Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c12.55

c12.55

The second passage, preserved for us by Stobaeus¹, is even more striking. After describing a system of Trial by Ordeal in which water was employed, somewhat as mentioned by Hiuen Tsiang, the writer goes on to the following remarkable description of a rock-temple. “The Indian ambassadors told me further that there was a large natural cave in a very high mountain almost in the middle of the country. Herein was a statue ten or twelve cubits high, standing upright, with its hands folded crosswise. And the right half of its face was that of a man, and the left half that of a woman. In like manner the right hand and right foot,—in a word, the whole of the right side,—were male, and the left female, and the spectator was wonderstruck at the combination, when he saw how indissolubly the two dissimilar halves coalesced into a single body. On the right breast was engraved the sun and on the left the moon, and on the arms a host of angels (*devas*), the sky, mountains, rivers and seas, plants and animals, and all the world contains.” After going on to say that this statue had been given by the chief god to his son at the creation of the world, Bardesanes adds that it was made of a very hard substance resembling wood, but proof against rot. Probably this was teak. On the head of the statue sat a god, as if on a throne, and the sweat ran down the statue in the hot season almost to the ground, so that the attendant Brahmins had to cool it with their fans. Then comes another curious passage. “In the depths of the cave, far behind the statue, is a long dark passage, and here, say the Indians, the devotees advance with lighted torches till they come to a door. Out of the door water gushes and forms a pool at the far end of the cave. All who desire to prove themselves must pass through the door. To those who have led a pure life the door opens readily, and they find within a clear, sweet fountain, the source of the pool without. But the wicked strive in vain to push past the door, for it closes fast upon them.”