M A V M A V 5n 
in 1745. lie was educated at Weftminfterfchool, whence, 
in 1763, lie was eleCted to Trinity college, Cambridge. 
5le obtained a travelling fellowlhip of that college ; and 
had palled three years on the continent, when he was ap¬ 
pointed chaplain to lord Stormont, ambafiador at the 
Court of France. The friendlhips he had formed, and the 
feputation he had eftablifhed, would doubtlefs have fe- 
cured his preferment in the Englifh church, had not fem¬ 
ales concerning its doCtrines taken fuch a pofl'effion of 
•his mind, that he found it impoflible confcicntioully to 
continue performing the duties of a minilter in it. Af¬ 
ter his father’s death, he therefore entirely withdrew from 
its fervice; and in 1777 he publifhed his reafons for this 
Itep. He thenceforth devoted himfelf to a literary life ; 
and in 1778 obtained the appointment of affiftant librarian 
£0 the Britilh Mufeum. He was afterwards advanced to 
the place of one of the under librarians; and in 1778 he 
Succeeded Dr. Horfely as one of the fecretaries of the 
Royal Society. In 1781, he commenced the publication 
of a Review of feleCt works, Englilh and foreign, which 
he carried on, almoft without aiTi£tance, till 1736. It met 
■with no great fuccefs, although it contained many valu¬ 
able articles, and difplayed erudition and critical judg¬ 
ment. As he was naturally of a warm temper, he could 
not forbear interfering in fome difputes which arofe in 
Z784 in the Royal Society, relative to the poll of fecretary 
of foreign corrcfpondence, in which he loft his temper fo 
far as to be induced to refign his office in the fociety. 
He afterwards fell into a bad llate of health, and died in 
1787 at the age of forty-two. Mr. Maty publiffied a 
tranflation of Rielbeck’s Travels through Germany ; and 
tranllated into French the defcriptions in the Gemmae 
Marlburienfes. After his death a volume of Sermons was 
published for the benefit of his family : they are fpirited 
and original compofitions ; but the editor, through fome 
inadvertence, printed,as Mr. Maty’s, three that had been 
copied from the works of archbifhop Seeker. Gen. Biog. 
MAT'Y’s I'SLAND, an ifland in the Pacific Ocean, 
difeovered by captain Cook in 1767. Lat. 1.35.S. Ion. 
*4.3. :i, E. 
MAT'YLUS, in ancient geography, a town of Pam- 
phylia, placed by Ptolemy between the mouth of the river 
CataraClus and that of the river Calter. 
MAT'ZEN, a town of Auftria s feven miles fouth of 
Zifterltorf. 
MAT'ZENDORF, a town of Swifferland, in the can¬ 
ton of Soleure: fix. miles north of Soleure. 
MAT'ZOL, a cape of Ruffia, at the mouth of the Ob- 
fkaia Gulf. Lat. 72. 30. N. Ion. 75. 30. E. 
MATZU'A. See Massuah, p. 516. 
MATZUN'CA, a town of Poland, in the palatinate of 
Kiev : twenty-four miles fouth-weft of Kiev. 
MATZ'WITZ, a town of Silefia, jn the principality 
of Neiffe: three miles north-welt of Ottmuchau. 
MAU, a town of the ifland of Ceylon ; forty miles weft- 
tjorth-well of Candy. 
MAU-ALTIEB', a town of Arabia, in the province of 
Yemen, built on a mountain, by a prince of Yemen, in 
the year 1712. It is two miles north of Damar. 
MA'VA, a river of Africa, which pafles through the 
country of Quoja, and runs into the Atlantic near Cape 
Monte. 
MAVALIGON'GA, or Mawilagun'ge, a river of 
Ceylon, which runs into the fea at Trincomalee. 
MAVALIPURAM', or Seven Pagodas, a town of 
Hindooftan, in the Carnatic, fituated on the coall of Co¬ 
romandel, a few miles north of Sadras, and thirty miles 
fouth of Madras. Of this place, and its fculptures and 
ruins, we have a very interefting account in tlie firlt vo¬ 
lume of the Afiatic Refearches, from which we fliall make 
a few extracts. ,, > 
Th fe monuments appear to be the remains of fome 
great city, that has been ruined many centuries ago. 
