1844.] Account of Mamallaipur. 87 



Huge heaps of granite stones, on several of which are 

 sculptured figures, lie in front and on each side of the east- 

 ern temple, and have tended greatly io protect it from the 

 hostility of the sea, which has evidently encroached consider- 

 ably. Many of these stones are of large dimensions, mea- 

 suring from 6 to 10 feet long, 3 feet wide and 1 foot thick; 

 and on some of them are appearances of sculptured archi- 

 tectural ornaments, though the injuries of the weather, the 

 action of the water, and the lapse of time have combined 

 to deface them. About 65 feet in front of the eastern tem- 

 ple, and now standing in the sea, is a square stone pillar, (a 

 common appendage I believe to all the country pagodas), 

 which measures 1 1 feet in height and is 22 inches square. 



At a few yards north of the temples, on a detached rock 

 (No. 21) close by the sea, may be observed a gigantic figure of 

 Mahishasura represented with the head of a buffalo. On. a 

 similar detached rock to the south are figures of a horse and 

 an elephant's head (No. 28). These sculptures are consider- 

 ably worn by the continual washing and action of the surf. 



There is no doubt in my mind that the sea has made con- 

 siderable encroachments since the erection of these itemples. 

 I cannot conceive, were it not so, why they should have been 

 built on the shore, so close to the sea that the surf in the 

 calmest weather dashes against the doorway ; while some of 

 the well known appendages of such pagodas are actually at 

 some distance in the waters. The large quantities of stones 

 lying about the temple, and others which partially appear 

 buried in the sea, seem even to indicate that other buildings 

 also have existed to the eastward of these, which are now 

 destroyed and overwhelmed by the ocean. 



I have now given an account of all the curious sculptures 

 and buildings which came under my observation at three se» 



