106 



DESCRIPTIVE REMARKS ON 



tall cork or stopple. The kalasam-finials of the shore temple 

 (No. 6) are rather like these, but appear to be more globular, 

 and the stopple instead of being short and blunt at top tapers 

 up to a tall pointed spike. The shape of the kalasam may be 

 some test of age or date. They resemble so many plain long- 

 necked globular goblets or bottles, each standing in a double 

 splayed circular ring or pot stand, such as those usually found in 

 the South Indian pottery interments. 



Another interesting feature of this shrine is the crowning 

 ornament over the curved bargeboards at the 

 A ends of the waggon-roof, and over those of the 



((I U) (3) horse-shoe dormers on each side of the roof, 

 which is a triSiila or trident emblem, springing 

 S <^ from the top of a human head and neck, that 



' ^ is, having the thick base of the central shaft 

 below the tri-furcation, carved in front to 

 represent a human face and neck, very like those that occupy the 

 upright horse-shoe facets that adorn the projecting cornices. 



I noticed no sign of this trisul ornament on the great waggon- 

 roofed Eatha of BhTma (No. 42) or elsewhere. Otherwise the 

 ornaments and style of the pillars are the same, the roof dormers 

 in particular containing the peculiar solid curved (hood-like) 

 projections between and below griffin-capped baluster- brackets 

 in both cases. 



One other point struck me as peculiar in the Kamaraja mono- 

 lith. The domical top of the dagoba-like stele in the centre of 

 the north and south gable-end facades is covered or hooded by a 

 projecting canopy, something after the manner of the solid curved 

 projections in the roof dormers just mentioned, only it has a 

 transverse arched opening in the centre to admit the top of the 

 dagoba-ornament, covered by the usual dormer with curved 

 bargeboards, and surmounted by a diminutive £n'£w/-capped 

 human head. 



With regard to the central ornament in the north and south 

 facades of this shrine, it may be remarked that the cylindrical 

 part of the dome-topped pillar is so long or tall that at first 



sight one might almost take it for the Saiva lingam. 



