OR CUTTACK. 335 



jas, but I can discover no ground whatever for such a territorial division, 

 Mohammed Taki Khan, the Deputy of Shujaa Khan Nazir of Bengal, held 

 his Court at Jajipur, and built a fine palace and mosque on the banks of the 

 Bytarini, early in the last century, out of the materials of some dilapidated 

 Hindu temple, the sculptured ornaments of which may be still observed in 

 many parts of the walls. His palace, again, has been in great part des- 

 troyed by the officers of the present government, to obtain materials for the 

 construction of public works in the neighbourhood. 



'The environs of Jajipur, present much to interest the curious, in its tem- 

 ples, khambas or columns in various styles, and fine remains of statuary. 

 On one of the pillars, an inscription has been discovered, which is said to 

 be of the same character exactly as that on the brow of the Khandigiri 

 cavern of Klmrda. The most eminently curious objects of the place how- 

 ever, are, the images of certain Hindu goddesses, carved in stone, which 

 I shall now more particularly describe. 



At the t>ack of a high terrace supporting the cenotaph of Syyed Bokha- 

 ra, a Musselman saint, three colossal statues of the Hindu divinities, are 

 shown. They lie with their heels uppermost, on a heap of rubbish, in pre- 

 cisely the same position apparently that they assumed, when tumbled from 

 their thrones above, by the Musselman conquerors of the province, who des- 

 troyed a celebrated temple at the spot, and further desecrated it, by erect- 

 ing on its ruins, a shrine and mosque of their own worship. The 

 images are cut in alto relievo, out of enormous blocks of the indurated 

 Mugni, or chlorite slate rock, and measure about ten feet in length. They 

 represent Kali, Varahi the female energy of Vishnu, in the Varaha or Boar 

 Avatar, and Indrani the lady of India, and though the subjects are gro- 

 tesque, the execution is distinguished by a degree of freedom, skill and pro- 

 priety, quite unusual in the works of Hindu sculptors. The first is a dis- 

 gusting, but faithful, representation of a ghastly figure, nearly a skeleton, 

 with many of the muscles and arteries exposed to view, invested with the 



