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WALES, James (1747-1795)
View From the Island of Elephanta

Used with permission from the Peter Anker Collection held in the Kulturhistorisk Museum at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Plate 12: View From the Island of Elephanta, 1791-1792.

Plate 12 is the final view in the posthumous series of works by James Wales. In this scene Bombay and its adjoining islands are barely discernible. They float in the middle distance, almost invisible, upon a smooth calm sea, under a high canopy of cloud and blue sky. The foreground is dominated by the well-known black rock elephant sculpture at that time located outside the entrance to the namesake Elephanta cave-temple. This massive elephant towers over the scene, though intriguingly, along with the temple pagoda depicted in Plate 11, it represents the only other example of Indian antiquity depicted by Wales in his perspectives of Bombay and its islands. This absence, or artistic restraint, is noteworthy when compared to other contemporary artists who often embellished their landscapes with exotic cultural examples to enhance their works. The number and variety of monuments and artefacts available throughout the region was quite significant so we must assume that Wales' interest was directed towards other modes of representation. It was not a case that he lacked interest in architectural drawings, for he spent the years 1793-1794 visiting and sketching monumental sites of interest throughout the Poona and Ellora districts, as well as on the island of Salsette. And it was on a visit to the caves and antiquities of Salsette in October 1795 that Wales caught the fever from which he eventually died on 18 November 1795.

The caves and rock-cut temple are the focal point of Gharapuri Island, and subsequently renamed Elephanta Island by the Portuguese. The island is located in the inlet formed between the original outer islands of Bombay and the mainland. It is approximately five miles in circumference and the smallest, but also purportedly, the oldest of the cave-temples of western India. [see: de Almeida and Gilpin, G. Indian Renaissance pp.47-55 and Note 32]. The temple site covers an area of approximately 60,000 sq ft (5,600 sq. m.) and contains reliefs, sculptures, and a sanctuary dedicated to the Hindu god Siva, and dated to the sixth century AD. It consists of a main chamber, two lateral ones, courtyards and subsidiary shrines. However none of this is visible in this work by James Wales. It is the remoteness, antiquity, and the spiritual richness of the sculptures at Elephanta, compared to those visible at Kanheri on Salsette island and at Ellora on the mainland, that drew Wales back here on regular field trips.

Although the large sculpture of an elephant with a tiger on its back was located near the main portico of the temple complex and Wales' depiction does not include this detail in his rendering of the scene. Even in the time of his artistic predecessor, James Forbes (1745-1819), the sculpture had suffered from exposure and damage, and in 1864 it was relocated to Victoria Gardens, Bombay.

The figure of the elephant was an important artistic as well as archaeological object and an important account was recorded by historian and orientalist William Erskine (1773-1852) in the Transactions of the Bombay Literary Society in 1819. The description replicates almost exactly the viewpoint presented in the engraving by James Wales:

"...The celebrated caves of Elephanta are situated in the beautiful island of that name, which is called by the natives Gara-pori: it lies in the bay of Bombay, about seven miles from Bombay Castle and five miles from the Mahratta shore. It is nearly six miles in circumference, and is composed of two long hills with a narrow valley between them. The usual landing-place is towards the south, where the valley is broadest.

About two hundred and fifty yards to the right of the landing-place, on the rising side of one of the hills not far from a ruined Portuguese edifice, stands a large and clumsy elephant cut out of an insulated black rock; –– from this the island has taken its present name. The elephant has a fissure running through its back, which is separated so that the back has sunk a little downward upon the fore-flank. Captain Pyke, in his account of the Caves, written in 1712,* [see: Archaeologia Vol. vii. p.323] mentions that this elephant had a smaller one on its back. An engraving of both as they stood at that time may be found in Archaeologia; from which it appears that even then the fissure had begun to appear, and had nearly reached upwards to the top of the back. Anquetil ** [see: Zendavesta, Ouvrage de Zoroastre &c. Vol. i. p.423] describes the young elephant as existing in 1760, when he visited Elephanta. Niebuhr [see: Voyages de Niebuhr. Vol. ii. p.33] observes, that the large elephant had on its back something which age had worn so much that it was impossible to distinguish what it was, and that the large elephant was split, and even then (1764) expected to fall to pieces. The figure is poorly sculptured but at a distance and seen through the brushwood may easily be mistaken for a real elephant.

In September 1814 (after the above was written) the head and neck of the elephant at last dropped off, and the body of the elephant has since sunk down and threatens to fall. I had however, in the November preceding, taken an accurate measurement of all its dimensions in company with Captain Basil Hall of the Royal Navy, to whose friendship I owe the annexed very accurate drawing of its appearance at that time (Plate I). It seems to have been formed of a detached mass of blackish rock, which is unconnected with any stratum below. By applying a ladder we mounted the back of the elephant, for the purpose of observing if any traces remained of the young elephant, said by Pyke and Anquetil to have been placed on it. The remains of its four paws, as well as the marks of the juncture of its belly with the back of a larger animal, were perfectly distinct; and the appearance it offered in the annexed drawing made by Captain Hall (Plate II), who from its present appearance conjectures that it must have been a tiger rather than a young elephant; an idea in which I feel disposed to agree … as well on account of the sprawling appearance of the animal, as because the back of the mother is a very unnatural situation for a young elephant; and because the supposition of its being a tiger would correspond much better with the popular legends of the Hindus..."

Erskine, William. 'Account of the Cave-Temple of Elephanta, with a Plan and Drawings of the Principal Figures'. Transactions of the Bombay Literary Society. pp. 198-250 [see: pp.207-208].

A second point of interest in the engraving by Wales appears in the centre of the picture where there is a mixed group of European visitors and a large company of Indian servants. A military officer in a red jacket, accompanied by a European woman and a small child are walking towards the Caves, sheltering from the sun under a large parasol held over them by an Indian attendant. The possibility has been raised by Dorothea Hysing [2002] that these figures are in fact Major-General Peter Anker (1744-1832), the Danish governor of Tranquebar, accompanied by his companion, the British widow Mrs Mallard and her son. Anker remained at this post from 1788 until 1805. The engraving may have been produced by Wales as a tribute to their relationship. Mrs. Mallard died in May 1791 two months prior to the arrival of Wales in Bombay; however Hysing speculates that Wales may have known Mrs. Mallard in London and/or alternatively Anker during the time when he was the Danish Consul-General for Britain [1783-1786]. (See: p.88) Wales and his wife and children had moved to London by 1783, where he is known to have exhibited two portraits at the Society of Artists.

Behind the trio of Europeans can be seen two palanquins whose bearers are standing and squatting on the ground, relaxing from their recent labours. Near the shoreline a boat has recently disembarked more visitors. They can be seen walking along a rocky promontory, assisted by local Indians who carry various chairs and accoutrements for their outing to Elephanta. As with the other views by Wales the scene is punctuated in the foreground and middle distance by an assortment of native vegetation and coconut palms. Wales wrote that this image was: "Taken from the Landing-Place of this celebrated Island, exhibiting the colossal statue of the Elephant whence it is named, including the little island of Butcher on the right." The rock-cut temples dating to some 6th century AD on this island are dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva in the form of Mahadeva.

Macquarie Connection
Macquarie visited the island of Elephanta on 9 October 1790, ten months prior to Wales' arrival in India, though it is unclear whether this was his first visit to the island:

Saturday. I spent a very pleasant Day on an Excursion to Elephanta Caves, along with Col. Balfour and some other Brother Officers.

Source:
Twelve Views of Bombay and its Vicinity. London: R. Cribb, 1800.

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