Quintin Craufurd

"...temples, called by the Europeans Pagodas are ... very numerous, especially In the southern provinces, and some of them of such remote antiquity, that no account is left, either in writing or by tradition, when or by whom they were erected. But the northern provinces being first conquered, the feat of the Mahomedan government fixed, and its greatest force exerted in those parts ; most of the temples were destroyed, the images of stone broken, and those of metal melted to cover the floors of the mosques and palaces, that the faithful Musulman should have the satisfaction daily to trample on what had been held sacred by the Hindoo."