THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 115 



southern portion of the Madras Presidency. The language 

 of this people was the Tamil and it is believed to have 

 been an original tongue not derived from Brahmanical 

 sources or affected by the Aryans ; everything connected 

 with the Dravidians is involved in mystery and yet facts 

 enough are known to make a study of them, especially of 

 their art, most interesting. 



A Dravidian temple embraces such an area in space and 

 includes so many colleges and various other buildings that 

 a visit to one of the larger temples is equal to a visit to a 

 small town. Jn some temples twenty thousand people be- 

 long to the service in one capacity and another, from the 

 priest down to the grooms and elephant keepers. The 

 treasures of the temple are large and their revenues enor- 

 mous. The Orloff diamond now in the sceptre of Russia 

 was once an eye of the golden Vishnu at Seringham and was 

 stolen by a French deserter when the soldiers used the 

 temple as barracks a century and a half ago; many thou- 

 sands of pilgrims visit these shrines every year and the fes- 

 tivals are attended in great numbers. The most unusual 

 feature of the lecture which was a description of this ar- 

 chitecture, so unlike any other in its form and decoration, 

 cannot be explained without pictures such as were shown 

 by the lecturer; and even then a knowledge of the tech- 

 nical terms is needful for a clear understanding of them. 



The Hindu religion is credited with many sects, but es- 

 sentially all Hindus are Salvites or Vishnuites and both 

 these sects are largely represented in Southern India. The 

 temples are the same in their arrangement and only an ex- 

 amination of the symbols and idols reveals the sect to which 

 each belongs ; in fact some temples are decorated with the 

 emblems of two deities in different portions which indi- 

 cate that at sonic time there was great harmony among the 



