Indian Antiquary Vol 07

SR No.: 032499
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 386
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 349

DECEMBER, 18/8.] MASONS' MARKS FROM OLD BUILDINGS.
Sindhi. rămbi jhara
lǎkü
a chisel cloudiness
a mountain pass anxiety
chirping of birds Salvadora oloeides monkey dumb
Brahui. rămbi jur (mist) lǎk
ǎrmân tăwâr (voice) khăbăr
ǎrmână
taṇwâră
khăbără
bholíro
gungo
This list might easily be extended, but it is already long enough for our purpose.
7. It remains for me to try and account for these apparent traces of Dravidian grammar and words in Sindhi, and for a certain almost common vocabulary in Sindhi and Brahui. A glance at the map will show that the Brahuis and Sindhis are close neighbours,-their borders, in fact, touch each other, and imagination might easily be tempted to lay hold of this fact as a sufficient solution; still, if it did, it would be wrong. The English and Welsh have been equally close neighbours for centuries, and on the borders of the two countries there have been many people who spoke the two languages, yet the vocabularies of these two nations will afford no such comm mmon meeting-ground
bola gung
as is to be found in Sindhi and Brahui. Moreover, the Brahuis and Sindhis have had little intercourse with each other for centuriesone being a fierce marauding people; and the other tame and peaceable, given to the gentle arts of trade and agriculture.
The subject has not, I am aware, escaped the attention of General Cunningham, of the
There is another point in connection with the Brahuis which ought to be mentioned, though it will not furnish us with the explanation we are in search of. In some parts of Sindh there are scattered members of the Mari tribe of Brahuis, but these are neither numerous nor influential, and they have left their mother-tongue for the language of the country.
If the grammatical points noticed above are Dravidian, and the first list of words be from the same source, it cannot be that Sindhi has received them through the Brahui language; for these laws do not obtain in Brahui, neither are the words of the first vocabulary to be found in that language.
MASONS' MARKS FROM OLD BUILDINGS IN THE NORTH-WEST
PROVINCES OF INDIA.
295
They are a pure inheritance of the Sindhi people; and I believe they point to the fact that the Indus Valley was a home to some part of the Dravidian race before the Aryan immigration.
BY H. RIVETT-CARNAC, Esq., B.C.S., C.I.E., M.R.A.S., F.S.A., &c. The accompanying notes and sketches of masons' marks to be seen on stones of the ancient buildings of the districts through which I have marched during a recent tour may perhaps be of interest to some of your readers.
Without searching through the many volumes that have been written on Indian antiquities, to which I cannot refer whilst in camp, it is not easy to say whether these marks have ever been described or figured before. I may perhaps be going over the ground which in this respect has already been explored more carefully than I can pretend to attempt to do. But even if the work has been done before, the information may be contained in volumes to which all of your readers have not ready access, and the present notes may perhaps, therefore, be considered worthy of a place in the Indian Antiquary.
Archaeological Survey of India. In his paper on the ruins of Sarnath (published in the Jour. As. Soc. Beng. vol. xxxii.) the existence of these marks is noticed, and in his instructions to his Assistants (published in vol. III. of his Reports) is the following paragraph :"The stones should also be carefully examined for masons' marks, which are seldom absent from old buildings, and which, if numerous, will serve to give a tolerably complete alphabet of the characters in use when the structure was erected."
Sketches of the masons' marks are not, however, to be found in General Cunningham's account of Sarnâth above referred to, nor have I been able to find any notes or sketches of them in his well-known volume on the Bhilsa Topes, or in the published Reports of the Archoological Survey. Whilst marching about, I hope by degrees to qualify for the grade of Honorary
1 See a paper by Mr. Walhouse, ante, vol. IV. pp. 302-305.-ED