________________
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
226
Agama pandita? I took the image some years ago to be Buddhist. There was, however, a Saiva teacher Umâpatisivacharya, also called Sakalagama pandita, and it may represent him."
It can hardly be doubted that the statuette is connected with the character of the building, and the purpose for which it was erected. Now the general aspect of the figure, the loose mantle, the crisp chevelure, the conical headornament, the pierced and elongated ear-lobes, savour strongly of a Buddhist (or Jaina) origin, which would imply a corresponding relation between the structure and that faith. Granting this, it may be set down as a Vihara, or as a memorial of some holy man.
I did not omit to consult Mr. Fergusson on the subject, but he finds a difficulty in pronouncing a decided opinion from a mere sketch without plan or measurements, and adds, "The only buildings I know in India at all like it are the tombs of the Jaina priests at M uḍubidri (Hist. of Ind. Arch., p. 275, woodcut 154). If it be not a tomb I do not know what it is."
The fate of this "interesting building," as Col. Yule calls it, strikingly illustrates the importance of forming an Archæological Survey Department for the Madras Presidency, as has been done for every other part of India and for Ceylon. It cannot be supposed that the Government would have thus ruthlessly consigned to destruction a monument unique of its kind, which had never been carefully examined by a competent observer, if they had been aware of its claim to protection. Nor is this a solitary example. The work of demolition is daily going on, and too late it will be found that other precious relics of the past have been lost for ever through simple ignorance of their value.
I am convinced, from my own observation, that if this one had only been left to itself it would have stood for years. All that was wanted for its protection was to enclose it with a substantial wall, at the cost of a few rupees, to hinder cattle and passing vehicles from destroying the angles at its base. The state in which I saw it, as depicted in the plate, Fig. 2, twenty years before it was reported to be in danger of falling, shows that the lower story had
See Moor's Hindu Pantheon, p. 251, plates lxx..lxxi. Mr. Rayne at present fills the post of Chief Engineer
[SEPTEMBER, 1878.
only suffered externally from the attrition to which its exposed situation made it liable, without damaging the stability of the structure.
Since the foregoing was written I have received Middleton Rayne when employed on the Great a photograph of the College taken in 1866 by Mr. Indian Peninsula Railway. In this the tower appears in the background (as represented in Fig. 1 of the plate) to the left of the College, which has now assumed an imposing appearance.
A livraison of the 1st volume of the Athenée Oriental (Paris, 1871) has likewise come to hand, in which (at pp. 79-86) there is an article entitled "La Bouddha Sakya Mouni," by M. Ph. Ed. Foucaux, Professor of Sanskrit. in the College of France. In this he has introduced woodcuts of three Buddhist images found in the grounds of the College of St. Joseph at Negapatam, copied from sketches communicated by the Academic Society of St. Quentin, through the kindness of M. Textor de Ravisi, late Governor of Karikal, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making at the International Oriental Congress of 1874.
The circumstances under which the images were discovered are stated in the following extract from a record made at the time :
"Not far from the tower is an old Mohwa tree (Bassia latifolia, L.), the diameter of which above the root is more than a metre-indicating, according to the usual growth of the tree, an age of 700 to 800 years.
"In March 1856 the missionaries, having cut it down for the requirements of their work of construction, discovered five small Buddhist idols at a depth of somewhat more than a yard below the
surface.
"From the position in which they were found,
they appear to have been concealed, with a view of being again used in religious worship, for they were carefully placed in a chamber under a cover
ing of bricks arranged for their protection.
"Four of the idols are of bronze, the fifth of a mixture of porcelain and clay, of exquisite workmanship."
M. Foucaux adds that one of the idols had been
retained in the College, and that the fifth had been sent to Rev. Fr. Carayon, in Paris, but he does not state what became of the remaining three. One of these, No. 16, is almost identical with that figured for our article (Fig. 3), differing only in the absence of the square pedestal bearing the inscription, which, however, forms a separate piece from the lotos stand common to both, and in the disposition of the mantle, which is pendent from the
of the Sindh and Panjab Railway, and is now at Multan. The Tamil name is Iluppai-maram.
