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THE ROCK-TEMPLES OF MAVALIPURAM.

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PASSING Over to the Madras coast, we meet with some sculptured temples, which a glance at the accompanying engraving will at once show the reader to be among the most wonderful things he ever saw or heard of. On that coast, the first object which preents itself, is a mere rock, very near the beach, rising bruptly out of a level plain of great extent, and having t a distance the appearance of some antique lofty edifice. On coming nearer to the foot of the rock, sculptured nages crowd so thick upon the eye, as almost to suggest he idea of a fortified town. Adjoining this, there is a agoda, covered with sculptures, hewn from a single mass of rock! The top is arched like a roof, in a style of rchitecture different from anything now to be seen in hese parts. Opposite, there is an excavated chamber in

THE JUVENILE COMPANION.

the rock, the roof seemingly supported by pillars, not unlike those at Elephanta. A few paces onward is another more spacious excavation.

The ascent of the rock, on the north, is at first, from its natural shape, gradual and easy, and is in other parts rendered more so by excellent steps. In the way up, a prodigious circular stone is passed under, twenty-seven feet in diameter, so placed by nature on a smooth and sloping surface, that you are in dread of its crushing you before you clear it. The top of the rock is strewed with bricks, the remains, as you are informed, of an ancient palace. A large polished slab, having two or three steps up to it, and a lion couchant at the upper end of it, is shown as the couch of Dherma Rajah. A short way further is a reservoir, excavated from the rock, with steps inside, which is called the bath of his queen Draputty. Descending thence, over the immense beds of stone, you arrive at a spacious excavated temple, filled with huge sculptures. The stone of which they are formed is a species of granite, extremely hard.

On the beach, the surf, according to the local tradition, rolls and roars over the submerged city of the Great Bali. "There are really (says Bishop Heber) some small remains of architecture, which rise from amid the waves, and give a proof that the sea has encroached on the land. There are also many rocks rising through the white breakers, which the fancy of the Brahmins points out as ruins ; and the noise of the surf, the dark shadow of the remaining building, the narrow slip of dark smooth sand, the sky just reddening into dawn, and lending its tints to the sea, together with the remarkable desolation of the surrounding scenery,-were well calculated to make one remember with interest the description in Kahama, and to fancy that one saw the beautiful form of Kailyal, in her white mantle, pacing sadly along the shore, and watching till her father and her lover should emerge from the breakers."

About a mile to the southward of the hills, are two other Pagodas cut out of the rock. One of them is about

forty feet in height, and is covered with sculptures and inscriptions in an ancient unknown character. The other has a rent through the middle, from the top to the bottom, apparently caused by an earthquake. Here also is the lion, very large and well executed; and near it, an Some of the elephant of stone, about nine feet in height. sculptures are unfinished; and this, with the rent just referred to, and the submerged ruins, seem to favour the idea that the work was interrupted by some violent convulsion. Of the high antiquity of these temples, there seems no reason to doubt. Several copper-plates have been dug up, dated above a thousand years ago, and which refer to these sculptured rocks as, at the time, of unknown origin!

The rock-temples of Adjunta, Baug, and Worne, are also deserving of notice; but it is impossible to describe the hundreds of such ancient marvels which are to be found in all parts of India.

THE PALMYRA OF THE DECCAN.

THIS is the name given by Sir James Mackintosh to the ruins of Bejapoor. To trace the limits of this city, we are told, would be a day's work, so immense is the mass of ruins; but, from the innumerable tombs, mosques, and edifices of every description which it exhibits, it must have been one of the greatest cities in India. As the traveller approaches it from the north, the great dome of Mahomet Shah's tomb is discerned from the village Kunnor, fourteen miles distant. A nearer view gives the idea of a splendid and populous metropolis, from the innumerable domes and spires which meet the eye; and though the road up to the wall leads through ruins, the illusion of a tolerably well-inhabited capital is still preserved by the state of the walls, the guns mounted on the works, and the guards stationed at the gates. On entering the illusion vanishes, and the most melancholy contrast is exhibited between the number and admirable state of repair of the buildings to the memory of the dead, and the total destruction of those

formerly inhabited by a swarming population. Jungle has shot up and partly obliterated streets which were once thronged with a busy people in pursuit of their various avocations; and the visitor may now loose himself in the solitude of ruins, where crowds were formerly the only impediments to a free passage.

The most conspicuous object within the fort is the mausoleum of Mahomet Shah, which was forty-two years building. It is a large quadrangular structure, 150 feet square and 150 feet high; the dome is only ten feet less in diameter than the cupola of St. Peter's. The echo within, as in the whispering gallery of St. Paul's, is so perfect, that the visitor is ready to fancy it the voice of another person mimicking him. At the four corners of the tomb are octagonal minarests, about 140 feet in height. The general style of the tomb is grandeur and simplicity. Outside of the fort, the mausoleum of Ibrahim II. is the most conspicuous building. On the outside, the walls are carved into Arabic inscriptions, sculptured with great skill, and disposed in every variety of ornament. A person looking at the illuminated page of a beautiful oriental manuscript, magnifying this, and fancying it to be represented by sculpture, painting, and gilding on the face of a wall of black granite, will have some conception of the labour, skill, and brilliancy of this work. The whole of the Koran is said to be carved on the four sides of this elegant structure, in which the utmost art and taste of the architect and the sculptor have combined to produce the richest effect.

EPHESUS.

WE pay a visit to Ephesus, in search of one of the "Seven Wonders of the world"-the Temple of Diana, celebrated both in sacred and secular story; but its magnifcence has departed. All that constituted the splendour of this edifice: its columns, of which 127 were the gifts of kings; its works of art, comprising the master-pieces of Apelles and Praxiteles, have disappeared. It can now

REMAINS OF THE GREAT TEMPLE AT EPHESUS.

be identified only by the marshy spot on which it was erected, and by the prodigious extent and magnitude of the arches raised above as a foundation. The vaults formed by them compose a labyrinth, and pure water is knee-deep underneath. There is not an apartment entire; but thick walls, shafts of columns, and fragments of every kind are confusedly scattered.

As in the case of Solomon's Temple, the first was destroyed and replaced by a second still more magnificent. The original structure fell not by the rage of Xerxes, who spared it, but by the conceit of an Ephesian, who, to immortalize his name, set fire to it! The second temple was burnt by the Goths. Its destruction is thus described by Gibbon :-"In the general calamities of mankind, the death of an individual, however exalted, the ruin of an edifice, however famous, are passed over with careless inattention. we cannot forget that the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, after having risen with increasing splendour from seven repeated misfortunes, was finally burnt by the Goths in their third naval invasion. The arts of Greece, and the wealth of Asia, had conspired to erect that sacred and magnificent structure. It was admired

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Yet,

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