OR CUTTACK. 307 



or fifty of these stone towers. The natives say that there were originally more 

 than seven thousand places of worship consecrated to Mahadeo, within and 

 around the city of Bhobaneser, containing no less than a crore of lingams, 

 and the vestiges that remain, fully warrant a belief, that the place may have 

 comprized some hundreds of buildings of this description, when in its most 

 flourishing state. A considerable number of the temples are still in a toler- 

 able state of preservation, though entirely neglected and deserted- Many 

 mor^ are now screened from the view by the luxuriant foliage of the sur- 

 rounding jungles, or present merely shapeless masses of stone buried amidst 

 tangled brushwood and rank vegetation. 



Nor is the astonishing number of the Bhobaneser temples the only re- 

 markable feature of the place. The style, size, and decoration of these 

 singular buildings, add greatly to the wonder and interest of the scene. 

 They are all constructed, either of reddish granite resembling sandstone, or 

 else of the free stone yielded plentifully by the neighbouring hills, in the 

 form of towers rounded towards the summit, with other edifices attached 

 - rising from a square enclosure, the wall encompassing which is now ge- 

 nerally in ruins. Their height is never less than fifty or sixty feet, and the 

 loftier towers reach to an elevation of from one hundred and fifty, to one 

 hundred and eighty feet. ISot a wooden beam it may be observed has been 

 used throughout, The stones are held together with iron clamps. Iron 

 beams and pillars are used where such aids could not be dispensed with, 

 but in general the architects have resorted, in the construction of their roofs, 

 to the method of laying horizontal layers of stone, projecting one beyond 

 the other like inverted steps, until the sides approach sufficiently near at 

 the summit to admit of other blocks being placed across, The exterior 

 surface of the buildings is in general adorned with the richest and most 

 elaborate sculptured ornament, and the ruined courts which surround 

 them, are strewed with a vast variety of curious relics, as bulls, lingams and 



other symbols appropriate to the worship of Mahadeo, representations of 



M in 2 



