THE SEVEN PAGODAS. 



99 



the Olakkannesvara temple (No. 34) stands. It is one of the 

 principal excavations of the locality owing to its three fine bas- 

 relief sculptures, but it is unfinished. 



It consists of a chamber 33 feet by 17 feet, and 13 feet high, 

 behind a row of (originally four) tall, slender, 16-sided columns 

 of the prevailing style, having three shrine cells at the back, the 

 centre of which has in front of it a handsome canopy supported by 

 two fine lion-based columns, rising from the angles of a raised 

 basement or stylohate, standing out in the middle of the chamber. 



The panel at the back of the principal cell (which probably 

 once contained a lingam, represents Siva (four-armed) with Parvati 

 and child, seated on a dwarf -legged couch or throne, having the 

 bull Nandi lying down for a common footstool. Brahma and 

 Vishnu attend in the background, and a royal umbrella covers 

 Parvati. 



This tableau is the same as those in Dharmaraja's Hatha (No. 

 43), in the shore temple (No. 6), in the Mukunda Nayanar 

 No. 54, and in the AtiranacandesVara Mandapa at Saluvankup- 

 pam, where there is a dedicatory inscription of perhaps the eighth 

 or ninth century A.D., in which is the invocation " May Siva, the 

 beloved, accompanied by the daughter (Parvati) of the snowy 

 mountain, by Kartikeya, and their suite of deities, be present in it 

 for ever." 



On the panel at the south end of the chamber Vishnu Narayana 

 is represented lying asleep on the folds and under the five-headed 

 Naga hood of Adisesha. Vishnu here has apparently only two 

 arms, whereas in the shore temple (No. 6) he is represented with 

 four arms. 



In the opposite panel at the north end of the chamber Durga, 

 eight-armed, astride her lion steed, is represented attacking 

 Mahishasura, the buffalo-headed giant. 



The central female warrior below is fighting with a broad 

 knife or short sword, curved like a Gurkha knife or kukari (?). 



The facade above this excavation is only roughly blocked out. 



34. The Olakkannesvara Temple (ruined). — This imposing 

 relic is only the shell or outer (stone) casing of a handsome struc- 

 tural temple which occupies the highest part of the rocks. It is 



