cularly difcernible in the temples of Egypt, where an infinity of pillars was neceffary to fupport the ponderous ftones, often thirty or forty feet in length, that formed the roofs of the ftupendous ftructures of the Thebais. That fimilitude, likewife, irresistibly struck the beholder in the very form of thofe columns, of which the lofty taper fhaft, as, in particular, thofe of Efnay, resembled the majestic ftem of the cedar and palm, while their capitals expanded in a kind of foliage, representative of the compreffed branches of the trees more usually deemed facred. There is, in Pococke, a large plate of Egyptian columns, with their varied capitals: thofe capitals, in general, bulge out towards the centre, fomewhat after the manner of the cushion that crowns the Indian column; and moft of them are fluted or channeled in the manner of thofe in the Indian caverns and pagodas.

The Suryatic and Mithriac cavern, with its circular dome for the fculptured orbs, suspended aloft and imitative of thofe in the heavens, to revolve in, and the Zoroastrian worship of fire, confpired to give the Afiatic temples at once their lofty cupolas, and that pyramidal termination which they alternately affume, and which are often feen blended together

VOL. III.

B

gether in different parts of the fame edifice. Their aftronomical and phyfical theology ftamped upon other fhrines of the Deity fometimes the OVAL form, that is, the form of the MUNDANE EGG, the image of that world which his power made and governs ; and on others again, as thofe of Benares and Mattra, the form of the St. Andrew's crofs, at once fymbolical of the four elements, and al lufive to the four quarters of the world. But I will not, in this place, anticipate the obfervations that will occur hereafter in more regular order and with more ftrict propriety.

I fhall firft defcribe fome of the more celebrated Indian temples; I fhall then direct the eye of the reader to the maffy fanes of the Thebais; and the reflections, refulting from the furvey of those of either country, will be detailed in the differtation alluded to. The reader will please to obferve, that I by no means intend or prefume to give a general hiftory of Oriental architecture: I fhall reftrain my obfervations to that of India, Egypt, and the early periods of the Greek and Roman empires, and fhall principally confider in the detail their aftronomical and mytholo gical fpeculations.

I fhall

I fhall commence my defcription of the temples of India with obferving, from Tavernier, by whofe account I fhall principally guide myself throughout this furvey, and whose affertions, upon inquiry, I find to be nearly right, that the exifting pagodas of the greatest antiquity and celebrity, above those already inftanced in all India, are the pagodas of JAGGERNAUT, BENARES, MATTRA, and TRIPETTY, to which I fhall add, from private authority, the name of one which that traveller did not vifit, that of SERINGHAM. I adopt Tavernier's account in preference to any other for two reafons; firft, because his narration, so far as it relates to objects which he actually vifited, has ever been deemed, of all Indian travellers, the moft genuine and authentic; and, fecondly, because he travelled through India before those dreadful devaftations commenced, which the execrable spirit of bigotry that actuated the mind of the Indian emperor, Aurengzeb, urged him to commit on the ancient and hallowed fhrines of India. This fierce Mohammedan, however renowned in the field of politics and war, tarnished all the glory obtained in that field by his intolerant zeal, and the remorfelefs fury with which he perfecuted

the benign religion and unoffending priefts of Brahma. But for these unprovoked outrages, even the enormous accumulation of crimes, and the torrent of kindred biood through which he afcended the throne of India, might have been fomewhat veiled by the hiftorian, and afcribed to the perfidious and often fanguinary intrigues of Eaftern courts; but this conduct in Aurengzeb, fo different from the mild and lenient Akber, and the immediate defcendants of that confiderate and beneficent monarch, covers his name with everlasting infamy, and forbids his biographer to palliate his glaring and reiterated atrocities.

It was about the middle of the last century, and before the august temple of Benares was polluted by thofe lofty Mohammedan minarets, which, Mr. Haftings fays, make it, at a distance, so confpicuous and attractive an object, that Tavernier travelled through a country which his pen has defcribed in fo entertaining a manner. His particular defcription of the Indian pagodas commences at the eighteenth chapter of the first book of his Travels in India; and, as they are not numerous, I fhall attend him in his vifits to all thofe of note which he furveyed; and, if the modern

modern traveller in India fhould not find the defcription exactly confonant to the image which his recollection prefent to his view, he will be candid enough to confider, that, at this day, near a century and a half have elapsed, and that the country, in which they are or were fituated, has been, during that space, the theatre of conftant wars and the scene of fucceffive devaftations. I fhall not, however, confine myself to Tavernier: Mandelfloe, before-cited, travelled ftill earlier through that country; and both Bernier and Thevenot occafionally deferve refpectful notice.

Thefe amazing ftructures are generally erected near the banks of the Ganges, Kiftna, or other facred rivers, for the benefit of ablution in the purifying stream. Where no riyer flows near the foot of the pagoda, there is invariably, in the front of it, a large tank, or refervoir of water. Thefe are, for the moft part, of a quadrangular form, are lined with freeftone or marble, have fteps regularly defcending from the margin to the bottom, and Mr. Crauford obferved many between three and four hundred feet in breadth*. At the entrance of all the more confiderable pagodas there is a portico, fupported by rows

B 3

See Mr. Crauford's Sketches, val. i. P.

106.

of