been the largest in all India, but one of the boldest structures in Asia, or perhaps in the world. The stones employed in this building were all of very large dimensions; but there was one of such prodigious size that it required five years to lift it out of the quarry, as many more to draw it to the pagoda, and a carriage with fourteen hundred oxen! That a temple commenced upon such a scale, and with such materials, should be left unfinished, was not greatly to be wondered at; and accordingly it was never completed.
The population of this city with its extensive suburbs, though not exactly stated, must have been very considerable, since the number of licensed courtesans amounted, as he was informed, to twenty thousand, the majority of whom inhabited small huts, where by day they might always be seen standing at the door, while a lamp or lighted candle was placed by night to light the passenger to his ruin. The principal of these women presented themselves every Friday before the king, as was, according to Bernier, the custom likewise at Delhi, when, if his majesty permitted, they exhibited their skill in dancing; but if he were better employed they were commanded by the principal eunuch to retire. These ladies, who were under the especial protection of the monarch, appear to have been peculiarly devoted to their illustrious patron: for when his majesty was upon one occasion returning to his capital from Masulipatam, nine of these faithful servants contrived to imitate with their bodies the form of an elephant; four enacting the legs, another four the body, and one the proboscis; and, receiving their prince upon their back, bore him in triumph into the city! Both sexes here possessed a high degree of personal beauty; and, excepting the peasantry, who of course were rendered somewhat swarthy by their exposure to the sun, were distinguished for the fairness of their complexions.
