Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c7.s4.4

c7.s4.4

At a short distance to the north-west of Borivli railway station, in a field, is a group of seven curious memorial stones, which, on account of their close resemblance to similar stones found in the Kanarese country, have been already described in a previous volume on Chālukyan Architecture.¹ They were probably set up during the time of the Śilāhāras of the Northern Koṅkaṇ; and, judging from the sculptures on them, they commemorated the deaths of heroes who fell in some action carried out upon land and sea. Some of the stones shew the land battle, in which elephants, protected with coats of mail, took part, while others depict the lines of vessels, propelled with banks of oars like the old Roman *biremes*, both in their advance upon the enemy and the melée itself. (Plate XV.)