Ah. 49.-"A cast, 10′ high, of one half of the south-east central pillar, from floor to architrave." Southern India. The following 10 terra-cottas were made at the Madras School of Art, in 1868, and in the letter that accompanied them, they are said to be fac similies of reproductions of the ornaments on the sculptured antiquities of the Madras Presidency, taken in melted wax and dammer, or hard country resin. They are from the following localities, but the names of the temples from which the reproductions were taken are not mentioned. They were presented by the Government of India, May 1870. On the walls of recess No. 9. Conjeveram. Described as Cm. 1.-A terra-cotta, measures 15" 75 x 14". "parrots in a square slab in the Mundapum." ment is quite unlike anything represented in any of the previous sculptures. Cm. 2.-A terra-cotta in four pieces, 53′′-75 × 7′′-75, consisting of a running foliated scroll, with a branch given off at regular intervals, terminating in a kind of palmette end. Perur. Pr. 1.-A terra-cotta in two pieces, measuring 46′′.50 × 9"-50. It consists of a foliated scroll terminating in a lotus flower at either end. Pr. 2.-A terra-cotta in three pieces, 55′′ 50 x 6" 25, consisting of a foliated scroll, giving off a branch at regular intervals, and each forming a kind of medallion, the branch ending in three leaves or petals. Vellore. Ve. 1.-A terra-cotta in three pieces, measuring 8'1 × 1'3′′. It consists of a bold, richly foliated scroll, issuing from either side of the mouth of a kirttimukha. Ve. 2.-A terra-cotta in three pieces, measuring 62′′.50 x 6"25. It consists of a foliated scroll, arranged along a longitudinal raised mesial line, across which it is looped transversely at regular intervals. Verinjipuram. Vm. 1.-A terra-cotta in three pieces, 62" 25x8". It consists of a lotus stem arranged as a wavy scroll, beginning in a single flower, and giving off expanded leaves at regular intervals. Nagpur. Nr. 1.-A terra-cotta, 11" 25x11" 75, consisting of a rich foliated device into which the fruit and leaf of the grape enter, and it is stated on the back of the terra-cotta that the design is probably European. Tadpatri. Ti. 1.-A terra-cotta, 14"x9" 60. A foliated panel stated to be a running ornament in the Mundapum. Ti. 2.-Two terra-cottas, 12" 75 x 8" 75, with a foliated device, the centre somewhat resembling a vase, on each side of which stands a parrot holding on by its bill to the extremities of the attenuated foliated neck of the vase. Tezpur. Tezpur is the chief town in the Darrang District of Assam and it is the site of extensive ruins which appear to have been first described by Captain Westmacott.1 They consist of the Journ, As, Soc. Beng., Vol. IV, pp. 185, 195, Pl. x. ruins of granite temples, in the construction of which blocks of large size were used, some of them being masses 20 to 30 feet square. Some of the altars had evidently been devoted to Siva, and were sculptured in imitation of circlets of flowers and had a 'seat' for the linga in the middle of each. The ruins were also surrounded by walls that had been built long subsequent to the temples. Mutilated figures of Hindu deities have also been found and many other sculptures. Captain Westmacott observes-"it is certain, from the prodigious number of ruinous and deserted temples, all of which appear to have been dedicated to Siva," that Porá "must have been the capital of a sovereign Prince, or a principal seat of the Hindu religion, and enjoyed a large share of prosperity at some remote period." 1 2 There are also the ruins of a palace, which tradition assigns as the prison of Ukha, daughter of Bana, eldest son of Bali, who had a thousand arms, and whose fortress was at Bhalukpang on the confines of British Territory, and in the Hindu poem, the Prem Sagar, there is a description of this place and of Krishna's battles with the Daitya Bānā, whose dominions, the inhabitants asserted to Robinson, were situated on the Narbada.3 In recess No. 4. Tr. 1.