550 
MAVALIPUKAM, 
appears to have been made on the fame plan, and for the 
fame purpofe, that choultries are ufually built in that 
country ; that is to fay', for the accommodation of travel¬ 
lers. The rock is hollowed out to the fize of a fpacious 
room ; and two or three rows of pillars are left, as a Teem¬ 
ing fupport to the mountainous mafs of (tone which 
forms the roof. Of what pattern thefe pillars have ori¬ 
ginally been, it is not eafy now to conjefture; for the air 
of the fea has greatly corroded them, as well as all the 
other parts of the cave. And this circumftance renders 
it difficult to difcover, at firft fght, that there is a fcene 
of fculpture on the fide fronting the entrance. The na¬ 
tives, however, point it out; and the fnbjecl of it is ma- 
nifeftly that of Kriflina attending the herds of Nund 
Ghofe, the Admetus of the Hindoos ; from which cir¬ 
cumftance Kriflina is alfo called Goupaul, or the Cow¬ 
herd, as Apollo was entitled Nomius. See the article 
Hindoostan, vol. x. p. 119. and Krishna, vol.xi. p. 874. 
The objects that feem next to claim regard, are thofe 
upon the hill itfelf, the afcent of which, on the north, is, 
from its natural fliape, gradual and eafy at firft, and is in 
other parts rendered more fo by very excellent Heps cut 
out in feveral places, where the communication would be 
difficult or impracticable without them. A winding ftair 
of this fort leads to a kind of temple cut out of the folid 
rock, w ith fome figures of idols in high relief upon its 
walls, very well finifhed, and perfectly frefli, as it faces 
the weft, and is therefore flickered from the fea-air. From 
this temple again there are flights of fteps, that feem to 
have led to fome edifice, formerly handing upon the hill; 
nor does it feem abfurd to fuppofe, that this may have 
been a palace, to which this temple, as a place of wor- 
fliip, may have appertained. For, befides the fmall de¬ 
tached ranges of flairs that are here and there cut in the 
rock, and f'eem as if they had once led to different parts 
of one great building, there appear in many places filial! 
■water-channels cut alfo in the rock, as if for drains to a 
lioufe ; and the whole top of the hill is ftrewed with fmall 
round pieces of brick, which may be fuppofed, from their 
appearance, to have been worn down to their prefent form 
during the lapfe of many ages. 
On afcending the hill by its flope on the north, a very 
fingular piece of fculpture prefents itfelf to view. On a 
plain furface of the rock, which may once have ferved as 
the floor of fome apartment, there is a platform of ftone, 
about eight or nine feet long, by three or four wide, in a 
fituation rather elevated, with two or three fteps leading 
tip to it, perfectly refembiing a couch or bed, and a lion 
very well executed at the upper end of it by way of pil- 
lo w, tile whole of one piece, being part of the hill itfelf. 
This the Bramins, inhabitants of the place, call “ the bed 
of Dhermarajah, or Judifhter,” the eldeft of the five bro¬ 
thers whofe fortunes and exploits are the leading fubjeCl 
in the Mahabarat. See that article, p. 134. And at a 
confulerable diltance from this, at fuch a diltance, indeed, 
as the apartment of the women might be fuppofed to be 
from that of the men, is a bath excavated alfo from the 
folid rock, with fteps in the infide, which the Bramins 
call “ the bath of Dropedy, the wife of Judifhter and his 
brothers.” How much credit is due to this tradition,and 
whether this ftone couch may not have been anciently 
tiled as a kind of throne rather than a bed, is matter for 
future inquiry. A circumftance, however, which may 
feem to favour this idea is, that a throne in the Sanfkrit, 
and other Hindoo languages, is called Jinghafen, which is 
compofed of the words Jing, a lion; and ajcn, a feat. 
Thefe are all that appear on that part ot the upper fur- 
face ot the hill, the afcent to which is on the north; but, 
on defending from thence, you are led round the hill to 
the oppofife fide, in which there are fteps cut from the 
bottom to a place near the fummit, where is an excava¬ 
tion that leems to have been intended for a place of wor- 
, fhip, and contains various fculptures of Hindoo deities. 
