186 Description of Ancient Temples and [April, 



the Bhairavi to the Brahmaputra. The inhahitants assert, these hills 

 were originally called Agnighar or Agnigarh, the place or fort of fire, 

 from their constantly sending forth flames, or, as others affirm, from 

 a raja named Banh having made a fort on the spot of fire : they add, 

 that Krishna mounted on his garura (a creature half-bird half-man, 

 corresponding with the eagle of the Grecian Jupiter,) brought hither a 

 supply of water and quenched the fires, and that in commemoration of 

 the event the name of the hills was changed to Pord, which in the dia- 

 lect of Assam signifies ' the burnt,' a name they still retain. 1 thought 

 it possible this obscure tradition might be connected in some way with 

 the existence at a former period of volcanos, but after an active scru- 

 tiny of the spot no traces of subterranean fire were discovered to bear 

 out the supposition. I had taken up my abode temporarily in the 

 neighbourhood, when I accidentally learnt there were some gigantic 

 ruins to be seen in the wilds, respecting which the natives could fur- 

 nish no satisfactory information : on proceeding in the direction in- 

 dicated, I found it impracticable to conduct the search from the density 

 of the jungle, which consisted of lofty trees entwined with parasitical 

 plants, and reed-grass upwards of twenty feet high swarming with 

 wild animals ; these obstacles were partly removed with the assistance 

 of some peasants, and opened to view many interesting remains of an- 

 tiquity which amply recompensed me for the trouble I had taken. 



The first temple I examined appeared to have faced the north, and 

 to have been provided with a portico supported on three columns of 

 sixteen sides ; each shaft, not including the plinth and pedestal which 

 stand four feet above the ground, measured eight feet high and five 

 and a half in girth, and was wrought from a single block of fine granite. 

 The shafts have sculptured capitals, while the surbases take the form 

 of an octagon, and the plinths are circular at top, and spread into 

 four feet, making a sort of cross that measured four and three quarters 

 feet each way. Three gigantic stones, with the fragments of a fourth, 

 each hewn from a single block fourteen feet long, and cut into five irre- 

 gular sides of which the total showed a circumference of eight feet, 

 seem to have formed the entablature of the entrance porch, which I 

 judged to have been fifty-six feet long. The frieze has three tiers of 

 carving in basso relievo representing scrolls of flowers ; the aper- 

 tures in which iron rivets were introduced can be distinctly traced, and 

 it is evident that no cement was employed to unite the materials. The 

 other members were too much shattered and dispersed to enable me 

 to conjecture the form of the temple ; from a great portion of the sur- 

 rounding works being in an unfinished state, it affords the presumption 

 that the architect must have met some unlooked-for interruption ; and 



