THE SEVEN PAGODAS. 



213 



lintel of a door in front. Opposite the two side bays, the back 

 wall of the verandah is cut into two panels, each having a copy of 

 the favourite tableau of Siva, Parvati, child and attendants as 

 usual, whilst in the verandah directly in front of them stand 

 two more lingams r which however could not be seen on this 

 occasion owing to the sand, which although only recently 

 removed, had already nearly filled the verandah again. Both 

 the cornices are plain and unadorned with the horse-shoe dormer 

 ornaments. The inscriptions in this mandapa affiliate it with the 

 Kamaraja or G-anesa temple, and other monoliths, and some of 

 the excavations at Mavalivaram, as do the sculptured panels also 

 with the structural temples. 



Another connecting link is the little ruined structural temple 

 (No. 54 of Revenue Survey Map) named Mukunda Nayanar, 

 situate on the sandy plain between Mavalivaram and Saluvan- 

 kuppam. This temple opens to the east and recalls strongly 

 the shore temple, the Ohetty's temple, and the Olakkannesvara 

 temple. The sanctuary under the octagonal bell dome contains, 

 under an ornamental cornice, a niche with a panel engraved with 

 the tableau of Siva, Parvati and child, the same as already met 

 with so often at Mavalivaram. All these structural temples are 

 to some extent megalithic and recall a style of old temple 

 frequently found in Malabar on the opposite coast of South 

 India. Traces of a coating of plaster still remain on this temple. 



The SthalasayanasvImi (Vishnu) Temple. 



13. This is perhaps the temple referred to at page 181 of Carr's 

 book in the Sthalapurana, or MallapurT Mahatmya : also men- 

 tioned by Kavali Lakshmayya in paragraph 12, page 205, as the 

 SthalasekharasvamI temple. This temple (No. 13) is about 

 the centre of the place, at the east foot of the rocks and in a 

 line between the foundations of the unfinished Rayala Gopuram 

 on the top of the rock (No. 27) and the Shore temple (No. 6). 

 The lower parts of the interior and the surrounding wall are built 

 of stone and may be of a respectable age, but the whole has 

 been so much " restored " and covered by plaster and stucco- 



