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are lying fixed in the soil in the extensive forest-area adjoined the quay. These sites appear to demand early attention for excavation. The huge mound called Stambhālobōḍu (meaning in Telugu ‘the mound of pillars’) is also awaiting exploration and from the nature of brick foundations and courses found in this area, the site promises to be of value. It may be remarked here that a site in the Buddhist area on the hillock at Reṇṭāla also goes by the name of Stambhālabōḍu (Vide A. R. on S. I. E. for 1936-37, p. 1).

  4. The several monuments at Bezwada and Mogalrājapuram were also examined, in company with the Assistant Engineer, P. W. D., Bezwada, and conservation notes were drawn up for the improvement of some of the monu- ments. The caves at Uṇḍavalli, were also thoroughly examined and photo- graphs * of some interesting interior views of the caves were taken. Suggestions have also been made to the Director General of Archaeology in India for transferring the present open-air museum at Hampi to the ‘Queen’s Bath’ as the latter would provide shade and protection for the exhibits. Attention has also been drawn to the rapid deterioration and disintegration to which the monolithic Narasiṁha statue at Hampi is exposed and suggestions have been made for the better preservation of the monument. The so-called Jaina temples near the Pampāpati temple at Hampi were examined by me in close detail, and I found that they are Brahminic temples of the Trikūṭa style meant for enshrining Śiva, Vishṇu, Sūryanārāyaṇa, etc This Trikūṭa from of temple was particularly popular in the Bellary area during the period of the Kalyāṇi Chālukyas. It is therefore high time to disillusion the public and the tourists by changing the name boards on these monument which are quite misleading: The so-called Sarasvatī temple in the Hampi ruins was also examined on this occasion and found to bear Vaishṇavite symbols and scenes carved on pillars and walls ; and these associations establish that the temple was one of Vishṇu, which is also corroborated by an inscription found in the temple itself belonging to the reign of the Vijayanagara king Sadāśiva which calls the deity of the temple as Tiruvēṅgaḷanātha (No. 337 of 1935-36). It is suggested here that the name-board of this temple also may be corrected.

  5. Under instructions from the Director General of Archaeology in India, I made a programme of tour for Sir Leonard Woolley for his South Indian tour in the latter half of January 1939, and inspected along with him some important archaeological sites in the Bellary, Coimbatore, Guntur, Nilgiri, Trichinopoly and Tinnevelly districts.

   6. Owing to urgent work at headquarters, my Senior Assistant Mr. G.V. Śrinivasa Rao, did not go out on tour except to Kīlaochchȗr in the North Arcot district and to Kunnattūr near Tinnevelly, in the latter of which places be arranged, in consultation with the Revenue Department, for the conservation of a prehistoric site on the neighbouring hillock which had been previously examined by me.
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   7. The Second Assistant and the Tamil Assistant Messrs. A.S. Ramanatha Ayyar and V. Venkatasubba Ayyar, resumed work in the Raṅganātha temple at Śriraṅgam in the Trichinopoly district which was taken up last year. They also visited the villages Tiruppaṅgili and Tiruveḷḷarai close by. The three places are rich in epigraphs and have altogether yielded 212 inscription excludeing those which are yet to be copied in them. Later on the Second Assistant inspected selected places in the South Arcot and Salem districts, while the Tamil Assistant visited a few in the Madura, Tanjore and North Arcot districts. Some of the inscriptions copied by them are important and their contents are discussed in Part II in the Chōḷa, Pāṇḍya and Vijayanagara sections.

   At Tiruppaṅgili they discovered an early rock-cut panel of Sōmāskanda which is sculptured on a boulder of the streaked variety of rock peculiar to the locality. God Śiva is seated on a throne with one of his legs hanging down and placed on the Apasmāra-purusha and the goddess Umā seated to his right. Between them is the figure of Skanda. Though there are no inscriptions here, this panel may be attributed to the Pallava period as the Sōmāskanda group was a favourite motif of the Pallava period from the time of Narasiṁha II, and rock-cut temples at Tiruveḷḷarai and Trichinopoly close by are definitely ascribable to the Pallavas.

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* These are included in the collection of the Archaeological Superintendent, Southern Circle.

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