Travels in India (Tavernier) 39.1.3

39.1.3

You see fifty-two columns of 20 feet in height or thereabouts, which support a flat floor of large cut stones. They are ornamented by many figures in relief, which represent fearful demons and numerous animals — some of them being figures of demons having four horns, others with many legs and many tails, others which protrude their tongues, and others in more ridiculous attitudes. There are similar figures carved in the stones of the floor, and in the intervals between each pair of columns the statues of the gods are elevated on pedestals. The pagoda is in the middle of a large court, longer than it is wide, and the court is surrounded by walls which are enriched, inside and out, with the same figures as the pagoda. A gallery supported by sixty-six pillars, like a sort of cloister, runs all round the wall inside. You enter this court by a great gate, above which there are two large niches, one over the other, the first of which is supported by twelve pillars, and the second by eight. At the base of the columns of the pagoda there are old Indian inscriptions, which the priests of these idolaters have much difficulty in deciphering. We went to see another pagoda, built on an elevation, and it is ascended by a staircase with 193 steps, each being 1 foot high. The pagoda is square, with a dome on top ; there are figures in relief around the wall like those in the Bezwada pagoda.