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MAY, 1876.]
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA.
159
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA. DOLMENS IN THE COROMANDEL COAST. had been before made to touch the contents of
SIR.-Some months ago, being on a tour in the the chamber, in which case it must have been filled district, I determined to visit some curious stone 1 with earth when the vessels were placed in it. structures of which I had heard, which were sup- My surmise in this respect was strengthened by posed to be of very great antiquity, and to have some other excavations which I carried out a day been inhabited by a now extinct race. Those that or two afterwards, at a spot where a great number I first visited were situated about four miles from of these structures exist, about three-quarters of Tirukovilor, or the left bank of the Ponniar, near a milo dno north of the Araikandanalldr Pagoda. the village of Kollar. Only two or three were This Pagoda is a striking object, about 1} miles visible, and of these only one was fairly above from Tirukovilar, and on the opposite bank of the ground. It consisted of four large granite slabs river. It is built on & rock on the river's edge, forming a chamber 4' 3' high, 6 4" long, and 36 and is remarkable on account of the existence of broad, and was covered over with a huge slab five very singular cells cut in the solid rock, where nearly a foot thick, and 10 6" long by 8.9" wide. local tradition says the five Pazidavas lived when The entrance was by means of space about expelled from Ayodhya. I had two or three a foot wide, where two of the vertical stones did of the structures opened, to which I have alluded. not join. The flooring appeared to be of stone. They were situated within the limits of the vil There was nothing whatever in this hut, so I lage of Devandr. In one of them I found two proceeded to examine another, which was half of the couches, one much smaller than the other, underground, and after a considerable amount of and the larger of the two about 4 feet long. digging excavated the whole of the space within In this one I found some fragments of bones and the four upright stones. This I was able to do some scraps of iron. One of the latter resembled without much difficulty, as the top stone had been & small knife-blade. I also found in one of the moved. On examining the side stones I found & chambers a piece of iron which might have been circular aperture in the eastern one, about eighteen part of an iron plate. In every case the singular inches in diameter. In the interior of the cham- opening in the eastern stone was found. The ber were arranged a number of vasos of different bones were rather small, and from a fragment sizes, about sixteen or eighteen in all, varying from which might have been part of a skull I concluded one capable of holding several gallons to one they were human. When cleared to the stone not much bigger than a large marble. The vessels floor these chambers were about 71 feet high by were of red and black colours, and were nearly 6) broad and 8 long. As at Kollar, so at Devandr all glazed or polished, outside and inside. They there were slabs of granite sunk in concentric were very well made, the clay being of excellent rings around the structures. At Devandr these quality. Besides the vases, I found a singular structures are scattered over a space of three or kind of couch or vessel about four feet long and four acres of ground, and in their midst is a huge fifteen inches wide, with rounded ends, and about upright slab fourteen feet high above ground, nine inches deep-something like a bidet. It was of eight wide, and about six inches thick. It has great weight, having fifteen heavy legs, and being a rounded top like a gravestone, and is called the quite an inch thick. In trying to transport it to Kacheri kol, or stone of office.' my camp it was broken in pieces. I found nothing These structures so closely resemble those dein this vessel, but one thing about it struck me as scribed by Capt. Cole as found by him in Coorg very curious; all the legs, though forming part and Maisurt that I fancy they must both have and parcel of the vessel, were stuffed with earth. been the handiwork of the same class of people, This must have been crammed into them before the though this is the first time I have heard of their vessel was placed in position, and every vessel I being found so near the sea, Tirukovilor being only found was similarly crammed full of earth. I was forty miles from it. told that when an anikat was building in the neigh- Capt. Cole assumes that these are prehistorio bourhood, some years ago, the stone contractors structures, but while I think it is evident that had broken up and carried off numbers of the their antiquity is respectable, I find they are als stones of these buildings, which would account for luded to in the Sthala Purana of Tirukovilor, the the one I examined having no covering stone; but antiquity of which may perhaps go back five the state of affairs as I found them seemed to me or six hundred years. In that Purdna they are to leave little room for doubt that, though the alluded to as being inhabited by Mahápishis called covering stone had been carried away, no attempt válikhilya. Local tradition says they were
* See Ind. Ant. vol. III. pp. 306 ff. + See Ind. Ant. vol. III. p. 377. Soo Ind. Ant. vol. II. pp. 88 ff.
