Photo 212/5(39)

Genre: Architectural Photography

View from the south-east, showing the Nakula Sahadeva Ratha, with the stone elephant at the right. Another copy of this print at Photo 1000 (3093). Lyon's 'Notes to accompany a series of photographs prepared to illustrate the ancient architecture of Southern India' (Marion and Co., London, 1870), edited by James Fergusson, gives the following description of this photograph: '445 - The fifth Monolith [Nakula Sahadeva Ratha] is generally considered the most elegant of the series, and is particularly interesting, as it has a semicircular or apsidal termination, seen in 438. All the Chaitya Caves possess this feature, but it is nowhere seen externally except in this one example. What renders these raths especially interesting to the students of Indian architecture is that we can connect them, on the one hand, certainly with the monasteries and halls of the Buddhist, with which we are familiar in rock-cut examples from 250 years B.C. to the tenth or eleventh century. On the other hand it is equally evident that they are the originals of the Gopuras and Vimanas, or gateway and temple towers which have been so frequently illustrated in the preceding Photographs.

Immediately behind this Rath is seen the figure of an elephant, which when cleared of sand is the size of life, and still further off behind the elephant facing the opposite way, is the figure of a lion also life size. There are several inscriptions on these monoliths in ancient Tamil, which Mr. Babington has explained, and which show that the sculptures generally represent Vishnu and his Avatars. Before leaving the place to return to Madras, the granite rocks to the north of the village should be visited in order to inspect an enormous circular stone of an egg-shape, 27 feet in diameter called the 'Butter rock' though why so named seems a mystery. It rests on its pointed end on the smooth and sloping surface of the rocks in such a manner that it appears a marvel that it has not long ago been precipitated to the plain below. The surface of the rocks is covered with bricks said to be the remains of an ancient palace. A polished stone slab about ten feet long, is also shown as the couch of Dharma Rajah, the elder brother of Arguna, and a rough stone trough is pointed out as the ladies' bath.'