Ophiolatreia: An Account of the Rites and Mysteries Connected with the Origin, Rise, and Development of Serpent Worship in Various Parts of the WorldSellon, Edward
History
Ophiolatreia: An Account of the Rites and Mysteries Connected with the Origin, Rise, and Development of Serpent Worship in Various Parts of the World
Sellon, Edward
Phallicism; Serpent worship
A few paces to the eastward of this enclosure are the ruins of the
"Thousand Pillars." These consisted originally of 1600 pillars, disposed
in a square. The greater part are still standing; they consist, with a few
exceptions, of a single piece of gneiss in the rough state in which they
were quarried. They are ten or twelve feet above the ground; twelve inches
by eight square, and about four feet from each other; but the two in the
centre of the outer line differ from the rest in being of hard blue
granite, and in being more carefully finished. These pillars were said to
have been covered with _chunam_ (plaster) and thus converted into columns
having definite forms and proportions. There is a tradition that there
was formerly in the centre of this square a brazen chamber, in which was
contained a relic held in much veneration. A few paces from this was a
single pillar of gneiss in a rough state, which was from fourteen to
sixteen feet high.
Captain Chapman observes that structures, accompanied by similar groups of
columns, exist on the opposite or continental coast. The temples of
Rámiseram, Madura, and the celebrated one of Seringham, have each their
"Thousand Pillars." In Rámiseram the pillars are arranged in colonnades of
several parallel rows, and these colonnades are separated by tanks or
spaces occupied by buildings in the manner indicated by Mr. Stephens at
Chichen-itza. Some of these pillars are carved; others are in their rough
state or covered with plaster. In Madura the pillars are disposed in a
square of lines radiating in such a manner that a person placed in the
centre can see through in every direction. This square is on a raised
terrace, the pillars rude and only about eight feet high. At Seringham the
pillars also form a square.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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