24 



Account of Mamallaipur. 



[fto. SO. 



wild boar, and Arjuna preparing to shoot it was interrupted 

 by the unknown deity who forbade him to strike his game. 

 Arjuna notwithstanding let fly a shaft, and, so did the dis- 

 guised hunter, and the boar fell lifeless. This occasioned 

 an altercation, which brought on a personal combat ; and 

 when Arjuna had expended all his arrows on his antagonist 

 without effect, he tore up rocks and mountains to hurl at him, 

 but they too fell harmless at his feet. This so enraged our 

 hero, that he attacked his foe hand to hand. Such was the 

 daring audacity of this act, and the bold and determined 

 courage of Arjuna, that all heaven was filled with surprise, 

 and the beasts of the forest, and the inhabitants of the ether ial 

 regions, alike flocked to witness the contest, which was termi- 

 nated by the god's revealing himself, and bestowing on his 

 votary' the boon he wished for, viz. the Pasupatastra. 



r This congregating^of the inhabitants of the skies and of the I 

 forest, this mixture of men and brutes, makes probable the 

 supposition that it is the second point or period of the story 

 that has been selected by the Artist for exemplification, as in- 

 stanced by the particular postures and variety of the figures 

 seen in this curious carving. 



Adjoining the sculptured imagery of Arjuna, to the south, are 

 the wide beginnings of an excavation (No 12) having a front 

 of 50 feet, and a depth at the north end of 40 feet and at the 

 south end of 35 feet. A large portion of the solid rock pro- 

 jects from the back of the excavation 25 feet, with a frontage 

 of 23 feet, leaving deep recesses on either side, in which 

 stone has been left rough cut for three pillars. The front of 

 this evcavation is supported by five octagonal columns,* 

 whose bases are formed of figures of a grotesque horned ani- 

 mal : a sixth column originally existed, its base and capital 

 still remain, but its shaft is removed. At a few feet within 

 is a second row of six columns corresponding with those 



* The capitals of these columns are not unlike those of some of the jillara of the 

 Indra Suhha at Ellora, and of the cave temples of Elephanta. M. 



