Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/437

 CHAP. IV. MADURA. 385 stone, differing from that employed in the rest of the building, and are ascribed to a Setupati named Udaiyan, early in the 1 5th century. 1 To him also is ascribed the west gopuram and surrounding walls, 2 but they probably belong to the time of Sadayaka Tevar Udaiyan, early in the i/th century. The first prakaram or enclosure, containing the older shrines, measures about 190 ft. by 307 ft., and outside this excepting the old vimana the style is so uniform and unaltered that its erection could hardly have lasted beyond a hundred years ; and if so, it must have been during the i/th century, when the Ramnad rajas were at the height of their prosperity, and when their ally or master, Tirumalai Nayyak, was erecting buildings in the same identical style at Madura, that the second prakaram, measuring 386 ft. by 314 ft, was completed by Raghunath Tirumalai, about 1658, the south half of it having been built by his predecessor. Vijaya Raghunath Tevar (1709-1723), erected some buildings in the Amman temple, with the mandapa in front, in which are statues of himself and of his father Kadamba Tevar; and in 1740 Muttu Raghunatha began the third prakaram, 690 ft. in length by 435 ft. from east to west, which was completed by Muttu Ramalinga Tevar in 1769. The central shrine may probably belong to the I5th or i6th century, but all the enclosing courts had been erected within 170 years after the end of the i6th century, and endowed exclusively by the family of the Setupati chiefs of Ramnad. It is one of the last great works of Hindus, and the last addition to it is the finest of all. MADURA. If the native authorities consulted by the late Professor Wilson in compiling his Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya could be relied upon, it would seem that the founda- tion of the dynasty ought to be placed some centuries before the Christian Era. 3 Even, however, if this is disputed, the fact of the southern part of the Peninsula being described as the " Regio Pandionis " by classical authorities, is sufficient to prove that a kingdom bearing that name did exist there in the early centuries of the Christian Era. Their first capital, however, seems to have been Korkai, near Cape Comorin. 4 The story of Kula^ekhara founding the dynasty, and the fabulous incidents 1 It is said he was aided in the work [ this work by a rich merchant and his by a Singhalese king or chief named Pararaja Sekhara, under whose super- vision the stones were hewn and fitted at Trinkonamalai. 2 He is said to have been assisted in wife from Nagiir, whose statues surmount the eastern wall. 3 ' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. iii. p. 202. 4 Ante, p. 304. VOL. I. 2 B