“At the entrance of the large door of the grand pagoda, which is fifteen palms in height and ten in breadth, there are four upright statues, one of which represents a female holding a flower in her hand; together with twelve smaller ones, some in a sitting and others in a standing posture, and having the right hand, which seems to contain something, placed on the breast. On the left are observed four other statues cut out of the same rock, two of which represent females, and have around their legs large rings. Towards the sides there are sixteen smaller statues, which, like those just now mentioned, have their hands on the breast, and are partly sitting and partly standing. Over this door you find also two large statues, with two small ones sitting opposite to each other, and three of the same kind in an upright posture. On the left side, below, there is another inscription in the same characters as those before mentioned[215]. Above the architrave of this door is a window, the breadth of which is forty palms, and consequently equal to that of the whole pagoda. A large stone supplies the place of an architrave, and is supported in the inside by eight octagonal pillars. “In regard to the pagoda itself, which is a hundred palms in length, and forty in breadth, it is arched like that of _Mabalipuram_, and of a circular form at the extremity. Besides the four columns at the entrance, there are thirty of the same kind within, which divide the whole into three apartments. Seventeen of these pillars are ornamented, some with chapiters, and others with figures representing elephants. The rest have no ornament except that of being cut into an octagonal form. The space left between the columns and the solid rock, that is, the breadth of the side apartments, is about six palms. At the end of the pagoda there is a kind of cupola, cut out in the rock; which, however, is not hollow in the inside. It is thirty palms in height, and sixteen paces in circumference. I am convinced that it was formerly destined for some particular use, with which at present we are not acquainted. “Every thing hitherto described is cut out from the solid rock, so that I could observe neither in the statues nor any where else the smallest appearance of joining. On the floor of the pagoda, a few cut stones lay scattered about, which may formerly perhaps have been employed for stairs. On coming out of the pagoda, having ascended sixteen steps cut from the solid rock, I arrived at a cistern filled with potable water; and, on ascending sixteen steps more, I found a grotto sixteen palms square, and a little farther another much larger and filled with muddy water. Proceeding twenty paces more, I came to three other grottos, all adjoining; the first of which was twenty, and the last only twelve palms square. In the first was a window, to which you could ascend by means of twelve steps; also two columns and a small cistern.”