Interior View of the principal Excavated Temple on the Island of Elephanta
Description: Plate thirty-eight from the first volume of James Forbes'"Oriental Memoirs". Forbes(1749-1819)arrived in Bombay in 1766 and spent eighteen years of life in Western India. During his residence there he frequently visited the excavations at Kanheri and Elephanta. On one occasion he stayed at Elephanta for four days, 'sketching the most striking features ...of the wonderful works'.The rock-cut cave-temples of Elephanta are situated on an island near Bombay, and named after a stone elephant found there by the Portuguese. Forbes described this as a 'general view of the interior of these extraordinary excavations, in which the Triad Deity of the Hindoos is distinguishable at the termination of the central aisle or avenue. A strong light is thrown into the cave through an accidental aperture in the side of the mountain, the light originally admitted being only from the principal entrance.'
Creator:
Artist : Forbes, James
Geographic coverage: 72.916664,18.950001; Elephanta
Date: [1813]
Date of creation: 1813
Type: StillImage; Print
Format: jpeg; 23; 29.2; Centimetres; Engraving
Subject: India, British School, travels, Elephanta Island; South Asia -- History; 954
Identifier: 019XZZ0000455C7U00038000; 455.c.7
Is part of: Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections. Collect Britain
Rights: Copyright © British Library Board
Data provider: The British Library
Provider: The European Library
Providing country: United Kingdom
