Indian Antiquary Vol 02

SR No.: 032494
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 428
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(AUGUST, 1873.
human bones and small vessels, and very often some iron implements and ornaments. I do not think that any one of them is large enough to contain the body of a full-grown man, though placed in a sitting posture, with the legs and thighs drawn up, and the head bent down. wards between the knees, as is sometimes found in tumuli in Earope. If, therefore, full-grown men were buried in them, as probably they were,- for the small swords found in many of them lead us naturally to conclude that they must have been used by the deceased warrior, -I think the body must have been either cat up or partly burnt before interment. The position of the bones in layers, one upon the other, seems to indicate the same conclusion. Remnants of this mode of burying were visible 80 years ago among the Kukis, or the non-Aryan inhabitants of the mountainous districts to the east of Bengal, as stated in the 2nd vol, of the Asiatic Researches:-“When a Kuki dies, his kinsmen lay the body on a stage, and, kindling a fire under it, pierce it with a spit and dry it; when it is perfectly dried, they cover it with two or three folds of cloth, and, inclosing it in a little case within a chest, bury it underground."
The interior of these cairns not being so accurately defined as that of the cromlechs, it is not always easy to ascertain exactly their dimensions. Speaking roughly, however, I should say that they vary in size in about the same proportions as the cromlechs. These are the most barren in results, though the most difficult to open. In some of them nothing is found, and in others only small urns with small bits of iron, the crumblings of some instruments, and small pieces of bones which look like the remnants of cremation.
II. The objects found in the tumuli may be distributed into four classes :-1, Pottery ; 2, Human bones; 3. Ornaments; 4, Iron imple mente.
1. Pottery.-This consists of urns, vases, and other vessels of different shapes and sizes. The large urns already mentioned as found in Class A are so brittle that they invariably fall to pieces by their own weight as soon as the sar. rounding earth is removed, so that it has been impossible to procure one unbroken specimen. This, however, is not a great loss, for there is no thing about them curious or uncommon, either in shape, size, or colour. They very much resem
ble the large chattis or sils now used by the Hindus to hold water or grain in their houses. Figures 1-11 and 14-29 represent all the different kinds of vessels which I have seen. And though many were destroyed by the workmen's tools, and dozens crumbled to dust when exposed to light and air, yet I am confident that they did not differ materially from those which I have procured. There was nothing found in these vessels except fine sandy earth or ashes, which, in most cases, had become a hard maas, so that it was necessary to soak it in water for some time before it would disaolve. Some vessels are red and some black; some are red inside and black outside, and vice versa. Some have a glossy surface as if they had been glazed, and, as I believe such a phenomenon as glazed pottery has not yet been discovered in ancient cairns and cromlechs, I sent a few specimens to Dr. Hunter, of the School of Arts, Madra, and asked his opinion. He replied—“The surface is not glazed, but is merely polished by rubbing it with the juice of Tathi, or Abutilon Indicum, a mucilaginous juice, somewhat like gum, that is nised by the natives at the present day to give a gloss to black earthenware. The surface can be seritched with a knife, though it resiste water. After rubbing the surface with the juice, the vessel is again fired and a species of smear is thus produced which resists acids and water, but if you examine the broken edge of the vessels, you will find that there is no thickness of glaze, either outside or inside." “Another method of producing # smear is in use in India, viz. rubbing the vessel with mica ground in water and exposing it to heat."
2. Human bones. These consist of skulls, teeth, thigh, shin, arm and other bones. These are invariably found in Class A. The bits of decayed bones occasionally found in Class B and the cromlechs are so insignificant that I cannot identify them with any part of the human skeleton. I cannot account for the existence of human bones largely in this class of tumuli, and their comparative non-existence, in the other classes, except on the supposition either that the large orns are better adapted to preserve them than stones or earth, or that this claas is of a later age and indicates a different modo of sepulture.
3. Omaments. These consist of round and o val beads of different sizes and colour, which