l£ Account of Mamallaipur. [No. 30. 



Lieutenant Braddock's Guide to the Sculptures , Excavatio?is 

 Sec. at Mamallaipur 



I shall commence my account of these curious sculptures 

 and ruins with a small dilapidated temple built within fifty- 

 yards of the northern termination of the hill. (No. 1.) It k 

 a rectangular building of plain hewn stone devoid of orna- 

 ment : 24 feet long, 15 feet broad and about 1% feet high. 

 It has two apartments, the innermost of which contains a 

 black stone Ling am, neatly executed and in good preserva- 

 tion, notwithstanding that from the absence of roofing it is 

 exposed to the weather. This temple is completely over- 

 shadowed with trees, which have taken root in the walls, 

 and whose branches forcing their way through the joints of 

 the stones have contributed much to its dilapidation and 

 present ruinous appearance. 



, At a short distance to the eastward of this Pagoda, lies 

 the Group of MonMes (No. 2) spoken of in the Asiatic Re- 

 searches, in an account, of this place written in 1784. The 

 group, now much buried in the sand, consists of a male, a fe- 

 male and a young one< The male monkey with a laud- 

 able love of cleanliness is studying the head of its partner 

 with the < most friendly attention, and the young one is 

 satisfying its hunger. At a little distance lies a mutilated 

 figure of Ganesa or Pillaiyar, the Hindu God of highways 

 &c. of whom I shall speak presently. 



Looking towards the south, a loose mass of rock (No. 3) 

 will be seen resting on a slope of the hill, apparently on so 

 mere a point, that it seems as though a small force would 

 dislodge it and roll it headlong on the plain. Its circum- 

 ference is 68 feet and its height about 85.* From the east- 

 ward it has a circular appearance ; from other points of view 

 its figure is irregular. 



* Mr. Goldingham gives its diameter as 27 feet. 



