SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

342 SRI PARVATAM.
The temple proper
is
surrounded by castellated walls, longest
sides being 1500 feet each, and the shortest being nearly 1000 feet
each and the height
is 21 feet and thickness 4 feet. Nearly the
whole outer face of these walls (fancy such a dimension of 5 ooo x
21 feet) is fully sculptured with the figures of animals, men
and Gods. There are hunting pictures of all kinds, there are
horses and elephants in every pose, Puranic representations of
episodes, Rishis doing tapas in all kinds of postures and there are
;
animals and reptiles in every grotesque form, athletes wrestling
with each other, &c.* These pictures show that the race of men
who cut them were a warlike and manly race. There are three
towers, one of which is the highest, and will compare favourably
with the highest in Southern India.
Passing within, the whole space
is intersected into 3 squares,
one below the other and the sides are rilled with innumerable
mantapams and shrines, the shrines mostly without any images and
in the worst of repairs. There are large number of wells with small
towers or domes above, the only source of supply
to all the
pilgrims who resort to the place. Some one or two of the tanks
altogether dry and filled up more or less.
The central shrine is that of Mallikesvara and is the most
costly structure. The principal Vimanam is covered from top to
bottom with plated gold, unlike any other Temple in Southern
India, and all the images of Nandis and Dakshanamurti placed over
the terrace in the mantapam fronting the Vimana are also similarly
covered with gold. It is reported that of old these images
contained inside untold wealth, and the Rohillas who once plun
dered the whole Temple have left their marks in the mutilated
condition of most of these images. The style of the principal
structures is quite dissimilar to those in Southern India, the Chola
and Pandiyan styles, but there is a remarkable resemblance between
these and the shore temple at Mahamalaipuram (corrupted into
* There is one picture in which two men hold each other by their
legs, stretched at full length, and withal making a regular ball. We
have witnessed many an Indian and European circus performance, but
never saw any such pose before.