THE SEVEN PAGODAS. 



185 



there is another triple compartment of 3 niches precisely 

 corresponding to 35 -e. A four-armed crowned (?) goddess, stand- 

 ing on a pedestal between two half -kneeling tall-capped devotees 

 and bearing two emblems, that in the left-hand being rather 

 like the canlclia (conch shell), and flanked by two tall standing 

 men (?) in narrow niches one on each side. The two single 

 figures in e and f next to the shrine-cell projection may be 

 intended to stand for the warders, which otherwise seem to be 

 wanting in this cave, and the outer ones perhaps correspond to 

 the similar figures of men standing on the north and south end 

 walls of the shrine-projection in the Varahasvami Mandapa 

 No. 25. 



35-g. At the south end of the back wail and corresponding to 

 the Gaja Lakshmi at the north end of the same, standing back 

 similarly in the east-south-east corner of the cave is a more 

 elaborate group than the rest. It appears to represent the god- 

 dess Durga eight-armed standing at ease on the head of a 

 buffalo. Her principal (lower) hands rest freely on her thighs, 

 and in her three extra supernatural hands on each side she bears 

 weapoais or emblems of which (as in 35 e and f) the upper left is 

 apparently the cankha. Others may represent perhaps a shield or 

 disc, a sword and a bell. She has two half -kneeling low-capped 

 devotees at her feet, and two tall-capped armed attendants ; one 

 of each on either side, and of the latter, one stands at ease hold- 

 ing a long bow of double flexure unstrung and the other carries 

 a short sword. Above the goddess two little figures float in mid- 

 air one on each side, and in the upper corners of the niche the 

 head of a lion and that of a bull (?) may be seen. 



This tableau corresponds to No. 25-c which occupies the cor- 

 responding east-south- east corner of the Varahasvami Mandapa, 

 Only there the goddess, said to be Bhadrakali (or Durga, Kavali 

 Lakshmayya), has but four arms, is more nude and has an um- 

 brella over her ; and the six attendants are arranged and figured 

 differently. Moreover, something like a deer's (?) head there 

 takes the place of what is an undoubted bull's or cow's head 

 here as shown in the drawing whence these notes are chiefly 

 derived. 



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