158 
lieconls of the Geoloyical Survey of India. 
[voL. xn. 
on the Madura road, could yield stone of very great beauty if required (p. 146). 
Less handsome, hut very useful stone is quarried from the granite gneiss rocks 
occurring at Trimiem in Pirdukotai State, and at foot of the Anaimallai near 
Madura (p. 147). 
My stay at Madura was too limited to allow of any enquiry into the question 
of the localities which yielded the splendid black hoimblendic rock forming the 
noble pillars to be seen in Trimal Naik’s palace, one of the most remarkable 
buildings in India. The quarries which yielded this stone and the hornblendic 
rock carved into the many bold striking figures and statires in and about the 
great Madura pagoda were not among those seen by mo, and doubtless lie beyond 
the limits of the gneissic area surveyed. 
Some of the finest and boldest carvings, both of statues and scroll work that 
can bo met with in Southern India, are to be seen at the Avadiar Kovil, or temple, 
in the southernmost corner of Tanjore distidct. The great mantapam in front of 
the temjrle gate is an architectural work of groat beauty and noble proportions, 
far better worth photographic illustration than many other buildings that have 
been made known to the public. Unfortunately it is so much olf the beaten 
track that very few know of it, and hardly any one visits it. The stone used is 
said to have been brought from Trimiem and Tirkornum, but is more horn- 
blendie than any of the rocks seen at those places. 
The great temple at Manargudi, on the western edge of the Cauvery delta, 
is largely built of gneiss from an unknown locality, but which must have been 
brought a distance of fully fifty miles, snpjjosing it to have come from the very 
nearest quarries, those of Mammallai, eight miles east-south-east of Trichinopoly. 
These quarries may well have yielded all the slightly hornblendic qiale stone used at 
Manai'gudi and also at the great Tanjore temqile, excejoting, probably, the famous 
great bull and a few other large monoliths of much more hornblendic character. 
It is not known for certain where these were quarried, but I suspect they camo 
from a bed of very hornblendic gneiss at foot of the Pachamallais near Peram- 
balur in Trichinopoly district. My reason for suspecting this is, that when at 
Tirumanur in 1878, on the left bank of the Ooleroon to the north of Tanjore, 
I saw several very fine monolithic blocks of dark black hornblendic rock lying 
on the river bank. These were said to have been brought there by the late 
Rajah of Tanjore from a quarry close to Perambalur to be used for a temqile 
which was never built. This very black stone much more resembles the black 
monoliths in Tanjore pagoda than anything yielded by the quarries south of 
the Cauvery. 
Great complaints are made in the southern taluqs of Tanjore district of the 
want of proper road-metal for the I’oads in tho.se very sandy regions, but this 
difficulty might be largely met by screening out the latcritic gravel which occurs 
in large quantity in the sands in very many localities along the Manargudi and 
Adrampatam roads. 
