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IV. 



SOME ACCOUNT CF THE 



Sculptures at Mahabalipoorum; 

 Ufually called the Seven Pagodas. 



By J. GOLDINGHAM, Efq. 



THESE curious remains of antiquity, fituate near 

 the fea, are about thirty-eight Englifh miles 

 foutherly from Madras. A dillant view prefents 

 merely a rock, which, on a near approach, is found 

 deferving of particular examination. The attention 

 pairing over the fmaller objects, is fir ft arretted by a 

 Hindu pagoda, covered with fculpture, and hewn from 

 a fingle mafs of rock; being about twenty- fix feet in 

 height, nearly as long, and about half as broad. 

 Within is the lingam, and a long infcription on the 

 wall, in characters unknown. 



Near this ftruclure, the furface of the rock, about 

 ninety feet in extent, and thirty in height, is covered 

 with figures in bas-relief. A gigantic figure of the 

 god Crishna is the moft confpicuous, with A r toon, 

 his favourite, in the Hindu attitude of prayer; but fo 

 void of flefh, as to prefent more the appearance of a 

 fkeleton than the reprefentation of a living Derfon. 

 Below is a venerable figure, faid to be the father of 

 Arjoon; both figures proving the fculptor poilelTed 

 no inconfiderable fkill. Here are the reprefentations 

 of feveral animals, and of one which the Brahmens 

 name fingam, or lion; but by no means a likenefs 

 of that animal, wanting the peculiar cha racier iftick, 



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