Ramisseram temple, on the island of Ramisser at Paumben, is enclosed in an outer wall 868 feet long by 672 feet, and 20 feet in height, with four gopuras built entirely of stone, three of them being unfinished. Its corridors extend to 4000 feet in length, are 20 to 30 feet broad, and about 30 feet high. Each pillar or pier is corn Pound he rich elaborate designs. 'e central corridor is 700 feet long. It is supposed to have been begun about the year 1550. A small V411111311 in the west is alone of older date. It is now devoted to Siva.
Vijayanagar is built on the Tumbudra river. A city is said to have been founded there in A.D. 1118 by Vijaya Rayal, but only as a dependency of the Mysore Raj. The Muhammadans in A.D. 1310 had struck down the kingdom of Hoisala Bellala, and destroyed their capital Hullabid ; in 1322, Warangal was finally destroyed by them, and Bakka and Harihara, princes of Warangal, re established themselves at Vijayanagar. For two hundred years it maintained a gallant struggle against the Bahmani and Adal Shahi kings of Ahmadnaggur and Bijapur. The period of its greatest prosperity was between the accession of Krishna Deva, A.D. 1508, and the death of Achutya Rayal, 1542 ; and it is to their reigns that the finest monuments of the city must be ascribed. In 1565 it was finally taken by the Muhammadans, and it has ever since continued in ruins. There is no other city in India where ruins exist in such numbers. The most remarkable of the remains is an unfinished temple dedicated to Vitoba, a local manifestation of Vishnu. It was commenced by Achutya Rayal, A.D. 1529-1542. The principal part is its porch of granite, carved with a boldness and expression of power nowhere surpassed by buildings of its class.
Mahavellipore, south of Madras, on the sea shore, is famed for its monolithic temples or raths. There are inscriptions in Sanskrit, and their date seems to have been not later than the 7th century. They have been formed out of the solid rock, and on one of the oldest the Hindu deities are sculp tured, the gods being represented with four arms. One of them, the Arjuna rath, is nearly finished, and was intended to contain a cell. There are also some excavated caves ; and at Saluvan Kuppam, two miles north of Mahavellipore, is a cave with ten tiger heads at its entrance.
Ellora Kailas cave has a model of a complete temple of the Dravidian style, standing in a courtyard, and consisting of a vimana between 80 and 90 feet in height, preceded by a large square porch supported by 16 columns; before this stands a detached porch, reached by a bridge, and in front of all stands the gateway, which is in like manner connected with the last porch by a bridge, the whole being cut out of the solid rock, standing in a court dug around the temple in the sloping side of the hill, about 100 feet deep at its inmost side, and half that height at the entrance or gopura, the floor of the pit being 150 feet wide and 270 feet in length; and in the centre of this rectangular court stands the temple. There are also two
pillars or dipdan (lamp pillars) left standing on each side of the detached porch, and two elephants about the size of life. All round the court there is a peristylar cloister, with cells and some halls. The completeness of this cave never fails to strike the beholder with astonishment.
In the Ganjam district, the Hindu temples are formed by a group of rather low buildings, in some cases detached, in others joined, each with a graduated pyramidal roof, terminating in an ornamental conical cupola.
In Northern India, from Orissa to the foot of the Himalaya, the Hindu temples, with scarcely a single exception, are rectangular in plan and cubical in the form of their body. In Southern India, also, the square temple is the rule.
The Dharmsala temples of the Sikhs are, in general, plain buildings. They are built by rich men, or by several uniting to defray the expense. They have a flat roof, and are sufficiently capacious to accommodate a multitude of attendants, who sit or stand during worship. Images are banished. The bunga or temples at Amritsar, surrounding the holy tank, are fine buildings ; each misl or association of Sikhs has a separate bunga.
Pagodas of Burma are chiefly relic receptacles, viz. dat-dau, relics of a Buddha or Rahanda ; paree bau-ga, implements or garments of Buddha or other sacred person ; dhamma, books or texts ; and the ou-deit-tsa contain statues of Buddha. The Buddhists of Burma, at Prome and Rangoon, have erected magnificent temples for their worship, with much detail, but with a grandeur of dimen sions that prevents the thought of puerility. The great colossal figures of the pagodas at Rangoon and Prome are magnificent structures. That at Rangoon, built on the most elevated part of a great laterite ridge, towers majestically above all surrounding objects.