HINDOOSTAN. 67 



ties are magnificent, and adorned not only with rich offerings, but 

 with the most exquisite works in painting and sculpture which the 

 artists highest in estimation among them were capable of executing. 

 The rites and ceremonies of their worship are pompous and splen- 

 did, and the performance of them not only mingles in all the transac- 

 tions of common life, but constitutes an essential part of them. The 

 Brahmins, who, as ministers of religion, preside in all its functions, 

 are elevated above every other order of men, by an origin deemed not. 

 only more noble, but acknowledged to be sacred. They have esta- 

 blished among themselves a regular hierarchy and gradation of ranks, 

 which, by securing subordination in their own order, adds weight to 

 their authority, and gives them a more absolute dominion in the 

 minds of the people. This dominion they support by the command of 

 the immense revenues with which the liberality of princes, and the 

 zeal of pilgrims and devotees, have enriched them. 



The temples or pagodas of the Gentoos are stupendous but dis- 

 gustful stone buildings, erected in every capital, and under the di- 

 rection of the Brahmins. To this, however, there are some excep- 

 tions : for, in proportion to the progress of the different countries of 

 India in opulence and refinement, the structure of their temples gra- 

 dually improved. From plain buildings they became highly ornament- 

 ed fabrics, and, both by their extent and magnificence, are monuments 

 of the power and taste of the people by whom they were erected. In 

 this highly finished style there are pagodas of great antiquity in dif- 

 ferent parts of Hindoostan, particularly in the southern provinces, 

 which are not exposed to the destructive violence of the Mahomme- 

 dan zeal. In order to assist our readers in forming a proper idea of 

 these buildings, we shall briefly describe two, of which we have the 

 most accurate accounts. The entry to the pagoda of Chillambrum, 

 near Porto Novo, on the Coromandel coast, held in high veneration 

 on account of its antiquity, is by a stately gate under a pyramid, a 

 hundred and twenty-two feet in height, built with large stones, above 

 forty feet long, and more than five feet square, and covered with plates 

 of copper, adorned with an immense variety of figures, neatly exe- 

 cuted. The whole structure extends one thousand three hundred and 

 thirty-two feet in one direction, and nine hundred and thirty-six in 

 another. Some of the ornamental parts are finished with an elegance 

 entitled to admiration. 



The pagoda of Seringham, superior in sanctity to that of Chillam- 

 brum, surpasses it as much in grandeur. This pagoda is situated 

 about a mile from the western extremity of the island of Seringham, 

 formed by the division of the great river Caveri into two channels. 

 "It is composed of seven square inclosures, one within the other, the 

 walls of which are twenty-five feet high, and four thick. These inclo- 

 sures are three hundred and fifty feet distant from one another, and 

 each has four large gates with a square tower, which are placed, one 

 in the middle of each side of the inclosures, and opposite to the four 

 cardinal points. The outward wall is nearly four miles in circum- 

 ference, and its gateway to the south is ornamented with pillars, 

 several of which are single stones thirty-three feet long, and nearly 

 five in diameter ; and those which form the roof are still larger : in 

 the inmost inclosures are the chapels. Here, as in all the other great 

 pagodas of India, the Brahmins live in a subordination which knows 

 no resistance, and slumber in. a voluptuousness which knows no 

 Want*." 



