1846.] from Pennaur to Pondicherry . 209 



surface. The surrounding country is generally rocky and jungly. Rice, 

 raggi, kovaloo, and bajra are the staple articles of cultivation. 



With the exception of two or three families of Palicars and Brahmins, 

 speaking Telinghi, the inhabitants are chiefly of the Pallaywar caste, 

 and speak Tamul : there are still a few Mussulmen left here. The 

 town is situated a little south of the tank bund, at the western base 

 of the rocks, and is said to contain about 600 houses. 



The remains of the fort stand on a steep rock, overlooking the town, 

 about 300 feet high, and not commanded by any of the surrounding 

 heights. Like Carangooly and Chingleput, it became of importance as a 

 military post during hostilities with the French. In 1760 it was taken 

 after a severe assault by Sir Eyre Coote, who was wounded here ; 

 besieged by Hyder in 1781 but not taken, and again in combination with 

 the French in 1782, to whom it was compelled to capitulate on the 6th 

 May. 



It was subsequently blown up and dismantled : but in the succeeding 

 war with Tippoo, it was held as a post of observation by a company 

 under an officer, which was cut off by Tippoo in 1791. 



Murtandi Choultry. — This place is situated on the celebrated Red hills 

 which run to the rear of Pondicherry, from which it is about four and a 

 half miles NNE. These beds of sandstone, which extend probably 

 farther to the NE. will be described more fully when speaking of Pon- 

 dicherry. They overlie the Neocomien limestone beds, which are seen 

 outcropping nearer the sea to the NE. in the vicinity of Conjimere, 

 about ten miles north from Pondicherry, on the Madras along shore 

 road, &c. which passes by Sadras and the seven Pagodas — the ruins of 

 Mahabalipuram, or Mavellipuram, as it is called by natives. These ruins 

 lie among a cluster of low rocks which project from a sandy spit run- 

 ning down the coast from Covelong to Hedoor, a distance of about 

 sixteen miles in breadth. It varies from half a mile to one and a quarter 

 of a mile. In front, dashes the everlasting surf; in rear lies a salt marsh 

 of upwards of a mile broad in some parts, and communicating with the 

 sea on the south and north extremities of the sand bank in its front, by 

 two narrow openings. The principal sculptured rocks lie about two 

 and three-quarter miles from the south extremity of the bank, almost 

 abreast, but a little south of, the Chingleput hills already described. 

 In the monsoon they are insulated from the main-land by the inundation 

 of the salt marsh in their rear. 



