nd Sanskrit manuscripts, of which eight thousand are written on
palm-leaves. This library is unique in all India; and it shows that a
raja in Tanjore, in his love for literature, could equal the raja of
Jaipur, in his love for astronomy. The desire for learning was a passion
that survived the fall, an evidence of the presence in humanity of the
preincarnate Christ, "the Light that lighteth every man."

Madura is a hundred miles farther south than Tanjore. It is really the
center of Dravidian worship. While some features of the Tanjore temple
are more beautiful, the temple at Madura is more vast. Five great
pyramidal towers, four of them on the points of the compass, meet the
eye as one looks upon the temple from a distance. The temple is built
about two great shrines or cells, one for the god Siva and the other for
his goddess wife Minakshi, each cell surmounted by a noble dome of
plated gold. On the four sides of the temple are stone porches, arcades,
and pillared halls of great variety, filled with elaborate and grotesque
carvings and sculptures. The extent of the structure may be judged from
the simple statement that the outer walls, twenty-five feet high,
surround a space eight hundred and thirty by seven hundred and thirty
feet, and are surmounted by four lofty gate-pyramids, each of them ten
stories in height. The portico roof of Minakshi's Hall is supported upon
six rows of carved pillars, each made from a single stone. There is an
extensive "Golden Lily Tank," bordered by a granite corridor hung with
cages of parrots, and the putrid waters of the tank furnish purification
preparatory to worship at Minakshi's shrine. The very porch or entrance
pavilion of this shrine is called "The Hall of a Thousand Pillars,"
though the actual number is nine hundred and eighty-five. Here and there
among the pillars are seated learned men or pundits, who place offerings
of flowers and perfumed water before their sacred books and chant the
meaning of Sanskrit scriptures to groups of devout listeners.

The great temple, with its dimly lighted corridors, is open to the
public day and night, and there is special illumination by hundreds of
little lamps in an arch at the entrance when night comes on. Long
avenues are filled with buyers and sellers of wares, and the rent of
their stalls furnishes a large revenue for the support of the many
priests. A big elephant and a baby elephant, each with the mark of the
god upon its forehead, are