PAGODA. 
703 
the bonzes have formed grottos and covered seats. A certain delight- 
ful rural simplicity reigns here. Strangers are received here by the 
bonzes with great politeness, and may freely enter their temples ; but 
they must not attempt to gratify their curiosity fully, nor to enter 
those apartments into which they are not introduced ; for the bonzes, 
who are forbidden under severe penalties to have any intercourse with 
women, and who yet often keep them in private, might resent too 
impertinent a curiosity. 
Pagod, or Pagoda. 
The best account of these East Indian temples is a paper in the 
Asiatic Researches, containing the sculptures, &c. at Mavalipuran, a 
few miles north of Sadras, and known to seamen by the name of the 
Seven Pagodas. The monuments which Mr. Chambers, who commu- 
nicated the information, describes, appear, he says, to be the ruins 
of some great city decayed many centuries ago. “ They are situated 
close to the sea, between Covelong and Sadras, somewhat from the 
high road that leads to the different European settlements, and, when 
visited in 1776, there was still a native village adjoining to them, 
which retained the ancient name, and in which a number of bramins 
resided, that seemed perfectly acquainted with the subjects of most of 
the sculptures to be seen there. 
“ Proceeding on by the foot of a hill on the side facing the sea, 
there is a pagoda rising out of the ground, of one solid stone, of 
about sixteen or eighteen feet high, which seems to have been cut 
upon the spot, out of a detached j-ock, that has been found of a pro- 
per size for that purpose. The top is arched, and the style of archi- ■ 
tecture, according to which it is formed, is different from any now used 
in those parts. Beyond this, a group of human figures in bas relief, 
considerably larger than life, attract attention. They represent con- 
siderable persons, and their exploits, many of which are now very 
indistinct through the injuries of time, assisted by the corroding 
nature of the sea air ; while others, protected from that element, are 
as fresh as when recently finished. The hill, w hich is at first of easy 
ascent, is in other parts rendered more so by very excellent steps 
cut out in several places, where the communication would be difficult 
or impracticable without them. A winding stair of this sort leads to 
a kind of temple cut out of the solid rock, wdth some figures of idols 
in high relief upon its walls, very w'ell finished and perfectly fresh, as 
it faces the west, and is therefore sheltered from the sea air.” 
This temple, our author conjectures to have been a place of wor- 
ship appertaining to a palace, some remains of which still exist, and 
to which there is a passage from the temple by another flight of steps. 
This finishes the objects “on that part of the upper surface of the 
hill, the ascent to which is on the north ; but, on descending from 
thence, you are led round the hill to the opposite side, in which there 
are steps cut from the bottom to a place near the summit, where is 
an excavation that seems to have been intended for a place of worship, 
and contains various sculptures of Hindoo deities. The most remark- 
able of these is a gigantic figure of Vishnou asleep on a kind of bed. 
