This aquatint is taken from plate 11 of Henry Salt's 'Twenty Four Views in St. Helena, the Cape, India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia and Egypt'. The sacred hill at Tirukkalikunram in Tamil Nadu must have been seen by Salt as he made his way to Mahabalipuram from Pondicherry. He wrote: "[The Chief Brahmin] resides on the hill, where the Pagoda has the appearance of a fortification and would in fact be extremely difficult of approach, were it not for a handsome flight of steps cut in the rock. The Pagodas below consist, as usual of a lofty wall of stone, and having gateways of a pyramidal form, ending in something like a sarcophagus. These are surrounded by groves of cocoa-nut, mango and tamarind trees."

Plate from, Henry Salt's 'Twenty Four Views in St. Helena, the Cape, India, Ceylon, Abyssinia and Egypt', from drawings made by Henry Salt, Esq. during his travels with Lord Valentia.