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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH 1, 1872.
--this great stone weighed 23 tons 18 cwt., and another is described as still larger, probably weighing 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 monunents. Physically 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 description. Add to all this that their country is mountainous 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
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 Conjiveram."
To help towards clearing up the quustion as to the race of the Indian dolmen builders, 29 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 Haidarâbâd territory. As Mr. Fergusson states, -"In so far as the history or ethnography of the central plateau of India is concerned, or its arts or architecture, the Nizam's dominions are absolutely a terra incognita. No one has visited the country who had any knowledge of these objects, 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 he difficulties, ethnological or archæological, 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.
ago."
In Western India" there are some groups of rudeatono 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 Belg&m. It consists of two rows of thirteen stones each, and one in front of them of three stones--the numbers being always uneven, as in Bengal--and on the opposite sido 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 stono 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 arrangernents 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 inore to convey clear ideas on the subject of Indian dolinens 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 Narınadâ or Tapf, 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
• Colonel Forbes Leslie. Early Races of Scotland,' vol. Il pla Ivili, lix,lx. They have also been described by Dr. Stevenson, J. R. A. S.' vol. V. pp. 192 et seqq. It would be
RUINS OF THE NALANDA MONASTERIES, at Bargaon, Sub
division Bihar, Zilla Patna. By A. M. Broadley, E9 Assistant Magistrate and Collector, Patna. 24 pp. 8vo. Calcutta, 1872. Mr. Broadley is an enthusiastic and energetic archæologist, 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 Bargaon, and of a sketch plan of the ruias 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-dvára, and which extremely interesting in an ethnographie point of view, if some further information could be obtained regarding these stone rows.
