AND RUINS AT MAVALIPURAM. 153 



that they have been divided by it. Nor is it reafon- 

 able to fuppofe that fuch a work would ever have been 

 defigned, or begun, upon a rock that had previoufly 

 been rent in two. 



Nothing lefs than an earthquake, and that a violent 

 one, could apparently have produced fuch a fiffure in 

 the foiid rock; and that this has been the cafe in point 

 of fa 61, may be gathered from other circumftances, 

 which it is neceffary to mention in an account of this 

 curious place. 



The great rock above defcribed, is at fome fmall dis- 

 tance from the fea, perhaps fifty or an hundred yards, 

 and in that fpace the Hindoo village before mentioned 

 flood in 1776. But clofe to the fea are the remains of 

 a Pagoda, built of brick, and dedicated to Sib, the 

 greateft part of which has evidently been fwallowed up 

 by that element : for the door of the innermoft apart- 

 ment, in which the idol is placed, and before which 

 there are always two or three fpacious courts furround- 

 ed with walls, is now wafhed by the waves; and the 

 pillar ufed to difcover the meridian at the time of 

 founding the Pagoda*, is feen (landing at fome diftance 

 in the fea. In the neighbourhood of this building 

 there are fome detached rocks, wafhed alfo by the 

 waves, on which there appear fculptures, though now 

 much worn and defaced. And the natives of the place 

 declared to the writer of this account, that the more 

 aged people among them remembered to have feen the 

 tops of feveral pagodas far out in the fea, which being 

 covered with copper, (probably gilt,) were particularly 

 vifible at fun-rife, as their fhining furface ufed then to 

 refle6l ihe fun's rays; but that now that effe6l was no 

 longer produced, as the copper had fince become in- 

 crulled with mould and verdigreafe. 



Vol. I. N Thefe 



* See Voyage du M. Gentil, Vol, I. page 158. 



