1845.] across the Peninsula of Southern India. 519 



spaces left between great superimposed masses of rock, and not, as in 

 limestone, laterite, &c, galleries, or caverns in the substance of the rock 

 itself. 



The rock temple to Rungasami is in a low, dark cavern, formed partly 

 by a fissure, and partly by artificial means. 



The marks of the chisel in the granite quarries whence was excavated 

 the material for constructing the great monolith statues, the temples, 

 palaces, walls and aqueducts of this once magnificent city, are as fresh 

 as if only of yesterday. Those in the blocks quarried from Syene in 

 upper Egypt are almost equally as recent looking ; a phenomenon attri- 

 butable, in part, to the great dryness of the atmosphere. 



About a mile easterly from Nimbapur, a small hamlet in the suburb 

 of Bijanugger, lies an oval-shaped heap of calcareous scoria, about forty- 

 five yards long by about eighteen broad, and from ten to fourteen feet 

 high, partially covered by grass and other vegetation. It is evidently 

 artificial, and of considerable antiquity. The Brahmins aver it to be the 

 ashes of the bones of the Giant Walli, or Bali, an impious tyrant slain 

 here by Rama on his expedition to Lanka (Ceylon*.) 



After passing a week in these interesting ruins, engaged in having the 

 inscriptions on stone copied, rambling among its deserted temples and 

 collecting the marvellous legends of the few priests that now linger on 

 the principal sacred spots, I proceeded along the western flank of the 

 Sondur hills, on the right bank of the Tumbuddra, towards the ferry into 

 the S. Mahratta country at Humpsagur. With regard to the inscrip- 

 tions it may be remarked, en passant, that the greater part are in the old 

 Canarese character, (but the language is often Sanscrit,) and chiefly 

 dated in the 14th and 15th centuries. One of them is curious, as showing 

 that the bridge over the Tumbuddra was constructed by the Hindu 

 prince Ramnatha, prior to the Bay el Dynasty of Bijanugger ; this is in 

 Nagri character, on a stone at the foot of the mountain on which 

 Hanuman is said to have been born, date A. S. 121 1. 



Hospett. Hospett lies about five miles W.S.W. from Bijanugger, near 

 the point where the two ranges enclosing the valley of Sondur end, and 



* For an account of these heaps of ashes, vide Journal Royal As. Soc. No. XIII. 

 p. T29, &c. 



4 B 



