THE SEVEN PAGODAS. 



171 



brown, suggesting that the whole fagade may have been covered 

 with a thin coating of coloured plaster. 



The projecting end-walls of the verandah terrace, or sloping 

 return-walls of the rock left standing at each end of the excava- 

 tion, have been cut into steps by which access is had to the 

 cell-terrace and top of the colonnade. 



On the faces of these return walls the cankha and cakra (couch 

 shell and discus) have been lightly, but clearly, cut facing one 

 another ; the cankha on the proper left or north, the cakra on the 

 right or south end of the verandah. 



The same Vaishnava emblems are to be seen similarly flanking 

 the five-celled excavation at the Koneripallam on the west or 

 north-west side of the rock, No. 52 (No. 6 of Braddock, and 

 K:L. 25, pp. 78 and 213 of Carr). There is an inscription on the 

 floor identical in matter with the last part of the inscription on 

 Kamaraja's, the so-called Ganesa temple (No. 24) and allied to 

 other Saiva inscriptions in this locality, whence this mandapa 

 would appear to have been formerly devoted to Siva, and subse- 

 quently destroyed and partly converted by Vaishnavas to their 

 own use. 



Arjuna's Penance. S. 2nd Edition. Carr, pp. 96 and 208. 



45. About 270 yards south of the large modern Vaishnava 

 temple (No. 13), the eastern face of the south- easternmost rocks, 

 detached from the main group, has been carved to represent the 

 same or a similar scene as that represented in No. 17, Arjuna's 

 penance, of which this is probably a second version. 



Here, as there, there is a large cleft in- the rock from top to 

 bottom which has been bridged over near the top, and a single 

 stone of the platform remains, which perhaps formed part of a 

 ceiling or canopy over a niche, traces of which may be seen still. 



Some figure or idol would seem to have been set here, to which 

 nearly all the figures, celestial and terrestrial, more or less incline. 



Elephants are portrayed climbing the ascent from below on the 

 south side, and many other animals are scattered about, lions and 

 deer prevailing. But troops of birds seem to be the most numer= 

 ous of the creatures representedo 



