Its noble and exposed situation at the foot of the hills
reminded me of that of the Escurial. It has no forest of cork-trees
and evergreen-oaks before it, nor is it to be compared, in point of
size, with that stupendous building; but it is visible from as great
a distance. And the Spanish sierra cannot for a moment be placed in
competition with the verdant magnificence of the mountain-scenery
of Kashmir.
Few of the Kashmirian temples, if any, I should say, were
Buddhist. Those in or upon the edge of the water were rather, I should
suppose, referable to the worship of the Nagas, or snake-gods. The
figures in all the temples are almost always in an erect position,
and I have never been able to discover any inscription in those
now remaining.
I had been struck with the great general resemblance which the temple
bore to the recorded disposition of the Ark and its surrounding
curtains, in imitation of which the Temple at Jerusalem was built;
and it became for a moment a question whether the Kashmirian temples
had not been built by Jewish architects, who had recommended them to
be constructed on the same plan for the sake of convenience merely.
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