192 Description of Ancient Temples and [April, 



and through the treachery of a drummer of the garrison, who gave 

 notice of a fitting time for attack, he surprised a part of the works 

 that were imperfectly defended, made himself master of the fortress, 

 and beheading Ra'machandra returned in triumph to Badyagarh. 



Some discrepancies are here apparent in two MSS. I consulted ; one 

 account states A'rimath slew Phenua, while another maintains that 

 Phenua usurped the throne of A'rimath on the death of the latter, 

 and abode in Phenuagarh. Gajank, the son of A'rimath, succeeded 

 Phenua, and made his residence near Pratapptir, in the vicinity of 

 Agnigarh, and it is provoking that from this time no further men- 

 tion is made of the place. I shall merely add, that the last named 

 prince was followed by his son Sukrank, who died without issue A. S. 

 1400, (A. D. 1478-9,) when the dynasty of Jitari became extinct. 



The destruction of the temples at Pora is ascribed by some to an 

 apostate brahman of Kanoj, called Pora Suthan, or Ka'lapahar, 

 who was compelled to embrace Muhammedanism, and at whose 

 door the Chardwarians and others in Assam lay all the sacrilege and 

 mischief that has been consummated in the province. From their 

 massive proportions, and the carving and ornaments being so much 

 worn by time and exposure, the fanes are evidently the work of a 

 remote era ; I sought in vain for an inscription, and neither the priests 

 of the district, nor the ancient families whom I consulted, could assist 

 my researches, or point with an approximation to accuracy, to the date 

 of their origin. 



Unconnected with the first temple, and retired some yards deeper in 

 the wood, or rather grove of trees, which was in likelihood planted by 

 the priests who ministered at the temples, I found the ruins of six or 

 seven other enormous structures of granite, broken into thousands of 

 fragments, and dispersed over the ground in the same extraordinary 

 manner as those already described. Altars of gigantic proportions 

 were among the most remarkable objects : one of these measuring 

 upwards of six feet each way, and eighteen inches thick, was elevated 

 from seven to eight feet above the level of the plain, and approached 

 on each side by layers of stone disposed in the nature of steps. It 

 was hewn from a single block of granite ; underneath was a sort of 

 cavern : the top had holes for iron links, and a receptacle to receive 

 flowers and water to bedew the Nandi or sacred bull of Siva, who was 

 placed, my informants imagined, on the brink of the reservoir. Six 

 or eight other altars, one of them making a square of forty-six feet, and 

 eighteen inches thick, are to be seen in other parts of the ruins, and 

 several square blocks, each measuring from twenty to thirty feet, con- 

 cave in the centre, and sculptured in imitation of circlets of flowers, 



