These temples may be said to be the most remarkable and unique architectural productions to be found anywhere. They are examples of long-continued perseverance and patience, and can only be the result of a preconceived design which must have been thoroughly studied in all its elaborate detail before the first stroke was given toward its realization. The unity of conception and execution exhibited in such works is truly wonderful, and it is not astonishing that the superstitious natives should attribute their creation to Visvakarma, the heavenly architect. On the other hand, there are but few practical lessons to be learned from their examination. Such methods are not possible in our day, nor if so, would they be desirable. Architecture of this kind is scarcely more than wholesale sculpture, and as such can in no sense compare favourably with the grace of form and scientific construction which we see in the works of Greek and Gothic artists. The Pagodas are the most important of the buildings constructed with jointed materials. They consist of vast enclosures containing numerous religious and domestic edifices. There are often double or triple series of enclosing walls of great height and thickness. The sides are usually placed so as to face the points of the compass and each contains a monumental entrance, richly sculptured, and adorned with bands of embossed copper. The chief buildings within are the temple proper, or vimana, and a number of hypostylic halls with small sanctuaries dedicated to different divinities. The form of the vimana differs in the North and South of India. In both cases it is pyramidal, but while in the Southern temples the plan is rectangular and the elevations marked by a series of horizontal stories and mouldings, in the North the exterior surfaces are convex and the outlines curved, showing vertical instead of horizontal divisions. The lower story, containing the idol, is usually a hollow cube of granite, and serves as a base to the pyramid above, which is most frequently built of brick with stucco facing. The halls are composed of a great number of columns of varied design, placed in parallel rows. The ceilings are formed by stone beams or slabs resting upon the columns. The central aisle is frequently wider than the others and is roofed over by a corbelled vault. A tank of sacred water surrounded by an open colonnade is not uncommonly placed within the enclosure, the waters being used by the infirm for the healing properties which they are supposed to contain. The pagodas of Tanjore, Combaconum, and Madura are among the finest and most celebrated. They were built between the fifth and eleventh centuries of the Christian era, and should hardly, therefore, be described among the ancient buildings of the world, were it not that they are linked in with the chain of the older Indian art too closely to be separated from it.