.

numerous legs and tails, sculptured in this pagoda, because it is my intention to notice these emblematical figures when, in the next chapter, I come to consider the worship paid in these pagodas. It is sufficient, 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 instance, his wisdom is symbolized by a circle of heads, his strength by the elephant, his glory by horns, imitative of the solar ray, his creative energy by the male of animals of a prolific kind, as the bull or goat, while the combinations of these animals, or parts of animals, were intended to designate 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 so deeply involved in physics as the Indians are, and so totally unassisted by divine revelation to correct their perverted notions. In the neighbourhood of this pagoda was another, the name of which is not mentioned, situated upon a lofty hill. This pagoda Tavernier describes as quadrangular, with a high cupola crowning the summit. The hill itself is ascended by no

less than one hundred and ninety-three steps, every step a foot in height; par un escalier de 193 marches, chacune d'un pied de baut. I add the original that I may not appear to exagge→

rate.

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 most celebrated but undoubtedly not among the oldest shrines of India. I am aware that this assertion 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 sacred books, the pagoda of Jaggernaut is incontestably the most ancient; and that, were its inward sanctuaries examined, in those sacred recesses 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 coast of Orissa, who flourished at the commencement of the Cali age, and by this calculation it should be of the astonishing antiquity of 4800 years.* Neither from the appearance nor from the stile of this pagoda, which is not of a pyramidal form, but

See Sonnerat's Voyages, chap. iv. p. 108.

is an immense circular fabric, does there arise any evidence of this stupendous antiquity. Jaggernaut is only another name for the great Indian god Mahadeo, who may be recognized by the vast bull, which, as related in a former page, juts out with an eastern aspect, from the centre of the building. The supposition of Major Rennell* is far more probable, that it was erected about the eleventh century, after the destruction of the superb temple of Sumnaut, in Guzzurat. The very name of the deity NAUT, which signifies CREATOR, strongly corroborates this supposition; and there is an old tradition in the neighbourhood that the deity of this temple swam thither from a more westerly region. I must refer the reader to the first volume of these Antiquities, and to the Geographical Dissertation, under the soobah of Orissa, for an ample account, extracted by me from the Ayeen Akbery and Hamilton's Voyage, of the first establishment of this temple, of the deity adored in it, of the ceremonies and rites practised in it, of the frequent ablu tion of Jaggernaut, and the great multitude of Brahmins and devout pilgrims daily fed at his, august temple. The Brahmin fable, relative to its erection, asserts that the spot on which

*See Memoir, p. 165, second edition,

it stands was peculiarly favoured by the Deity; and Major Rennell perhaps gives the true reason why it was so; viz. its remote situation from the scene of Mahmud's spreading conquests, and its being shut up from every approach, but on the side of the ocean, by impassable mountains and deep rivers. What Tavernier has recorded relative to this pagoda is inserted in the pages immediately succeeding in the volume just referred to; and to his description it is not necessary to add in this place any other particulars, than that it is the residence of the Arch-Brahmin of all India; that the image of Jaggernaut stands in the centre of the building upon a raised altar, encompassed with iron rails, under a very lofty dome; and that the sacred domains that belonged to the temple, the munificent donation of successive rajahs, once afforded pasturage to above 20,000 cows.

The Peninsula of India, however, affords two instances of buildings which are undoubtedly among the most ancient, if they are not ab solutely the most ancient, of all the Indian temples. They are those of Deogur and Tanjore; and, as they have exercised the masterly and correct pencil of Mr. Hodges, in his celebrated designs of Indian buildings, we may depend upon the accuracy both of the engraving

and the accompanying concise description of

them.

The pagodas of DEOGUR, according to that gentleman, shew the earliest stages of Hindoo architecture, being simply pyramids, by piling one massy stone upon another to a vast height. They are without any light whatever within, except what comes through a small door scarcely five feet high. In the CENTRE of the building is a dark chamber, lighted by one solitary lamp, where the rites of their religion are performed. The famous pagoda of TANJORE is not different from those of Deogur, but in its improved form and decorations *.

Let us now attend M. Tavernier to the region properly called Hindostan, and explore the great and highly venerated pagoda of Benares. This pagoda, he observes, derives a considerable portion of the distinguished celebrity which it enjoys from the superior sanctity of the city in which it stands, the ancient and renowned CASI, a city devoted from the earliest periods to Hindoo devotion and science! It is situated close to the shore of the Ganges; into which stream, according to our traveller, a regular flight of stone steps descends, leading

See the account prefixed to the engravings of these temples in DESIGNS IN INDIA,