AN ACCOUNT OF THE SCULPTURES, &C. 145 



V. 



SOME ACCOUNT 



OF THE 



SCULPTURES AND RUINS 



AT MAVALIPURAM, 



A Place a few Miles North of Sadras, and known to Seamen $■ 

 t/ie Nome of the Seven Pagodas. 



By WILLIAM CHAMBERS, Esq. 



AS amidft inquiries after the hiftories and antiquities 

 of Afia at large, thofe of that divifion of it in which 

 this Society refides, may feem on many accounts to lay 

 claim to a particular fhare of its attention, a few hints 

 put down from recollection, concerning fome mow- 

 ments of Hindoo antiquity, which, though fituated in tfee 

 neighbourhood of European fettlements on the Chord- 

 mandel coaft, have hitherto been little obferved, may, h 

 is conceived, be acceptable, at leaft as they may poffibiy 

 give rife hereafter to more accurate obfervations, aod 

 more complete dilcoveries on the fame fubjecL Tihe 

 writer of this account went firft to view them in tlae 

 year 1772, and curiofity led him thither again in liiS; 

 but as he neither meafured the diftances nor fize of the 

 objecls, nor committed to writing at the time, the ob- 

 fervations he made on them, he hopes to beexcufed if 

 after the lapfe of fo many years, his recolleclion mould 

 fail him in fome refpecis, and his account fall far /hort 

 of that precjhon and exaftnefs, which might have been 

 expe&ed, had there then exifted in Indiajo powerful an 

 incentive to diligent enquiry, and accurate communica- 

 tion, as the eflablifhment of this Society muft now prove. 



The 