-A piece of red granite, 46′′ 50 × 20′′ 50 × 12′′ 25, forming a bold projecting cornice, probably portion of an ornamental moulding running round a building with pilasters below. The ornament is 6" 40 high, and consists of a succession of horned sārdula heads, or kirtlimukhas, very well exe 1 Op. cit., p. 195: Conf. Robinson's Assam, p. 298: Dalton, Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. XXIV, pp. 12–24, 11 Plates: Account Land Grants' Assam, Jenkins, Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. IX, Pt. 11, pp. 766-784, Plates. cuted, and separated from one another by groups of pendent beaded cords, the ends of which are held in the mouths of the kirttimukhas which have moustaches and human incisors, and exactly resemble Br. 10 of the Bhuvaneswar casts, and are also miniatures of the large griffin's head from the Mundapum of the Vellore temple. A moulding, the fellow, almost, of this frieze, occurs on the second moulding from the ground on the Amarnath temple near Bombay, and the similarity between the two is remarkable considering the distance the two places are apart. Similar ornamental devices occur on the old Hindu temples of Gaur (see Sculptures Gr. 3, 12 and 13), on the upper portion of the shaft of the pillar at Yajapur, in the temple of Varaha, at Chandesvara,1 on the shaft of the Rajmahal pillar in this gallery, and on a multitude of other sculptural remains scattered throughout India. The same device was also in vogue in Upper Burma when the Pagan temples were built, and it would appear from copper plates discovered at Tezpur, and apparently bearing the date of 1027 A.D., that the Assam temples were built about the same time as the Amarnath temple which was founded in 1006 A.D. Presented by Captain Butcher, April 1873. Garhgaon. This place, the site of the earliest capital of the Aham princes of Assam, is situated on the Dika river some distance to the south-east of Sibsagar, the chief town of the District of the same name in Upper Assam. The Ahams were a people of eastern origin and probably Shans. Robinson writing in 1841, describes the ruins of Garhgaon as follows:-"The royal palace at Ghergaon was surrounded by Phear, Proc. As. Soc. Beng., 1872, Pl. I-XI, p. 31: Mitra, "Orissa," Vol. I, p. 44. 2 Descriptive Account of Assam, p. 318: Conf. Blochmann, Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. XLI, Pl. 1, p. 83, foot-uote p. 75. * a brick wall, about two miles in circumference; but the whole town and its suburbs appear to have extended over many square miles of country. The ruins of gateways, built chiefly of masonry, are still to be seen within the fortified circumvallations which surrounded the town. It may be observed, that one of the gateways is composed principally of large blocks of stone, bearing marks of iron crampings, which evidently shew that they once belonged to far more ancient edifices. From this evidence alone, were there no other, it might safely be presumed, that long antecedent to the conquests of the Ahoms, the country had been possessed by a race of inhabitants far advanced in some of the arts of civilized life." The Assam Tea Company, about the time the foregoing words were written by Robinson, had appeared as a factor in the history of Assam, and one of their first acts was to level the gateways and walls of the old place in order to obtain materials for building their factories, so that now but little remains of these once interesting ruins! Mr. Forster, writing in 1872, states that the stone gateway mentioned by Robinson, the guard-house, and other brick buildings in the enclosed space at Garhgāon had all disappeared. The following stone was dug up at Garhgaon. Gn. 1.-A slab, 30" x 13"-75 x 2," on the upper surface of which is a raised area 20"-50 square. This raised portion has a border of rosettes 125 in breadth, between two plain lines, and 1"-75 internal to this there is another area 14"•50 square, with a plain raised border 0'40 in thickness, but not continued directly all round, for it is bent in acutely at either side, and doubled on itself for a short way, thus leaving a triangular space at each corner, and which is filled up by a clawed and crested mythical animal. This square is occupied in its middle by a large eight-petaled rosette, the tip 1 Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. XLI, Pt. 1, pp. 32-41, Pl. vII. |