RORI BAROLLI has a grand temple 58 feet in height, and in the ancient "form peculiar to the temples of Siva. The body of the' edifice, in which is the sanctum of the god, and over which rises its pyratuidal sikr, is a square of only 21 feet ; but the addition of the domed vestibule (munduf) and portico makes it 44 by 21. The whole is covered with mythological sculpture, without as well aa within, emblematic of Siva as 3fahadeo, who in Saiva Hindu belief . is the giver as well as the destroyer of life. In a niche outside, to the south, he is armed against the Dytes (Titans), the roond mala or skull-chaplet reaching to his knees, and in seven of his arms aro offensive weapons. His aip. it; the frustrum of a cone composed of snakes interlaced with a fillet of skulls ; the cupra is in hand, and the victims are scattered around. On his right is one of the Jogini maids of slaughter, drunk with blood, the cup still at her lip, and her countenance expressive of vacuity ; while below, on the left, is a female personification of death, mere skin and bone ; a sickle (koorpi) in her right hand, ita knob a death's head, completes this group of the attributes of destruction.
To the west is Mahadeo under another form,— a beautiful and animated statue, the expression mild, as when he went forth to entice the mountain-nymph Mera to his embrace. His tiara is a blaze of finely-executed ornaments, and his snake-wreath, which hang-a ronnd him as a gar land, has a clasp of two heads of Sehesnag (the serpent-king), while Nanda below is listening with placidity to the sound of the drunroo. His cupra and kharg, or skull-cap and sword, which ho is in tho attitude of ming, aro the only ac companiments denoting the god of blood, The northern compartment is a picture disgustingly faithful of death and its attributes, vulgarly known as Bhooka Mata, or the personification of f ine, loud and bare • her necklace, like that of her lord, iS of skulls. 'Close by are two mortals in the last stage of existence, so correctly repre sented as to excite an unpleasant surprise. The outline is anatomically correct. The mouth is
half open and distorted, and although the eye is closed in death, an expression of mental anguish seems still to linger upon the features. A beast of prey is approaching the dead body, while by way of contrast a male figure, in all the vigour of youth a,nd health, lies prostrate at her feet,.
Such is a faint description of the sculptured niches on each of the external faces of the mindra, whence the spire rises, simple and solid. In a Hindu temple is the mindra or cella, in which is the statue of the god ; then the munduf, in architectural nomenclature, is the pronaos ; and third, the portico. Like all temples dedicated to Bal-Siva, the vivifier, or sun-god, it faces the east. The portico projects several feet beyond the munduf, and has four superb columns in front. The ceilings, both of the portico and munduf, are elaborately beautiful ; that of the portico, of one single block, could hardly be surpassed. The exterior is a grand, wonderful effort of the silpi or architect, one series rising above and surpassing the other, from the base to the urn which surmounts the pinnacle. The sanctum contains the symbol of the god, whose local appellation is Rori Barolli, a change from Balron, from the circumstance of Balnath, the sun-god, being here typified by an orbicular stone termed rori, formed by attrition in the chooli or whirlpools of the Chambal, near which the temple stands, and to which phenomena it probably owed its foundation. This symbolic rori is not fixed, but lies in a groove in the internal ring of the Yoni ; a,nd so nicely is it poised, that with a very moierate impulse it will continue revolving while the votary recites a tolerably long hymn to the object of his adoration. The old ascetic, who had long been one of the zealots of Barolli, amongst his other wonders, gravely told Colonel Tod that with the momentum given by his little finger, in former days, he could make it keep on its course much longer than now with the application of all his strength.—Tod's Rajasthan, p. 706.