OH CUTTACK. i, 820 



Xion gate, from the colossal figures of those animals, which surmounted 

 the several side posts. The horses and elephants on the north and south, 

 have long since been precipitated from their bases, but the lions, or rather 

 griffins, still retain the attitude and position assigned to them by Abulfazl, 

 except that they are standing, instead of sitting, on the bodies of elephants, 

 and have one paw lifted in the act of striking. Fronting the Sinh gate, 

 stood the beautiful polygonal column, formed of a single shaft of black 

 basalt, which now adorns the entrance of the Puri temple. It supported, 

 at that time, the appropriate emblem of Arima, the charioteer of the sun, 

 which has since given place to Hanuman, and measures about thirty-three 

 feet in height, instead of fifty cubits. The accompanying drawing will 

 give a better idea, than the most elaborate description, cf its chaste appear- 

 ance and elegant proportions. Khambahs or columns of a similar descrip- 

 tion, though far inferior in point of style and execution, are frequently met 

 with in front of the more ancient temples of Orissa. They are well 

 known to the Hindu antiquary, under the name of "Java Stambhas or Pil- 

 lars of Victory," though what their precise use or object is, has not been, 

 explained. 



From the eastern gate of the inner enclosure, a flight of ruined steps leads 

 to the only tolerably perfect part of the building now remaining, called the 

 Jagmohan, or Antichamber of the Sanctuary. No one, certainly, can be- 

 hold the massive beams of iron and the prodigious blocks of stone used in 

 the construction of this edifice, without being struck with amazement. 

 The ground plan is a square, measuring sixty feet on a side, or, if we take in 

 the four projecting door-ways, it should rather be called a cross. The 

 walls rise to a height of sixty feet, and have in some parts the unusual 

 thickness of twenty feet. They support a noble and curiously constructed 

 pyramidal roof, the stones composing which overhang each other, in 

 the manner of inverted stairs, until they approach near enough towards 



the summit to support iron beams laid across, on which rests a prodigious 



p P 



