of lofty columns, and afcended by a handfome flight of stone steps; fometimes, as in the inftance of Tripetti,* to the number of more than a hundred. Under this portico, and in the courts' that generally inclofe the whole building, an innumerable multitude affembled at the rifing of the fun, and, having bathed in the ftream below, and, in conformity to an immemorial custom over all the Eaft, having left their fandals on the border of the tank, impatiently await the unfolding of the gates by the miniftering Brahmin. The gate of the pagoda univerfally fronts the Eaft, to admit the ray of the folar orb, and opening presents to the view an edifice partitioned out, according to M. Thevenot in his account of Chitanagar, in the manner of the ancient cave-temples of Elora, having a central nave, or body; a gallery ranging on each fide; and, at the farther end, a fanctuary, or chapel of the deity adored, furrounded by a ftone balluftrade to keep off the populace †. The reader for the prefent must check his curiofity in

regard

* See Voyage des Indes, tom. iii. p. 360. Edit. Rouen, 1713.

+ See Thevenot's Travels in India, p. 79. This author is afferted by fome writers never to have been in India; but he certainly was, and the account of what he perfonally faw is detailed in these travels, which are equally entertaining and authentic,

regard to all the complicated modes of worship, and all the various ceremonial rites obferved by the devotees in the Indian temples, till the enfuing chapter, which will fully defcribe them. Our more immediate business is with the temples themselves.

The Peninsula was the region of India laft conquered by the Mohammedans; we may therefore expect to find in that region as well the genuine remains of the Indian religion as the unmixed features of the Indian architec ture. In June, 1652, Tavernier commenced his journey from Mafulipatam, (the Mefolia of Ptolemy,) on the Coromandel-coast, to Golconda, and the first pagoda of confequence which he remarked was that of BEZOARA, or BUZWARA, as Major Rennel writes the word. It is now only a fort on the Kiftna river, but was then probably a confiderable town; for, its temple is described by Tavernier as une pagode fort grande, not inclofed with walls, but erected upon fifty-two lofty columns, with statues of the Indian deities standing between the columns. Though the temple itself thus defcribed, which feems to have been rather the fanctuary than the pagoda itself, a term which includes the whole ftructure, was without walls, in the form of the Monopteric build

ings, mentioned by Vitruvius in his History of Architecture, yet it was fituated in the midft of an oblong court, plus longue que large, encompaffed with walls, round which ranged a gallery raised upon fixty-fix pillars in the manner of a cloifter*.

It is rather unfortunate that this traveller, as well as others, have not been more particular in their descriptions of the form and ornaments of the columns which they faw in this country: many of which were undoubtedly erected before the Grecian orders of architecture were invented; and none of which, moft affuredly, had thofe orders for their model. From repeated inquiries, made by me, I learn that they are in general of a fathion that bears fome remote refemblance to the Doric; and, indeed, the weight and magnitude of the buildings they support feemed to require pillars approaching in ftrength to those of that primitive, fimple, and robust, order. It is not impoffible that the Greeks might derive from India their firft notion of an order naturally dictated by a mode of building, widely different from the light, elegant, and airy, ftyle in which the Grecian edifices are generally erected. But,

* Voyage des Indes, tom. iii. p. 226. Edit. Rouen, 1713.

on

on this fubject, I fhall hereafter trouble the reader with a difquifition of fome extent. I omit, at present, his description of the monfters and demons affreux, as he calls them, with huge horns, and numerous legs and tails, fculptured in this pagoda, because it is my intention to notice thefe emblematical figures when, in the next chapter, I come to confider the worship paid in these pagodas. It is fufficient, at present, to remark that the Indians worship the Deity by symbols; while his power, extending through various nature, and his venerated attributes are represented by animals characteristic of them. Thus, for inftance, his wisdom is fymbolized by a circle of heads, his ftrength by the elephant, his glory by horns, imitative of the folar ray, his creative energy by the male of animals of a prolific kind, as the bull or goat, while the combinations of thefe animals, or parts of animals, were intended to defignate his united power, wisdom, and glory. Degrading to the Divine Nature as these representations appear to us, and as they really are, they are no more than might be expected from a race fo deeply involved in phyfics as the Indians are, and fo totally unaffifted by divine revelation to correct their perverted notions. In the neighbourhood

bourhood of this pagoda was another, the name of which is not mentioned, fituated upon a lofty hill. This pagoda Tavernier describes as quadrangular, with a high cupola crowning the fummit. The hill itself is afcended by no less than one hundred and ninety-three fteps, every step a foot in height; par un efcalier de 193 marches, chacune d'un pied de haut, I add the original that I may not appear to exaggerate,

Leaving these comparatively small edifices and this immediate route of our traveller, let us once more attend him to the grand temple of Jaggernaut, the moft celebrated but undoubtedly not among the oldeft fhrines of India. I am aware that this affertion is directly contrary to the opinion which Mr. Sonnerat appears to favour, who tells us that, according to the annals of the country and the facred books, the pagoda of Jaggernaut is inconteftably the moft ancient; and that, were its inward fanctuaries examined, in those facred receffes would probably be discovered the most ancient and hallowed archives of the country. The calculations of the Brahmins, he adds, carry its antiquity as far back as the time of PARITCHITEN, first king of the coaft of Oriffa, who flourished at the commencement

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