ith heads and trunks that project
from the wall. The shape of the temple is oval. It is 128 feet long and
forty-six feet wide. The central space is separated on each side
from the aisles by forty-two pillars, which sustain the cupola-shaped
ceiling. Further on is an altar, which divides the first dome from
a second one which rises over a small chamber, formerly used by the
ancient Aryan priests for an inner, secret altar. Two side passages
leading towards it come to a sudden end, which suggests that, once upon
a time, either doors or wall were there which exist no longer. Each of
the forty-two pillars has a pedestal, an octagonal shaft, and a
capital, described by Fergusson as "of the most exquisite workmanship,
representing two kneeling elephants surmounted by a god and a goddess."
Fergusson further says that this temple, or chaitya, is older and better
preserved than any other in India, and may be assigned to a period about
200 years B.C., because Prinsep, who has read the inscription on the
Silastamba pillar, asserts that the lion pillar was the gift of Ajmitra
Ukasa, son of Saha Ravisobhoti, and another inscription shows that
the temple was visited by Dathama Hara, otherwise Dathahamini, King of
Ceylon, in the twentieth year of his reign, that is to say, 163 years
before our era. For some reason or other, Dr. Stevenson points to
seventy years B.C. as the date, asserting that Karlen, or Karli, was
built by the Emperor Devobhuti, under the supervision of Dhanu-Kakata.
But how can this be maintained in view of the above-mentioned perfectly
authentic inscriptions? Even Fergusson, the celebrated defender of the
Egyptian antiquities and hostile critic of those of India, insists that
Karli belongs to the erections of the third century B.C., adding that
"the disposition of the various parts of its architecture is identical
with the architecture of the choirs of the Gothic period, and the
polygonal apsides of cathedrals."

Above the chief entrance is found a gallery, which reminds one of the
choirs, where, in Catholic churches, the organ is placed. Besides the
chief entrance there are two lateral entrances, leading to the aisles
of the temple, and over the gallery there is a single spacious window in
the shape of a horseshoe, so that the light falls on the daghopa (altar)
entirely from above, leaving the aisles, sheltered by the pillars,
in obscurity, which increases as you approach the further end of the
building. To the ey