They are fituated dole to the lea, between Covelongand 
Sadras, fomewhat remote from the high road that leads to 
Yol. XIV. No. 994. 
the different European fettlemerits. And, when Mr. 
Chambers vifited them in 1776, there was Hill a native 
village adjoining to them, which retained the ancient 
name, and in which a number of Bramins refided, v.ho 
feemed perfectly well acquainted with the fubjeCts of molt 
of the fculptures to be feen there. 
The rock, or rather hill of ftone, on which great part 
of thefe works are executed, is one of the principal marks 
for mariners as they approach the coall ; and to them the 
place is known by the name of the Seven Pagodas, polii- 
bly becaufe the fummits of the rock have prefented them 
with that idea as they palled ; but it mull be confeffed 
that no afpeCt which the hill aflumes, as viewed on the 
fliore, feems at all to authorize this notion ; and there 
are circumftances which would lead one to fufpeCt, that 
this name has arifen from lome fuch number of pagodas 
that formerly flood here, and in time have been buried 
in the waves. But, be that as it may, the appellation by 
which the natives diflinguifh it, is of a quite different 
origin ; in their language, which is theTamulic, (impro¬ 
perly termed Malabar,) the place is called Mavalipuram „ 
which, in Sanlkrit, and the languages of the more north¬ 
ern Hindoos, would be Makabalipur, or the “ City of the 
great Bali.” For the Tamulians, (or Malabars,) having 
no b in their alphabet, are under a neceffity of fhortening 
the Sanlkrit word Maha, Great, and write it ma. They 
are obliged alfo, for a fimilar reafon, to fubftitute a v fos 
a b, in words of foreign origin that begin with that letter j 
and the Fyliable am, at the end, is merely a terminations 
which, like urn in Latin, is generally annexed to neuter 
fubflantives. To this etymology of the name of this 
place it may be proper to add, that Bali is the name of a 
hero very famous in Hindoo romance; and that the river 
Mavaligonga, which waters the eaflern fide of Ceylon, 
where the Tamulic language alfo prevails, has probably 
taken its name from him, as, according to that orthogra¬ 
phy, it apparently fignifies the Ganges of the great Bali. 
The rock, or hill of flone, above mentioned, is that 
which firft engroffes the attention on approaching the 
place ; for, as it rifes abruptly out of a level plain of great 
extent, conlills chiefly of one Angle ftone, and is fituated 
very near to the fea-beach, it is fuch a kind of objeCt as 
an inquilitive traveller would naturally turn afide to ex¬ 
amine. Its fliape is alfo Angular and romantic ; and, from 
a diftant view, has an appearance like fome antique and 
lofty edifice. On coming^ near to the foot of the rock 
from the north, works of imagery and fculpture crowd lo 
thick upon the eye, as might feem to favour the idea of a 
petrified town, like thole that have been fabled in dif¬ 
ferent parts of the world by too-credulous travellers. 
Proceeding on by the foot of the hill, on the fide facing 
the fea, there is a pagoda riling out of the ground of one 
Fo lid (tone, about lixteen or eighteen feet high, which 
feems to have been cut upon the fpot out of a detached 
rock that has been found of a proper fize for that pur- 
pole. The top is arched, and the ftyle of architecture ac¬ 
cording to which it is formed is different from any now 
tiled in thofe parts. A little further on there appears 
upon a huge furface of ftone, that juts out a little from 
the iide of the hill, a numerous group of human figures 
in bafs relief, considerably larger than life, reprefenting 
the moll remarkable perfons wliofe actions are celebrated 
in the Mahabliarit, each of them in an attitude, or with 
weapons, or other infignia, exprefiive of his character, or 
of fome one of his famous exploits. All thefe figures 
are, doubtlefs, much lels diltinCt than they were at firft; 
for, upon comparing thefe and the reft of the fculptures 
that are expoled to the lea-air, with others of the fame 
place whole lituation has afforded them protection from 
that element, the difference is linking ; the former being 
every-where much defaced, while the others are frelh as 
recently finiflied. This defacement is no-where more 00- 
fervable than in the piece of lculpture which occurs 
next in the order of defeription. This is an excavation 
in another part o£ the eaft fide of the great rock, which 
7 A appears' 
