavana invaders mentioned above” (p.