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XIV. Ati Account of the Sculptures and Inscriptions at Mahdmalaipur ; 

 illustrated by Plates. By Benjamin Gut Babington, ALB., F.R.S., 

 Sec.R.A.S. 



Read July 12, 1S28. 



The remains of ancient sculpture, called by Europeans the Seven 

 Pagodas, on the Coromandel Coast, thirty-five miles south of Madras, have 

 long attracted the attention of those who feel an interest in Hindu 

 Archaeology ; and, so long ago as the year I788, formed the subject of a 

 paper in the first volume of the Asiatic Researches. The author, Mr. 

 William Chambers, wrote from memory, after an interval of twelve years 

 from the period at which he had visited the scene which he described. 

 His account, unaccompanied as it was by drawings or Jac similes of the 

 inscriptions, could therefore scarcely be expected to be sufliciently minute 

 to answer any further purpose tlian that avowed by himself, of exciting- 

 public attention, and " giving rise to more accurate observations, and more 

 complete discoveries on the same subject." In the fifth volume of the 

 Asiatic Researches, published in 1798, there is a more descriptive account 

 of these temples and excavations, written by Mr. Goldingham, a gentleman 

 of well-known talent, on whose observations, as they were recorded on the 

 spot, we may with confidence rely. Mrs. Graham is indeed a later writer 

 on the subject : but her remarks are desultory, and her information im- 

 perfect, as might be expected from the opportunities presenting themselves 

 to a casual and hasty visitor. In Bishop Heber's narrative three pages are 

 devoted to a notice of Malia-Bali-poor. (Pages 216-218, vol. iii.) But 

 the author merely follows the legends of the place, and evidently aims 

 at nothing more than a record in his journal of his impressions on a 

 cursory visit. The testimony, however, which this lamented prelate 

 bears to the degree of skill displayed in these sculptures must, from his 

 acknowledged taste, be looked upon as peculiarly valuable ; and it is 

 gratifying to one who has taken much interest in them to find, that he 



