Puslapio vaizdai
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THE ROCK-TEMPLES OF MAVALIPURAM.

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PASSING Over to the Madras coast, we meet with some sculptured temples, which a glance at the accompanying engraving will at once show the reader to be among the most wonderful things he ever saw or heard of. On that coast, the first object which presents itself, is a mere rock, very near the beach, rising abruptly out of a level plain of great extent, and having at a distance the appearance of some antique lofty edifice. On coming nearer to the foot of the rock, sculptured images crowd so thick upon the eye, as almost to suggest the idea of a fortified town. Adjoining this, there is a pagoda, covered with sculptures, hewn from a single mass of rock! The top is arched like a roof, in a style of architecture different from anything now to be seen in these parts. Opposite, there is an excavated chamber in

THE JUVENILE COMPANION.

the rock, the roof seemingly supported by pillars, not
unlike those at Elephanta. A few paces onward is another
more spacious excavation.

The ascent of the rock, on the north, is at first, from its natural shape, gradual and easy, and is in other parts rendered more so by excellent steps. In the way up, a prodigious circular stone is passed under, twenty-seven feet in diameter, so placed by nature on a smooth and sloping surface, that you are in dread of its crushing you before you clear it. The top of the rock is strewed with bricks, the remains, as you are informed, of an ancient palace. A large polished slab, having two or three steps up to it, and a lion couchant at the upper end of it, is shown as the couch of Dherma Rajah. A short way further is a reservoir, excavated from the rock, with steps inside, which is called the bath of his queen Draputty. Descending thence, over the immense beds of stone, you arrive at a spacious excavated temple, filled with huge sculptures. The stone of which they are formed is a species of granite, extremely hard.

On the beach, the surf, according to the local tradition, rolls and roars over the submerged city of the Great Bali. "There are really (says Bishop Heber) some small remains of architecture, which rise from amid the waves, and give a proof that the sea has encroached on the land. There are also many rocks rising through the white breakers, which the fancy of the Brahmins points out as ruins; and the noise of the surf, the dark shadow of the remaining building, the narrow slip of dark smooth sand, the sky just reddening into dawn, and lending its tints to the sea, together with the remarkable desolation of the surrounding scenery,-were well calculated to make one remember with interest the description in Kahama, and to fancy that one saw the beautiful form of Kailyal, in her white mantle, pacing sadly along the shore, and watching till her father and her lover should emerge from the breakers."

About a mile to the southward of the hills, are two other Pagodas cut out of the rock. One of them is about

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forty feet in height, and is covered with sculptures and inscriptions in an ancient unknown character. The other has a rent through the middle, from the top to the bottom, apparently caused by an earthquake. Here also is the lion, very large and well executed; and near it, an elephant of stone, about nine feet in height. Some of the sculptures are unfinished; and this, with the rent just referred to, and the submerged ruins, seem to favour the idea that the work was interrupted by some violent convulsion. Of the high antiquity of these temples, there seems no reason to doubt. Several copper-plates have been dug up, dated above a thousand years ago, and which refer to these sculptured rocks as, at the time, of unknown origin!

The rock-temples of Adjunta, Baug, and Worne, are also deserving of notice; but it is impossible to describe the hundreds of such ancient marvels which are to be found in all parts of India.

THE PALMYRA OF THE DECCAN.

THIS is the name given by Sir James Mackintosh to the ruins of Bejapoor. To trace the limits of this city, we are told, would be a day's work, so immense is the mass of ruins; but, from the innumerable tombs, mosques, and edifices of every description which it exhibits, it must have been one of the greatest cities in India. As the traveller approaches it from the north, the great dome of Mahomet Shah's tomb is discerned from the village Kunnor, fourteen miles distant. A nearer view gives the idea of a splendid and populous metropolis, from the innumerable domes and spires which meet the eye; and though the road up to the wall leads through ruins, the illusion of a tolerably well-inhabited capital is still preserved by the state of the walls, the guns mounted on the works, and the guards stationed at the gates. On entering the illusion vanishes, and the most melancholy contrast is exhibited between the number and admirable state of repair of the buildings to the memory of the dead, and the total destruction of those

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