THE SEVEN PAGODAS. 



127 



too, No. 25, is not quite dumb, though now vacant, for the 

 panel shows the rude outlines of a tableau which may possi- 

 bly have been the Siva tableau or altar-piece of which there 

 are so many copies to be seen here. 



The Siva in Kailasa tableau just mentioned as a common 

 altar-piece, represents Siva, they say, attended by Brahma 

 and Vishnu, with his consort Parvati and the son Subrah- 

 manya. 



The Monolithic Architectural Models. 



The architectural forms are as mixed and various as the 

 figures and emblems carved on them ; but this is a subject 

 which I am incompetent to discuss, having had no instruction 

 or practical training in it. 



Except that I have had the advantage of seeing Mr. Fer- 

 gusson's admirable volume on Indian and Eastern architec- 

 ture, my evidence is of no more value than that of any pre- 

 vious ordinary observer. 



Beginning with the monolithic temples, and the simplest 

 first, we see a small plain cubical hut or house, Draupadi's 

 Hatha No. 37, containing a single chamber without any porch, 

 having a quadrangular curvilinear or domical roof, precisely 

 like a square stack of hay or straw with its curved thatch 

 falling down from the peak, alike on all four sides to the 

 eaves, which project well beyond the side walls and shelter 

 them. This may very likely represent the earliest style of 

 structural habitation, one of common occurrence down to 

 the present time, and especially common in Southern India. 

 Four wooden posts are planted at the corners and support 

 four cross beams whose ends project, as represented here by 

 the stone brackets. The four walls are formed of mud or 

 plaster and a thatch of grass, straw, or leaves added, upon a 

 frame of bamboo or other poles. 



This simple form of a thatched hut in stone seems a most 

 appropriate shrine for the iSakti or goddess worship to which, 



