106 POOTE : SOUTH MAHRATTA COUNTEY. 



as that of the Gudur and Hanamsagar outlying plateaux. This plateau 



is connected with the Kaladgi basin by a narrow strip branching from 



its north-western extremity^ and crossing the bed of the Malprabha close 



to the village of Aiholi (IwuUee), famous for the 



Jaiu temples of Aiholi. -r^ i t • j i ^-n 



very numerous and beautiful Jam temples still 



remaining there. These temples^ which are built of sandstone and quartz- 

 ite-sandstone quarried in the adjacent hills, show how admirably many 

 of these building stones are suited even for highly decorative purposes. 

 The surface of the granitoid gneiss on which the beds forming these 

 different plateaux were deposited was a highly irregular one. This may 

 be well seen in the picturesque valley running from Goodoor south- 

 south-east to Murudi (Mooroodi) , f or the sandstone 

 Gudur-Murudi valley. 



plateau, while maintaining a very even upper level, 



shows in the scarped edges very variable thickness, and many of the 

 upper beds are seen to overlap the lower ones and to rest in part directly 

 on the gneiss. Thus the basement beds at Murudi and Ganuduhal form 

 the middle of the series exposed on the north side of the plateau. 



Turning westward and recrossing the Malprabha, a remarkable plateau 



of quartzite sandstones and gritty beds is reached 

 Badami plateau. TP-r.,i/-mi 



to the eastward or Badami. These beds may b^ 

 best studied at Badami itself in the two fortified hills rising north 

 and south of the town, which, as already mentioned, occupies one of 

 the few spots in the South Mahratta country east of the ghat region 

 which deserve to be called beautiful. It occupies the mouth of a horse- 

 shoe bay in the hills, the space behind the town and the surrounding cliffs 

 being taken up by a deep tank and a not very wide talus sloping to the 

 water's edge. The cliffs are chiefly formed of pale buffy thick -bedded 

 quartzite-sandstone with purple laminse stained red externally in many 

 places. The beds dip westward at a low angle, and parts of them seem 

 to have slid westward a few feet towards the plain, being separated from 

 the main mass by great joints which now form deep chasms severing 

 different parts of the hill completely from the rest. If the chasms were 

 ( 106 ) 



