'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎309] (418/496)

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described, and the sketches of Sir Bobert Kcr Porter arc accurate repre
sentations. The foot of the hill has been excavated, in the form of an
ar cli, to a depth of twenty-two feet. The height of this arch is about
thirty feet, and its breadth twenty-five feet. On the left side of the
arch, below its spring, an excellent bas-relief, representing a sporting
scene, has been sculptured. Elephants, horses, camels, wild boars, deer,
and men, are promiscuously grouped around the borders of a marsh, on
which two boats are plying. The monarch occupies one of these, and is
standing up with a bent bow in his hand, in the act of shooting at a re
treating boar. The second boat, containing some attendant ladies, and
minstrels with their instruments, serves to convey a picture of the luxu
ry of the court. To the right of the scene, the slaughtered game, slung
across backs of elephants, is being carried away from the field ; and in
another part, the process of flaying, preparatory to the repast, is beauti
fully delineated. There is, however, in the design, no regard for per
spective, but men and animals are individually portrayed with a grace
and action unsurpassed even at the present day. The right side of the
arch bears a similar scene, but is altogether inferior to its opposite sculp
ture, and must have been the work either of an inferior artist or is an
unfinished design of a later date. On the rock forming the back of
the arch, a colossal equestrian figure, in complete armour, and armed
with a long lance, stands boldly out nearly in complete relief; and
above, on the pedestal forming the spring of the arch, three other
figures, supposed to denote Khusru Barviz, his Queen Shirin,
and the Prime Minister of the Empire, are chiselled in alto-
relievo. The trappings of the horse, and apparel of the group, are
worked with a very minute detail. Two winged Victories, bearing
wreaths, with long flowing drapery, guard the entrance to the arch, and
display great artistic skill. Above the first-mentioned sporting scene,
and in sad and striking contrast with it, the effigies of Mahomed Ali
Mirza, late prince of Kirmanshah, his son and his chief eunuch, occupy a
conspicuous place. The prince is seated in the royal chair, and is
crowned with a royal diadem, with the other personages in jewelled
attire standing respectfully before him. To render this group the
more striking, color has been used in aid of the unskilful chisel of the
modern statuary, in whose stiff and distorted forms, compared with the
master style of a former age, the prince, might have read a history of his
country from the time of Khusru to that of Eat*Ali Shah. The uncul
tivated mind, however, of the modern Persian, is ill-adapted to the con
ception of the beauties of art or of nature, and 1 have no doubt, there*