THE SEVEN PAGODAS. 



155 



Besides the basement it has two upper stories, or cell terraces, 

 the same as the Ratha of Nakula (No. 39) and of Sahadeva 

 (No. 41), and the style is generally the same as that of all the 

 monoliths. 



Although some distance from the sea it only opens to the 

 west, notwithstanding a very confined prospect on that side, as 

 the rock rises precipitously in front of it at a short distance. 



This temple is finished or very nearly so, and is supposed to 

 present a fair idea of the outward form which a certain class of 

 Buddhist halls or porticos presented, of which no structural speci- 

 mens are known to survive ; but of their original interiors we 

 may form a good notion from the great Buddhist cave excavations 

 near Bombay. 



The descriptions given of No. 39, Nakula' s Hatha, and of No. 

 42, Bhima's Ratha, at the south end of the place, will answer for 

 this monolith also very nearly. It resembles the former in having 

 a projecting portico crowned by a prominent ornamented cornice 

 and row of domical cells open to the west, and in having two 

 storeys of cell terraces ; but it resembles No. 42 (Bhima's Ratha) 

 much more, in being oblong and having a waggon-roof with two 

 gable-end facades (north and south) under curved bargeboards 

 highly ornamented and in having dormer window projections in 

 the slope of the roof, and a long horizontal ridge surmounted by 

 a row of (9) Icalasams, here all remaining, but in the other (18) 

 all wanting. 



One or two of these kalasams fortunately remain nearly perfect, 

 for scarcely a single one is to be seen throughout the other 

 monoliths. The only ones I remember are on the summits of 

 the tall domed stelce or ^o^-ornaments in the f acades of Bhima's 

 (42), and of Sahadeva's or the apsidal Ratha (No. 41), and they 

 are just like these. The modern pattern of halasam is usually a 

 ball or globe with a narrow stalk below, and a fine spike or finial 

 above ; and the ball is often flat or squat. These old-fashioned 

 ones are quite different, the neck below is very thick and solid 

 supporting a pine-apple vase, gradually tapering up to the point 

 which is rather blunt with a rim, on the whole rather like a plain 

 glass water-bottle, or decanter, with a thickish lip and a large 



