THE SEVEN PAGODAS, 



123 



CHAPTEE III. 



ON THE PREVALENT STYLE, ORNAMENTS AND EMBLEMS. 



One of the first impressions I received was the sameness of 

 the style of ornamentation, not only in the roofs of the 

 temples (monolithic and structural) and the imitation-roof 

 facades of the caves being made in steps or terraces adorned 

 with the simulated domical cells (the regular Dravidian 

 style), and in the sameness of the style of the pillars and 

 pilasters — which somewhat resembles that of the Brahmanical 

 works at Elura and Elephanta near Bombay — but also in the 

 prevalence of certain forms in the ornamentation, especially 

 of the Simka, the conventional lion or " leo-griff" which is 

 to be seen in various forms in twenty different works here. 

 The frequency of the Simha is almost paralleled by the scarcity 

 of the bull Nandi which so commonly now-a-days accom- 

 panies every Saiva temple with a linga. The relics of a 

 number of stone bulls are to be seen at low water near the 

 Shore temple that have been cast into the sea and are now 

 scarcely recognizable. A single bull remains in its position 

 over the portal of the smaller (western) shrine of the Shore 

 temple No. 6, which with the colossal stone bull No. 38, 

 and those that are represented in the Siva tableaux as 

 affording a footstool to the celestial couple, make up all that 

 I can recall. In like manner the linga is to be seen scattered 

 about here and there all over the place, and scarcely any- 

 where in its proper place intact, except in the Atiranacanda 

 Pallava Temple No. 58, at Saluvankuppam. As nearly all 

 the shrine cells here have a hole or socket in the middle of 



