________________
348
a former Raja, who built it and several others of a height to enable her to see the lights at Dipaldinna. Two of these were said to be at Gudivada and Bhattipral; and I ascertained that a remarkable mound did exist at the latter place, but I had no time to visit it. Mr. Boswell indicates other sites promising to repay examination.
Mr. Boswell alludes in Section VI. (I. A. p. 154) of his paper to a collection of inscriptions :-These, I regret to say, came to an unfortunate end. I had obtained copies of almost all the inscriptions of any value throughout the Northern Sarcars, amounting to several hundreds and filling two large folio-volumes. These, with three volumes of translations, were despatched by my agents in a vessel laden with sugar which encountred a gale in the Bay of Biscay, and shipped a great deal of water. Although soldered in tin-cases, the combined action of the sea-water and sugar completely destroyed them, together with many books, drawings, and other manuscripts. I have still a number of Copper S'asanams which I hope to utilize.
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[Nov. 1, 1872.
I embrace this opportunity of drawing attention to two other remains of Buddhist supremacy worthy of further notice. The first is the site of the city of Vegi, the capital of Vegides'am, and the residence of a Buddhist dynasty anterior to the foundation of the Eastern Chalukyan kingdom about the end of the sixth century. Some notice of Vegi will be found in the Madras Journal.† I afterwards identified the site between the modern villages of Vegi and Dendalur near Elur. A good survey of this ancient city is very desirable. The second place is a rock-inscription in the Ganjam district, exhibiting another version of As'oka's celebrated edicts. Some account of the place is also given in the Madras Journal. At my request Mr. Minchin of the Aska Factory took a photograph of it, but at too great a distance and on too small a scale to be of use. A better photograph or rubbing on moistened cartridge paper would be much prized by Orientalists. here.§
ON THE GONDS AND KURKUS OF THE BAITUL DISTRICT. From the Report on the Land Revenue Settlement of the Baitul District.||
BY W. RAMSAY, Bo. C.S.
THE Gonds are found in all the wild and jangal villages, and also in some of the more open ones, where they live chiefly by manual labour in the fields, following the plough or tending cattle.
The Kurkus are almost entirely confined to a few talukas of the Saoligarh Pargana, which belongs to a Kurku proprietor, Gainda Patel. Some of the Kurkus are very industrious in the cultivation of rice, but the majority of them are very similar to the Gonds in character and disposition; these latter have no idea, and no wish, beyond living from hand to mouth, taking no thought for the morrow, and consequently obliged to put up with little food and scanty clothing. Their favourite mode of livelihood is by cutting grass and firewood, which they sell in the nearest market, but they also carry on a certain amount of agriculture, chiefly by that method termed Dhya. They are thoughtless and improvident beyond measure, and greatly addicted to drink, to obtain which they will put up with any sacrifice; on the other hand, they possess that great merit of most rude and savage tribes, viz., truthfulness, which is developed in them to a remarkable degree, the more so when compared with the opposite character of the Hindus generally in that respect.
The Gonds are found more or less over the whole of the range of the Sâthpura hills as far as Amarakanthak to the east and also north of the Narmada
P.S.-23 Feb. Since the foregoing was written I find that the Langa-dibba mound, demolished by the Collector for the repair of the road, was at Gudivada itself. Madras Journal, Vol. XIX. (or new Series, Vol. III), page 225. † Madras Journal of Literature and Science, Vol. XI. page 302.
in Bhopal. The Kurkus are found more to the west as far as Burhanpur, westward of that they are called Mawasis, and are intermingled with the Bhills. There can be little doubt, I think, that all those tribes, though now perfectly distinct in religion, language, and ceremonial observances, are the representatives of the aboriginal people who inhabited India prior to the times from which authentic history commences. The short, but well-knit figure, the flat features, dark complexion and abundant locks, of almost all the various hill tribes of India, mark them as the descendants of a common stock, though history and tradition alike fail to give any satisfactory clue to the many changes which time, and the many convulsions to which the country has been subjected, must have wrought before the various tribes had fallen into their present shapes.
The Gonds themselves, and especially the higher class of them, who pride themselves on the name of Raj Gond, the branch of the race from which the reigning family of the old Gond kingdom was sprung, are said to be of Rajpat descent, and their Thakurs or chiefs many of them even at this day affect the bearing of Rajputs; but little trace however of the Rajput origin can be seen either in their language, their customs, or their physical features.
The Kurkus at the present day are an essentially different race, speaking a different language, and
Madras Journal of Literature and Science, Vol. XX. (or new Series Vol. IV.) pages 75 and 76.
§ See Ind. Antiquary, pp. 219-222.-ED.
Pp. 43-47, or Selections from the Records of the Govert. of India, Foreign Dept. No. LVII. pp. 28-31.
