ANCIENT TEMPLE. 
33 
sketches of persons who know nothing of drawing 
beyond what they have picked up at school is not 
only to he deplored but reprobated ; especially when 
better things are attainable. It is at once an im- 
position upon public credulity and an insult to pub- 
lic taste. Mahabalipuram, from the transcendent 
beauty of its antiquities, deserves to have been more 
respectfully treated than it has been in the engravings 
to which I have alluded. It is a spot, perhaps, more 
rich in artificial wonders than any other on the vast 
continent of India, where they may be absolutely 
said to abound. 
The temple represented by Mr. Daniell in the 
illustrative plate is of compact and beautiful stone- 
work, and stands upon a rock jutting from the land 
into the sea. It is the remnant, such at least is the 
oral tradition of the place, of an ancient city, which 
has been overthrown by the constantly encroaching 
waters, and of which this structure alone remains 
entire. The resident Bramins aver the fact of the 
former existence of this city, and of its final over- 
throw by the sea ; but Doctor Babington, in a paper 
communicated by him to the Asiatic Society, has ex- 
pressed a doubt of this fact : his arguments, however, 
do not appear to me to be so conclusive as to decide 
the question. I do not stay to enter into a refutation 
of them here, though they may be easily answered, 
as my object is to describe things and scenery as they 
are or have been, not to speculate upon doubtful or 
mooted points of Hindoo archaiology; nevertheless I 
cannot refrain from observing, with reference to Doctor 
Babington’s paper, that his arguments have not in 
