206 



DESCRIPTIVE REMARKS ON 



stones. As there seems to have been no opening into the loft or 

 chamber between the ceilings, it is not obvious what their use 

 may have been. It appears to have been an old practice to ceil 

 some of the temple chambers (see Fergusson, vol. iii, Ind. and 

 En. Archre., p. 428), and it occurs to me that they may have 

 been used as relic shrines, or treasure chambers ; or possibly 

 merely reminiscences of such things, which properly belonged to 

 the Buddhist stiipa, or dagoba of which the modern Vimana or 

 sanctuary spire is the lineal descendant. The lower ceilings may 

 well have been broken into and destroyed by the persons who 

 evidently broke up the floor and displaced the lingam, presumably 

 in search of treasure. 



The great screen wall is massively built, and has a grand pro- 

 jecting cornice with a coping of a continuous row of oblong cell- 

 ornaments, adorned as usual, and its inner face is divided into 

 three rows or tiers of small square panels, each containing a bas- 

 relief sculpture of one or two figures, or a group, reminding one 

 of the sculptured walls or railing on each side of the Buddhist 

 procession path. Here, the space between the screen wall and 

 the shrine is very limited for the purposes of " pradakshinam" 

 (or circum-ambulation turning to the right), and moreover a cross 

 wall has been built across it on the west side. 



The panel-sculptures are so weather-worn that they cannot be 

 made out except here and there. 



A five-headed Naga figure occupies an interior salient angle 

 of the wall. The angles of the main building are all carved to 

 represent the lion rampant, so prevalent here, as in the Olakkan- 

 nesvara temple (No. 34). 



The upper half of the plinth moulding of the main building is 

 a succession of flat surfaces (as in No. 34), whereas the lower 

 half is in curved moulding ; one surface is ornamented thus 



IWlWlOJl another thus :-CO K CO K CD K CD 



Above the plinth moulding runs a string course of horned 

 griffin heads perhaps representing the projecting floor-support- 

 ing rafter-heads of a wooden superstructure. 



Small pieces of plaster remain here and there, which look as 



