Page:Oriental Scenery — One Hundred and Fifty Views of the Architecture, Antiquities, and Landscape Scenery of Hindoostan.djvu/183

20 No. III.

WATERFALL AT COURTALLUM, IN THE TINNEVELLY DISTRICT.

Waterfall at Courtallum, called Tancanche, about twenty miles northward from the Cataract of Puppanassum, is also accounted by the Hindoos a place of peculiar sanctity. On certain festivals the number of people that resort to this spot from every part of India, is almost incredible; and to accommodate so great a concourse of religious persons, numerous choultries are provided. Some of the buildings of that description appear in this view; the others (sometimes connected with pagodas) are scattered about the valley in different situations; and the grandeur and religious solemnity of the scene is much heightened by a grove of large spreading trees, two or three miles in extent, beneath which is the general pathway leading to the great object of their devotion.

Besides those who frequent the falls of Tancanche and Puppanassum simply for the purposes of devotion, many also repair thither in order to procure the sacred water, which they carry about in small bottles carefully packed up in curious baskets; these, attached to each end of a bamboo, they bear on their shoulders, and travel many hundred miles through the country, occasionally distributing, at the principal Hindoo temples in their route, small portions of this holy fluid, whereby they insure to themselves whatever food and accommodation they may require.

The height of the cataract of Courtallum is two hundred and twenty feet.

 No. IV.

SHEVAGURRY.

is a small village, the residence of a Poligar Rajah, tributary to the British government. It is situated at the foot of a range of hills that extend in a southern direction towards Cape Comorin, from which it is distant about one hundred miles. The village is concealed behind the rocky eminence, whereon is placed the temple and choultries that appear in this view. The inhabitants of this part of the country are chiefly rude mountaineers, but little civilized, and as usual much attached to their native hills, which afford them shelter both from their common enemies and those provoked by their insubordination. Should their chief choose at any time to resist the regular claims of government, (a circumstance not unfrequent), he immediately flies to his hilly fastnesses, whence he is not easily dislodged; and his submission in such cases can only be enforced with much trouble and expense.

 No. V.

CHEVAL-PETTORE.

this view, taken in the district of Tinnevelly, the Fort of is a conspicuous object; the town of that name, to which it is attached, is not introduced, being about a mile distant on the left. The hills contiguous to this fort are in a good style; they are well wooded, and produce many situations extremely beautiful and picturesque. Like most of the Carnatic mountains, they rise abruptly out of the plain beneath; a circumstance which, when they are not in extensive masses, gives them a very singular appearance, resembling rocky islands or islets rising out of the ocean. They are of all dimensions, from what is called the Sugar-loaf rock of Tritchinopoly to Severn Droog; and of these insulated eminences many examples occur in the preceding works. They are generally selected as fortresses, and are of such difficult access, that their perpendicular sides are only to be assailed with success by British intrepidity.

The ramparts of Cheval-pettore are formed of mud, a material very commonly used in India in the construction of walls for various purposes, though to an European ear it conveys no idea of stability. These earthen walls, nevertheless, baked in the fierce rays of an almost vertical sun, have been often put to a severe test by our artillery, and found equal, if not superior, even to masonry.

 No. VI.

NEAR ATTOOR, IN THE DINDIGUL DISTRICT.

is a village in the small district of Dindigul, situated to the south of the kingdom of Mysore. This part of the country, though not entirely uncultivated, has a wild and most romantic character; broken into hill and valley, and covered in many parts with thick woods of great extent, giving shelter to herds of elephants, and numerous other wild animals, that would ofttimes quit their gloomy retreats, and carry havoc and destruction among the plantations of the peasantry, were they not strictly watched by a class of human creatures, whose shaggy forms and ferocious aspect appear sufficient to strike terror into the hearts even of lions and tigers. 