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Some Account, Historical, Geographical 



[July 



Antiquities. — The ruins of the ancient capital of Bijanugger are wor- 

 thy of notice, presenting to the admirer of Hindu sculpture and archi- 

 tecture an interesting study, principally of the style of the 14th and 

 15th centuries. The Caryatid figures supporting many of the entabla- 

 tures, the elegantly grouped columns of the Viddia Vittel temple, their 

 richly ornamented shafts, capitals and architraves, the entablatures of the 

 throne terraces, covered with spirited bas-reliefs, representing combats, 

 fetes, hunting scenes, and mythological events, the colossal statues of 

 the sacred bull, the lion avatar and the elephantine god Ganesa, hewn 

 from solid granite, basaltic hornblende, greenstone, and a dark green talcose 

 rock, beautifully polished, arrest the attention of the traveller. The 

 arch, the alleged ignorance of the turning of which has been repeatedly 

 adduced as an unanswerable proof of Hindu barbarism, may be seen in 

 some portals and in the winding passages leading up to the summits of the 

 gopars, or pyramidal towers of the pagodas, which assimilate the propylsea 

 of Egyptian temples. The angularity and heaviness of many of the 

 shafts, the lowness and gloom of the apartments, the excessive minuteness 

 of detail, coupled with the want of general design, keeping and 

 harmony of conception, have often struck me when gazing on the 

 works of Hindu artists; defects from which even these ruins are 

 not exempt. But, we are lost in admiration when we behold the 

 stupendous masses of hewn granite, fitted 'and placed with the 

 utmost nicety, one upon the other in the Cyclopean masonry of the 

 mortarless walls and fortifications, that begird the city with a seven- 

 fold cincture. The perspective view afforded by the colonnaded vista 

 of the Humpa street, running along the southern bank of the river, its 

 grass-grown pavement, the solitude and air of desolation that prevails, is 

 almost free from the defects above mentioned, and might bring to mind 

 the deserted streets of Pompeii. The mixed Hindu and Saracenic 

 character of some of the later buildings, speaks intelligibly of the spread 

 of the Mahomedan power that finally overwhelmed the Hindu empire of 

 which this city was the capital. There are numerous inscriptions on 

 pillars and stones interspersed among the ruined temples,copies of most 

 of which are in possession of the Branch Asiatic Society of Madras. A few 

 specimens of the ruder, or Cyclopean, style are to be met with in every 

 part of the district. Ancient places of sepulture, marked by rude circles 

 of stones, mounds and barrows, resembling those of Britain and Northern 

 Europe, monuments to the memory of heroes slain in battle, and to such 

 °f their widows that perished on their husband's funeral pile, mutilated 

 statues and ruined fanes, remnants of the subverted religion of the Jains, 

 are scattered over the country. The most sacred Hindu shrines are those 

 of Humper, Sondur, Tarputri and Purwuttum on the south bank 



