The greater part, or rather almost all the pagodas on the coast of Coromandel, are built of large square stones, so arranged and connected that they form a pyramid. Those seen on the coast of Malabar consist of black basaltes, found in the Gauts; which is exceedingly hard, and very proper for building[211]. They are, for the most part, circular, and covered with plates of copper, as those at _Padmanàburam_, _Molicolam_, _Tirumannur_, and _Certele_. Some of them, however, are square, as that at _Mattinceri_, which is called _Tirumala Dèvasam_; that also at _Ciovare_, and two others. The front and doors of these pagodas are either of marble or basaltes, and ornamented with figures of various kinds, which have a symbolical meaning, and represent the _Vahana_, or riding animals of the gods. On the front of a temple at _Tirapalur_ there are two cows cut out, of a colossal size. On some the god _Hanumàn_, or Pan, is represented under the form of an ape; and on others _Shiva_, who is exhibited in a form altogether horrid and frightful. Between these pieces of sculpture and that of the Greeks no comparison can be made; but they at any rate deserve to be preferred to the shapeless statues of the Egyptians. It is seen by them that they are finished in an original Indian style, which is very different from the Grecian or the Egyptian. I am induced, therefore, to conjecture, that the art of constructing such works was conveyed to this country neither from Egypt nor Greece. Thus the deities _Shiva_, _Ràma_, _Parvadi_, &c. are represented in the pagodas at Salsette, Mabalipuram, and in the island of Elephanta, as men perfectly naked, who have nothing on their bodies but a small piece of cloth to cover their parts of sex. Their arms and fingers are ornamented with bracelets and rings, and around their ancles they have a couple of broad bands. On their head they bear a conical cap, and in each of their long perforated ears hangs a large ring. These, however, are neither Egyptian nor Grecian, but Indian ornaments, which are still used by the inhabitants of the country. Were there no other difference between the sculpture of the Greeks and Indians, the dress and costume of these statues would serve as an irrefragable proof that the temple of Salsette cannot possibly have been the work of Alexander the Great and his army, as has been erroneously asserted by Gemelli, Careri, and Spilberg. How could Alexander the Great be capable of building a temple at Mabalipuram on the coast of Coromandel, a country which he never entered? Yet statues of the Indian deities, of the like kind, are found there, and with the same costume and ornaments as those in the pagodas of Salsette and the island of Elephanta. This sufficiently shews that these monuments are of Indian origin, and must have been formed long before the period of Alexander the Great.