PENKONDA. 
11 
the prime of life, his face was bowed to the earth 
with affliction, and he shortly died of a broken 
heart. His successor abandoned the capital, and, 
with the small remnant of power left in his hands, 
removed his diminished court, and the seat of go- 
vernment, to Penkonda ; where, owing, in all proba- 
bility, to his insignificance, he remained unmolested, 
throughout many successive revolutions in the Dek- 
kan and the surrounding kingdoms, until the middle 
of the seventeenth century. 
The Hindoo temples in Penkonda are still occa- 
sionally made use of, as places of worship ; though, I 
believe, the mixed tombs of Mohummedan and Hin- 
doo saints, upon the high rocks beyond the town, 
appear to be more highly venerated. In the temple 
which is devoted to the worship of the lingam , a 
perpetual light has been kept burning before the 
altar, as the Brahmins affirm, ever since the edifice 
was completed, — a period of, at least, four centuries. 
The inhabitants of Penkonda and its vicinity are 
peculiarly simple-hearted, and in every way most 
primitive in their manners and ideas. They are 
altogether devoid of that low cunning which I have 
always found inseparable from the Hindoo character, 
and though equally superstitious with the rest of 
their fellows, they exhibit no sort of bigotry or 
ill-feeling towards the Mohummedan or Christian 
faith ; assuming that all should be true to the reli- 
gion in which they are born, as the service most 
