Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/241

 CHAP. VI. AURANGABAD, KUDA, AND OTHER CAVES. 207 One remarkable fragment survived till 1867, about a mile north-west of Negapattam, 1 in a ruined brick tower of three storeys about 70 feet high, locally known as Puduveli-gopura, and to Europeans as the " China pagoda." The interior was open to the top, but showed marks of a floor about 20 ft. from the ground. The brickwork was described as good and closely fitted together without cement, and the storeys were marked off by outside cornices of stepped brickwork, with an opening for a door or window in the middle of each side. Its general appear- ance in 1846 is presented by the accompanying woodcut (No. 1 1 6). This structure had probably formed part of one of the temples mentioned in the nth century. With the consent of the Madras Government, it was pulled down by the Jesuit priests who had been expelled from the French territory of Pondicherry in 1845, and in its demolition several images of Buddha were found the pedestal of one of them bearing an old Tamil inscription. 2 1 Ante, p. 33. permission to pull it down and use the materials for their college, and the district engineer, reporting upon it as not deserving the name of an ancient monument, recommended that an esti- mate of Rs. 400, sanctioned for its con- servation, should be cancelled, and the tower demolished. Sir W. Elliot opposed this, and the building would have been preserved, but the Jesuit priests threw obstructions in the way, and nothing was done. In 1867 they presented a fresh petition for permission to demolish it, which was granted. 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. vii. pp. 224 et seqq. vol xii. p. 311, and vol. xxii. p. 45. The cut is taken from Yule's 'Marco Polo' (3rd ed). vol. ii. p. 326. NOTE. (Ante, p. 175). Among the sculptures mentioned in the 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1907,' p. 997, as discovered in the excavations made in recent years at Sarnath, besides a fine capital and part of the shaft of an inscribed Aroka Lat, was an interesting flat capital which, though differing from the usual classic forms, bears a distinct re- semblance to the capitals of the pilasters of the temple of Apollo Didymseos at Miletos. Conf. Durm, 'Die Baustile des Hdbuches. der Architectur,' Bd. i. S. 189; Texier and Pullan, ' Principal Ruins of Asia Minor,' plates 6-8. It is of the same style as the larger example previously discovered by Dr. Waddell at Patna the ancient Pataliputra. The abacus of the latter is 49 in. II7. Capital found at Patna. long and 33 J in. in height, and is represented in the accompanying cut, No. 1 17. The Sarnath one is only 13 in. high and, when entire, was about 25 in.
 * In 1859 the Jesuit missionaries asked