1880.'] B. Jl. Bi'smOl—Bcscrijilion of tltc Great Sim Templo. 3 



and style, but never completed : for it is broken down or left ofl: rather 

 abruptly, and finished by a plain large ball, completely enclosed by its 

 four walls and flat roof, only half the height originally designed. 



It measures 80 feet wide. North and South, and 163 feet long, West 

 to East, with a plain doorway in the middle of the east end, having huge 

 stone warders {divdrapdl), but otherwise devoid of any fine ornamenta- 

 tion. It is 18 or 20 feet in height, and the roof is supported by four 

 rows of plain stone pillars. 



There is a large uncovered and incomplete portico in front (East) of 

 the Veli-mandapam, aj^proached by a double flight of steps from North 

 and South and 10 or 12 feet above ground level, which is the level of the 

 interior of the mandap and temple. 



The court-yard of the temple is about 610 feet East and West, by 350 

 feet North and South, with a fine gopuram or entrance tower built entirely 

 of stone (fast falling down) on the East, of grand but suitable proportions, 

 not half the heigbt of the temple itself. Usually the gdjjuram is 8 or 10 

 times as high as the temple sanctuary. 



The court-yard or quadrangle was once surrounded by a double-storied 

 open cloister of plain but solid stone work, said to have contained 365 

 cells (in tbe two stories), but only a few of these remain in the centre of 

 the north wall there is a small plain doorway. 



The surrounding wall was of stone and must have been about 25 feet 

 high. 



The sculptures round the base of the temple are very good in design 

 and execution. 



The architecture struck me as grand, simple and pure, with many 

 traces of the wooden construction of which it is, in many respects, a copy ; 

 especially in the projecting beam-heads at the angles, each of which is 

 surmounted by a rude lump roughly resembling a flattened spiral (concli-) 

 shell, perhaps intended for the salagram (black ammonite or serpent-stone) ■ 

 only this is a Saiva temple. 



I did not notice the Naga, but saw traces of trees with umbrellas 

 over them. 



The (proper) right hand Dwarapal has the right foot raised and 

 resting on a stump (of a tree), encircled by a serpent with a half -swallowed 

 elephant in its mouth, at all three doorways alike. 



The projecting stone cornice of single convex flexure is massive, but 

 does not stand out so far as in many more modern cases I have noticed 

 elsewhere, but is, I should say, more free and prominent than some to be 

 seen at Cliidambaram. 



I did not see the imitation of wooden rafters and laths, with nail 

 heads &c., to be seen at Tinnevelly, 



