A Guide to Elephanta

The tendency to adore the superneturar predominated in the minds of the MaliWanins as well as of the Hindus and found expression in the scuipeure Aid. they produced. [...] During the greater pa7rt of the 15th and e beginning of the 16th century it was along with the best of the coast of Thana nominally undef the Musaman rulers of Ahmadabad. [...] The Island was finally occupied by the British who took it in December 1774 In connection with the elefenee of Bombay a battery of heavy guns was established on the top of the western hill but the Isltnd is no longed of any military impiprtance.2 Assuming that the Pun of the Aiholeinsviption is the modern Elephanta it will not be unreasonable to infer from what has been stated above that the sc [...] For the sake of convenience we might ascribe them to periods ranging from the third century B. C. to thp third century after Christ thek from the fourth to the eigh thtentury A. D!) and lastly from the ninth to the twelfth century A. D. Here we are not concerned with the art of the period preceding the Mauryan epoch ; nor have we much to do with the products of the times which followed the twel [...] The Mahgamfirti figure miscalled Trimurti which is one of the finest reliefs in all India and evidently the principal sculpture in the Mait Cave *is a vivid expression of the unification of the three different aspects of the Supreme Being.