COLONEL MACKENZIE. 
30 
throughout the whole extent of a vast and mighty 
empire ! The only traces which remain of. its former 
greatness are the still noble ruins of those edifices 
erected by Trimal Naig towards the beginning of the 
seventeenth century, and the magnificent choultry 
now standing entire, — a proud evidence at once of his 
taste and munificence. 
While Sir Alexander Johnston’s father, who held a 
high official appointment at Madura, resided in that 
district, he obtained a grant from the Nawaub of Arcot 
of a considerable ruin, situated in the jungle about 
a mile and half from the fort, and originally erected, 
during the Nayaca dynasty, as a palace from which 
the court of Madura witnessed the exhibition of gym- 
nastic exercises and wild beast fights at the great Hin- 
doo festivals. This was an extensive edifice, covered 
by a roof, supported on either side by a double row of 
massy columns, and overlooking a spacious plain. Mr. 
Johnston, at great expense, and under the superintend- 
ence of his friend, the late Colonel Mackenzie, con- 
verted this ruin into a dwelling-house for himself and 
family, and had it in contemplation eventually to con- 
vert the building into a college; and by inducing 
the most learned Brahmins from Benares, and other 
places of established repute for literature, to visit it, 
he was induced to hope that the celebrity of this once 
famous city as a seat of learning might be revived. 
He had a zealous and efficient coadjutor in Colonel 
Mackenzie, whose extensive acquaintance with Hin- 
doo history and science has perhaps never been sur- 
passed. For this the colonel was much indebted to 
Lutchmin, a learned Brahmin, who has devoted the 
