421) 



THE CHOULTRY. 



Chap. XXY. 



Who, without wife or family, as a hermit performed austerities ; 

 Who, appointing loving sages to succeed him, 

 Departed again into Heaven : — worship Him." ^ 



We left the pagoda by a corridor leading tlu'ougli one 

 of the gofurams into the street, immediately in front of the 

 great choultry erected by Tirumalla Naik. It consists of an 

 immense hall of granite, 300 feet long by 80, supported by 

 upwards of a hundred pillars of the same stone, elaborately 

 carved, and about thirty feet high. One of them is foi*med 

 of a single block of granite. Figures of the Madura kings 

 of the Naik dynasty are carved on these pillars, amongst 

 whom is Tirumalla Naik, the fomider of the edifice. One 

 curious group of carved figures represents a tradition of the 

 old Pandyan times. It is related that a rich farmer, living 

 near Madura, had twelve sons, who passed their time in the 

 chace. A wild hog once attacked them, killed some, and 

 chased the rest to the vicinity of a sage engaged in medita- 

 tion. The angry ascetic cursed them, declaring that, in 

 their future life, they should be hogs themselves. They were 

 born again as porkers, but Minakshi took pity on them, 

 officiated as their nurse, and they became men with jjig's 

 heads, in which capacity they are sculptured on one of the 

 pillars of the choultry. The pig-headed brethren were 

 taught the arts and sciences, and were eventually advanced 

 to the ministerial administration of the affairs of the Pandyan 

 kingdom. The choultry was originally built as a magnifi- 

 cent approach to the temple, and to receive the image of the 

 God Siva for ten days every year. It was crowded with 

 people, and the spaces between the pillars were occupied by 

 traders selling silks and cotton-cloths, tm-bans, bags for betel, 

 and trinkets. 



^ Mr. Caldwell considers that these 

 lines do not allude to any of the 

 avaturs of the Hindu Deities, but 



that they are borrowed, in some un- 

 explained way, from Christianity. 



