Non-existence of supposed Submerged Citj/. 459 



stance, that there are, upon the very brink of the ocean, seven 

 temples hewn out of one piece of rock. The Brahminical 

 legends speak of an entire city having existed here, of which 

 only the fragments are now washed by the sea. But, according 

 to Babington's and Heber's minute researches in this neigh- 

 bourhood,* there seems no doubt that there never existed any 

 large city here, but that the whole was a mere myth of the 

 Brahmins, who procured a royal gift, an Agrabaram in this 

 neighbourhood, and with subtle forethought left here a caste 

 of stone-cutters, who from time to time, under the guidance of 

 their priests, executed these sculptures for the adornment of 

 their sanctuary, which are justly the objects of wonder to their 

 descendants. To this day, even, there dwell here certain 

 families of stone-cutters, who work these singular rocks as 

 granite quarries, and make money by the trade. The Seven 

 Pagodas, specially so-called, are monolith temples, hewn on 

 the spot out of massive blocks of rock. The mountain itself, 

 a huge block of granite, to which the entire locahty owes its 

 reputation as a site of works of art, is covered, behind as well 

 as in the front slope, with innumerable figures. 



After our arrival, we made a hasty circuit through the place, 

 so as first of all to be able to indentify them, and be in a 

 position to recognize the various sculptures and bas-reliefs cut 

 out in the solid granite rock. The greater number of the 



* Benjamin Guy Babington. An Account of the Sculptures and Inscriptions of 

 Maliamalaipuram, illustrated by Plates I.-XVIII., in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society of Great Britain, London, 1819, p. 258. Bishop Heber's NaiTative, 

 London, 1828, Vol. III., p. 218. 



