ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 105 



found here and there. Foremost among these are a few carved slabs 

 derived from the old Buddhist " Tope" at Amravati. The materials these 

 slabs are carved out of is Palnad limestone, a sub-crystalline or crystal- 

 line rock of the age of the Karnul limestones, and therefore strictly 

 speaking not belonging to this area. 



Carved fragments of the red Tangelamudi sandstone, derived from 



some Jain temple, are to be seen in Kondavidu 

 Kondavidu. 



Drug, built into the walls of the north-eastern 



gate, and contrasting strongly with the remainder of the gneiss-built 



walls. The sandstone, some pieces of which bear inscriptions, has worn 



well, and shows but little weather action. 



Two gems of carved and polished stonework are to be seen at Amin- 



, . , , bodu, north of Kondavidu, and 10 miles west 



Aminbodu. 



of Guntur. Both are small temples of Jain 

 origin ; the northern of the two has once upon a time been converted into 

 a Mussulman building by the construction of mauresque arches of rough 

 stone between the round and highly polished stone pillars. The other 

 is a low Hindu temple standing imposingly on a bold mass of granite 

 gneiss. The southern doorway is surmounted by a very elegantly carved 

 portico, while to the east another very elegant portico shelters a 

 recessed shrine beautifully cut out of dark green stone, a true diorite 

 apparently, to which a very high polish has been given. The pillars in 

 the smaller temple appear to be of the same stone, and are equally meri- 

 torious specimens of stone-cutting and polishing. 



The only special branch of industry connected with stone that is now 

 Stone cart-wheel in- pursued in the Nellore-Kistna country, is the 

 dustry ' manufacture of stone wheels for agricultural carts 



of different sorts and shapes. This industry is followed at several 

 villages near the boundary of the schistose area, east of the Podile 

 hill. 



The stone used for this, to European ideas so singular form of industry, 

 is all quarried in the Kuchupudi (Koochoopoody) hill, or Andrakonda, a 

 bold precipitous mass of granite gneiss, 800 to 900 feet high, lying 3 

 h ( 105 ) 



