History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.s6.25

v1.c19.s6.25

Another structure of some interest in connection with these early Dravidian temples is what is known to Europeans as the "Shore temple" at the "Seven Pagodas." Standing on a point of land that juts out into the sea, it has suffered much from high tides and sea air, and is seriously damaged. The surrounding walls of the court have been much ruined, but excavations made in 1884 revealed the lines of these where they had fallen, and of other buildings in the west half of the court. The plan (Woodcut No. 211) will show the disposition of the whole, and the photograph of the temple itself from the north-west (Plate No. X., *Frontispiece*) gives a view that makes the style intelligible. It may be somewhat later than the two earliest temples at Conjivaram, described above, but if so it can hardly be ascribed to a later date than the 9th century A.D. At present, it contains two shrines unsymmetrically disposed—the smaller, facing the west, being dedicated to Vishnu, and the larger, entered from the east, now contains the Saiva Lingam.¹