62 



AFOOT THROUGH THE 



Nothing appealed to me or touched me save the 

 extraordinary beauty of those grey walls rising some 

 forty feet, with sculptured surfaces and delicately 

 ornamented pediments and pointed arches, and the 

 grand entrance turned fittingly to the west that the 

 setting sun might send its last rays over the temple 

 dedicated to its worship to Vishnu, as the sun god. 



The iconoclastic fury of the emperor who attempted 

 the destruction of Martand strikes with consternation, 



Grand entrance turned to the west 



but who can say whether, in the full glory of its com- 

 plete beauty, it was as wonderful, as touching, as at 

 the present day, when the nobility of its proportions 

 and the grand style of the buildings are infinitely 

 moving by reason of the humbleness and petty squalor 

 of its surroundings, for brambles and wild roses 

 encumber its courts and entangle the broken stone- 

 work. Its columns are entwined with ragged creepers, 

 the inner shrine receives no offerings save rank nettles, 

 wild roses throw rugged tendrils about the fallen 



