1848.] 



Calwa a?2d Mahanandi. 



161 



less, odourless, and about four feet in depth. It abounds with fish 

 held sacred by the brahmins. The surplus water of these thermal 

 springs falls into a rivulet, which, taking its rise about 4 koss farther 

 among the hills at Pendacull Yejaru, runs along the bottom of the 

 glen from the higher part of which a cahva or aqueduct conveys 

 the water to the lands around the village, whence its name. The 

 temperature of this rivulet above the thermal springs is 82*^, tempe- 

 rature of air in shade 78°. 



Around the orifices through which the 1st and 2d springs escape 

 are thick beds of calcareous tufa, deposited probably by the water of 

 the springs. The surrounding formation is the blue limestone, as- 

 sociated with the diamond sandstone, which caps the former at no 

 great distance from the springs, and in which I counted more than 40 

 old diamond pits. The glen itself, from the examination of its sides, 

 appears to have originated in a fault in the limestone, which affords a 

 vent to the subterranean waters which are perennial. 



The Bhiiga of Mahanandi. 

 Lat. N. 14^ 56^ and Long. E. 78° 16/ 



These large, thermal, and perennial springs gush from the western 

 base of the Nulla Mulla Hills which separate the Kurnul territory 

 from that of Cuddapah. The brahmins, ever vigilant to convert 

 any extraordinary phenomenon of nature to their own ambitious po- 

 licy of swaying the minds of the ignorant and superstitious mass, 

 have for ages past appropriated this sequestered spot in the recesses 

 of a jungle infested by tigers, and enclosed the springs within the 

 walls of a massive stone temple consecrated to the great bull Maha- 

 nandi, and to the phallitic emblem of creative power the lingum. 



The nearest village is that of Gazupilly which lies about two koss 

 in a southerly direction. Hence the road to the springs is a mere 

 foot path through a succession of woodland belts increasing in den- 

 sity as the hills are approached. 



The temple enclosing the springs stands in a dense jungle at the 

 base of an outlier of the range also thickly wooded. Within its 

 outer wall is a spacious quadrangle, in the centre of which, and im- 

 mediately in front of the Vimana and principal shrine, lies a nearly 

 square tank of lustration — revetted with stone, and having a small 

 open temple (Mandop) in the centre, covering several small phalli 

 placed on its stone base. 



VOL. XV. NO. XXXI r. ^ 



