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advantage in their close situation ; those on the banks of the Ganges 

 have greatly the advantage, and seen from the river make a good 

 appearance. 



Tlie three principal pagodas are sacred to Andepora, Gunga, 

 and Vississore. These owe their celebrity more to their reputed 

 sanctity, and the immense concourse of pilgrims from all parts of 

 Hindostan, than to any superiority in architecture or sculpture. 

 They are small, heavy, and confusedly crowded with ornaments ill 

 executed, excepting the figure of Sureje, the Sun, seated on a car 

 drawn by a horse with seven heads, driven by a furious charioteer. 

 It is to be remarked, that most probably these are allegorical re- 

 presentations of the days of the week ; and Sir Charles Malet 

 thinks die months, hours, and other component parts of the desig- 

 nation or division of time are introduced into this piece of curious 

 sculpture. Near these temples I was disgusted with seeing fifty or 

 sixty of those naked mendicants, employed in rolling small balls of 

 sacred mud, on each of which they stuck a single grain of rice, 

 and arranged them in great order along the front of the verandas, 

 for the Hindoo devotees to offer as a sacrifice to the Ganges. 



From thence we proceeded to the observatory, so renowned 

 throughout India, and the subject of much discussion in Europe. 

 We ascended by a flight of steps to an open terrace, where several 

 astronomical instruments, formed of stone, are in perfect preserva- 

 tion. The principal object is a large semicircle graduated, seem- 

 ingly intended for a dial. 



I pass over Mr. Cruso's further remarks on the observatory at 

 Benares, which so far from ascribing to remote antiquity, he did not 