The molt remarkable of thefe is a gigantic figure of Vifli- 
jtu, afleep on a kind of bed, with a huge fnake wound 
about in many coils by way of pillow for his head; and 
thefe figures, according to the manner of this place, are 
all of one piece, hewn from the body of the rock. 
But, though thefe works may be deemed ftupendous, 
they are furpaffed by others that are to be feen at the dis¬ 
tance of about a mile, or a mile and a half, to the fouth- 
ward of the hill. They confift of two pagodas, of about 
thirty feet long by twenty feet wide, and about as many 
in height; cut our of the folid rock, and each confiding 
originally of one fingle ftone. Near thefe alfo ftand an 
elephant full as big as life, and a lion much larger than 
the natural fize, but very well executed, each hewn alfo 
out of one ftone. None of the pieces that have fallen off 
in cutting thefe extraordinary fculptures are now to he 
found near any-where in the neighbourhood of them ; fo 
that there is no means of alcertaining the degree of la¬ 
bour and time that has been fpent upon them, nor the 
fize of the rock or rocks from which they have been hewn ; 
a circumftance which renders their appearance the more 
ftriking and fingular. And, though their fituation is 
very near the fea-beach, they have not fuffered at all by 
the corrofive air of that element, which has provided them 
with a defence again!; itfelf, by throwing up before them 
a high bank that completely (belters them. There is 
alfo great Symmetry in their form; though that of the 
pagodas is different from the ftyle of architecture accord¬ 
ing to which idol-tempies are now built in that country* 
Tiie latter refembles the Egyptian ; for the towers are al¬ 
ways pyramidica), and the gates and roofs fiat, and with¬ 
out arches; but thefe fculptures approach nearer to the 
Gothic tafte, being Surmounted by arched roofs or domes, 
that are not femicircular, but compofed of two Segments 
of circles meeting in a point at top. It is alfo obferv- 
able that the lion in this group of fculptures, as well as 
that upon the ftone couch above mentioned, are perfectly 
juft representations of the true iion ; and the natives there 
give them the name which is always underftood to mean 
a lion in the Hindoo language, to wit, Jing : but the figure 
which they have made to re prefent that animal in their 
idol-temples for centuries paft, though it bears the fame 
appellation, is a diftorted monlier, totally unlike-the ori- 
•ginal; infomuch that it has from hence been fuppofed 
that the lion was not anciently known in this country, 
and that Jing was a name given to a inonfter that exifted 
only in Hindoo romance. But it is plain that that ani¬ 
mal was well known to the authors of thefe works, who, 
in manners as well as arts, feem to have differed much 
from the modern Hindoos. 
There are two circumftnnces attending thefe monu¬ 
ments, which cannot but excite great curiofity, and on 
which future inquiries may poffibly throw fome light. 
One is, that on one of the pagodas lalt mentioned, there 
is an infcription of a fingle iirre, in a character at prefent 
unknown to the Hindoos. It refembles neither the Dey- 
va-nagre, nor any of the various characters connected 
with or derived from it, which have come to the writer’s 
knowledge from any part of Hindooftnn. Nor did it, at 
the time he viewed it, appear to correfpond with any cha¬ 
racter, Afiatic or European, that is commonly known. 
It feemed molt to refemble the alphabet of the Balic, the 
learned language of the Siamefe. The other circum¬ 
ftance is, that, though the outward form of the pagodas is 
complete, the ultimate defign of them has manifeltly not 
been accomplifhed, but feems to have been defeated by 
fome extraordinary convulfion of nature. For the weftern 
fide of the moll northerly one is excavated to the depth 
of four or five feet, and a row of pillars left on the outfide 
to fupport the roof; but here the work has been Hopped, 
and an uniform rent of about four inches breadth has 
been made throughout the folid rock, and appears to ex¬ 
tend to its foundations, which are probably at a prodi¬ 
gious depth below the furface of the ground. That this 
rent has happened fince the work begun, or while it was 
carrying on, cannot be doubted ; for the marks of the 
mafon’s tools are perfectly vifible in the excavated part 
en 
