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.
denotes anything connected with the Pandus, or Pandava brothers, to whom all over India ancient mysterious structures are generally attribyted. To call anything a work of the Pandus' is equivalent to terming it Cyclopean' in Greece, 'a work of the Piots' in Scotland, * or a work of Nimrod' in Asiatic Turkey; and it means only that the structure to which the name is applied was erected in some remote age, by a people of whom nothing is now known. When the Tamil people are asked by whom were these Pånda-kuris built and used, they sometimes reply, by the people who lived here long ago;' but they are unable to tell whether those people were their own ancestors or a foreign race, and also why and when these kuris ceased to be used. The answer which is sometimes given is that the people who built the cairns were a race of dwarfs who lived long ago, and who were only a span or a cubit high, but were possessed of the strength of gianta."
The almost total absence of traditional know ledge respecting the origin and use of the tumuli is a strong presumptive evidence that they cannot be later, but may be much older, than the time fixed above.
IV. The boncs found in the tumuli provo beyond a doubt that the people buried in thom were neither dwarfs nor giants, but men of ordinary stature. And the large stone slabs lining the interior and placed on the top of the tumuli, which in most cases must have beon cut from the solid rock and carried from some distanco, provo that the people physically were equal to the present race of mon.
The objects found in the tumuli represent the people in a comparatively advanced state of civilization. Thoy required and made earthen vessels for culinary and domestic purposes. And thoso vessels show considerable ingenuity in the art of pottery. They are not only all tastefully designed and well baked in fire, but
some of them are ornamented with transverse lines and highly polished. The people were acquainted with the value and use of metals. The small swords are elegantly designed and well wronght. And so are the knives, razors, and gold and bronze ornaments found in tumuli on the Nilgiri Hills. They made and wore necklaces and bracelets of precious stones ornamented with what appears to be oxide of tin. The most rocent tumuli contain rude sculptures and inscriptions, which show that the people were acquainted with reading and writing.
The great care and trouble with which the tamuli were prepared as receptacles for the dead, manifest a tenderness of feeling and reverence for the departed which can only be expected in an intelligent and civilized people. Reverence for the dead can only arise from a strong manly affection for the living, which reverence and affection diminish in intensity as people descend in the scale of civilization, till they become almost extinct in the savage.
Whatever the religious tenets of the people were, it is pretty certain that they firmly believed that human existence is not bounded by the tomb; for no reasonable cause can be assigned for the practice of depositing various objects with the dead but a firm belief in a fature state, where they supposed that such objects would be required. Their conception of the fature world was cast in the mould of the present; and hence they believed that whatever is necessary, tuseful, and crnamental in this world would be equally so in the next--the warrior would require his sword, the husband man his agricultural implements, and the lady hor ornaments. This conception of the future is neither the transmigration of the Brahmans nor the nirrána of the Buddhists, and hence forms another link in the chain of evidence that the people who used the tamali weré neither the one nor the other, but anterior to both.
Salem, November 20th, 1872. rites and follow the customs of their forefathers mit the strangor had nover come among them." Rude Stone Mom mente, p. 459. See also ante, p. 10.-ED.
• Possibly co-ordinate with both : for, as Mr. Ferguson remarks, "The Bhill, the Kol, the Gond, the Toda, and other tribes remain as they were, and practise their own