THE SEVEN PAGODAS. 



105 



only specimen remaining of an apsidal or round- ended temple ; 

 the only other known to the writer is the Dharmesvara temple 

 at Manimangalam, 20 miles south-west from Madras, but others 

 may probably be found along the route of the pilgrims from the 

 north going to Ramesvaram if sought for. 



It is a three- storey ed shrine with a projecting lion-pillared 

 portico in front of the shrine cell, opening to the south ; the only 

 instance of a southward aspect noticed here. 



The vaulted roof is one-half of a spheroidal dome, at the north 

 end, blended with a waggon-roof having its fac^ade under a 

 semicircular gable to the south. In other respects this is much 

 in the style of the rest of the monolithic shrines (Nos. 2, 3, 24, 

 39, 42 and 43). 



42. Bhima's Ratha, the great waggon-roofed monolith ; 

 unfinished. — Returning to the row of the four monoliths, this is 

 the third from the north, and next to the southernmost. 



It is split in two, and some large pieces have fallen off from 

 the angles, but enough remains to show that the design was 

 grand, simple, and yet highly ornamental. 



It is rectangular in plan, 42 feet long north — south, and 25 feet 

 in width and height, and only two storeys high, with a single 

 corniced terrace furnished with a continuous range of the domical 

 cell and corridor ornament. The north and south facades 

 under the curved gable ends much resemble those of Kamaraja's 

 temple (No. 24) and that of the apsidal Ratha adjacent. 



43. Dhakmaraja's Eatha. — This is the southernmost in the 

 line of the four monoliths and also of the entire group. 



It is a four-storied, square, pyramidal-roofed shrine, with a 

 double-storeyed portico projection on the west resting on four 

 lion-based piers. 



The second and third floors over the portico have shrine niches, 

 in the upper one of which is the tableau of Siva and ParvatI 

 with the child Subrahmanya and " their suite of deities. ,, 



Nearly all the panels, some two dozen in number, contain 

 mythological figures or groups in them, sculptured in bas-relief, 

 over about a dozen of which some descriptive epithets or words 

 have been engraved, according to Dr. Burnell in characters of 



14 



