142 



DESCRIPTIVE REMARKS ON 



Christian era and until supplanted by the Cola domination 

 in the eighth centmy. 



The Cola princes seem to have been mostly Saivas and 

 much addicted to building temples and granting endowments, 

 so that they may have left these shrines unmolested ; but the 

 city probably declined in favour of the Cola seaport to the 

 southward ; the sand of the sea-shore soon overflowed the 

 remains of the town and choked the mouth of the harbour, 

 consigning the scene of Pallava wealth, grandeur, and piety 

 to long-lasting oblivion. 



The Vaishnavas appear to have remained in the ascendant 

 down to the present day, for they still occupy the Varahasvami 

 cave temple Xo. 35, and keep up the services of their sect 

 there. 



Amongst the older parts of No. 13, the so-called modern 

 Vishnu temple, we might expect to find some work as old as 

 the first invasion of northerners in the eleventh century ; but 

 the great bulk of the work, and the foundations of the 

 Rayala Gopuram (No. 27), are more probably due to the 

 patronage of the Vijayanagara kings in the sixteenth cen- 

 tury. 



The temple is called Sthalasayana, after the god Vishnu as 

 Sthalasayi (the local recumbent dehVy) ; and it contains an 

 image of Vishnu like that which lies in the little flat-roofed 

 cell attached to the west wall of the Shore temple (No. 6). 



In the Sthalapurana the temple is attributed to the king 

 Malladhipa or Satananda (also called Mallesvara, Carr, pp. 

 178, 180, 1 81), who is stated to have built a wall with a Gropura 

 round the seven-pinnacled Viniana (shrine), which with the 

 shining image fell from Vaikuntha (Vishnu's heaven) and is 

 called Ananda-nilayam, The goddess here is called Nila- 

 mangainaciyar (= ' Earth Maiden Lady,'' or ? * Maid-of-the- 

 soil' goddess). 



The observation may perhaps be worth noting that the 



