A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13.s4.22

c13.s4.22

The famous caves on the island of Elephanta in Bombay Harbour are supposed to date from the eighth century. The colossal sculptures, imposing and effective when viewed in the recesses of the caverns, are not of a very high class of art, and do not bear reproduction in detail well. The first of the two specimens selected is the favourite subject of the marriage of Siva with Pārvatī (Fig. 154); and the second is the representation of Siva as the Great Ascetic (Fig. 155), which may be compared with the far finer Gupta treatment of the same subject (*ante*, Pl. XXXIV). The Elephanta Siva is merely a modified squatting Buddha in an inferior style. The extremely intimate relation which existed between the Siva worship of the Brahmanical Hindus