94

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

—this great stone weighed 23 tons 18 cwt., and another is described as still larger, probably weigh ing about 40 tons, and others are of nearly the same dimensions. These “are frequently raised some height from the ground, and supported on massive monoliths or pillars. “While this is so, we need not wonder at the masses employed in the erection of Stonehenge or Avebury, or any of our European monuments. Phy sically the Khassias are a very inferior race to what we can conceive our forefathers ever to have been.

Their stage of civilization is barely removed from that of mere savages, and their knowledge of the mechanical arts is of the most primitive descrip tion. Add to all this that their country is moun tainous and rugged in the highest degree. Yet with all these disadvantages they move these great stones, and erect them with perfect facility, while we are lost in wonder, because our forefathers did something nearly equal to it some fourteen centuries ago."

-

In Western India “there are some groups of rude stone monuments similar to those found in the

Khassia hills, and apparently erected for similar purposes. They are, however, much less perfectly known, and are described, or at least drawn, by only one traveller.” The most conspicuous of these is one near Belgäm. It consists of two rows of thir teen stones each, and one in front of them of three

stones—the numbers being always uneven, as in Bengal—and on the opposite side four of those small altars, or tables, which always accompany these groups of stones on the Khassia hills. These, however, are very much smaller, the central stone being only about 4 feet high, and falling off to about a foot in height at the end of each row.” When we turn to the sepulchral arrangements of the aboriginal tribes of India, the analogies to those of western Europe “are so striking that it is hard to believe they are accidental, though equally hard to understand how and when the intercourse could

have taken place which led to their similarity.” The examples adduced by the author are certainly very remarkable. As the writer remarks—“ nothing would tend more to convey clear ideas on the subject of Indian dolmens than a map of their distribution, were it possible to construct one . . . The following sketch, however, is perhaps not very far from the truth regarding them. They do not exist in the valley of the Ganges, or of any of its tributaries, nor in the valleys of the Narmadā or Tàpi, not, in fact, in that part of India which is generally described as north of the Vindhya range of hills. They exist, though somewhat sparsely, over the whole of the country drained by the Godaveri and its affluents. They are very common, perhaps more frequent than in any other part of India, in the valleys of the

[MARCH 1, 1872.

Krishna and its tributaries.

They are also found

on both sides of the Ghâts, through Koimbator, all the way down to Cape Comorin ; and they are also found in groups all over the Madras presidency, but especially in the neighbourhood of Conjiverain.” To help towards clearing up the question as to the race of the Indian dolmen builders, as well as

to throw light on other points connected with the history of Indian architecture in all its stages, we need to know more than we do of the Haidarābād

territory. As Mr. Fergusson states, “ In so far as the history or ethnography of the central pla teau of India is concerned, or its arts or architec ture, the Nizam's dominions are absolutely a terra incognita. No one has visited the country who had any knowledge of these subjects, and the Indian Government has done nothing to enquire, or to stimulate enquiry, into these questions in that country. Yet, if I am not very much mistaken, the solution of half the difficulties, ethnological or archaeological, that are now perplexing us, lies on the surface of that region, for any one who will take the trouble to read them. Till this is done, we must, it is feared, be content with the vaguest generalities.” Leaving these extracts, to speak for themselves, we commend this beautiful and most instructive

volume to all who have any real taste for the scientific study of antiquities, in the hope that it

will give a fresh and powerful stimulus to research in a field almost new in India and of uncommon interest.

RUINs of the NALANDA MoxAsteries, at Bargãon, Sub

division Bihar, Zilla Patna.

By A. M. Broadley, Esq.,

Assistant Magistrate and Collector, Patna.

24 pp. 8vo.

Calcutta, 1872.

Mr. Broadley is an enthusiastic and energetic archaeologist, and is, by good fortune, located in the district which, beyond all others, is the richest in India in historic associations and ancient Buddhist

remains. His contributions to our pages testify to his earnestness and ability, and this little brochure

illustrated with two plans—of an excavated temple at Bargãon, and of a sketch plan of the ruins there, with two lithographs of inscriptions—is further proof of the extent and thoroughness of his researches.

Printed unfortunately at a distance from its author, it is disfigured by many typographical errors. The account of the

excavations undertaken by Mr.

Broadley occupies little more than 10 pages, and is followed by the description of fully seventy Hindu and Buddhist sculptures found in the ruins ; then follows an inscription on a door, in his remarks on which we fear Mr. Broadley has been misled as

to a date, which his translator seems to fancy is concealed in the words agni-rágha-deara, and which

Races of Scotland, vol.

extremely interesting in an ethnographic point ºf view, if

II. plº lviii, lix, lx. They have also been described by Dr. Stevenson, J. R.A. s. vºl. v. pp. 192 et seqq. It would be

some further information could be obtained regarding these

• Colonel Forbes kº.

stone rows.