+ROCK-CUT RATHS.+ All the above temples were built subsequently to the 12th century. The rock-cut shrines date in some cases as far back as the 7th century; they are called _kylas_ and _raths_, and are not caves, but isolated edifices, imitating structural designs, but hewn bodily from the rock. Those at Mahavellipore are of diminutive size; but at +Purudkul+ there is an extensive temple with shrine, choultrie, and gopura surrounded by a court enclosure measuring 250 × 150 feet (9th century). More famous still is the elaborate +Kylas+ at +Ellora+, of about the same size as the above, but more complex and complete in its details. +PALACES.+ At Madura, Tanjore, and Vijayanagar are Dravidian palaces, built after the Mohammedan conquest and in a mixed style. The domical octagonal throne-room and the +Great Hall+ at Madura (17th century), the most famous edifices of the kind, were evidently inspired from Gothic models, but how this came about is not known. The Great Hall with its pointed arched barrel vault of 67 feet span, its cusped arches, round piers, vaulting shafts, and triforium, appears strangely foreign to its surroundings. +CAMBODIA.+ The subject of Indian architecture cannot be dismissed without at least brief mention of the immense temple of +Nakhon Wat+ in Cambodia. This stupendous creation covers an area of a full square mile, with its concentric courts, its encircling moat or lake, its causeways, porches, and shrines, dominated by a central structure 200 feet square with nine pagoda-like towers. The corridors around the inner court have square piers of almost classic Roman type. The rich carving, the perfect masonry, and the admirable composition of the whole leading up to the central mass, indicate architectural ability of a high order.