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234
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(SEPTEMBER, 1878.
"Full, perfect insight gaining, he
Shall rescue endless myriads tost
On life's rough ocean waves, and lost, And grant them immortality. "But I am old, and frail, and worn,
I shall not live the day to see When this thy wondrous child shall free From woe the suffering world forlorn. 'Tis this mine own unhappy fate Which bids me mourn, and weep, and sigh;
The Buddha's triumph now is nigh, But, ah ! for me it comes too late!" When thus the aged saint, inspired,
Had all the infant's greatness told,
The King his wondrous son extolled, And sang, with pious ardour fired“Thee, child, th' immortals worship all,
The great Physician, born to cure
All ills that hapless men endure; I, too, before thee prostrate fall." And now-his errand done--the sage,
Dismissed with gifts, and honour due,
Athwart the æther swan-like flew, And reached again his hermitage.
J. MUIR.
similar style are scattered over the surrounding country, but the group of tombs which he describes is of special interest from the presence of the crosses, which is quite an exceptional feature.-- The Academy, 29th December.
Mr. King observes that the crosses are distinguished from those of Christian origin by the different size of the limbs, and by the curved janction between the arms and the lower limb. Another similar cross is reported to exist in the Hazaribågh district at Basatpur, near Leiyo, in the valley of the Bikaro river. Near it there are a number of dressed memorial stones of truncate pyramidal shape.
It is not clear whether the Mungapettå group of crosses are the same with those at Katapur and Nirmal, in the Nizâm's country, described and figured at pp. 486-8 of Fergusson's Rude Stone Monuments. Mr. Fergusson inclined to ascribe them to a Christian origin; see too Ind. Ant. vol. IV. p. 306, where the same view is taken, and the circumstance of their being of dressed stone tells against their belonging to a prehistoric period. But Mr. King does not appear to regard the Mungapett& crosses as Christian, and the pyramidal memorial stones accompanying another cross are also spoken of as dressed, and they would not be claimed as Christian ; the localities, too, of these crosses in only recently penetrated jungles seems against Christian derivation, and it must be remembered that the cross-shape is a pre-Christian symbol, seen on the breasts of Assyrian statues, and among the ruins of Palenque, in Mexico. Meanwhile it seems strange, considering how long these venerable Indian crosses have been known, that the question of their association has not been decided
W.
ANCIENT BURYING-GROUND AT MUNGAPETTÅ,
AND CROSSES. It is well that officers of geological surveys who are working in unfrequented districts should keep their eyes open to any prehistoric remains which may come under their notice. Mr. W. King, of the Indian Survey, has shown himself fully alive to the value of archæological observations, by the notes which he has recently communicated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. These notes describe a prehis. toric burial-place, which he visited in the course of his geological work, near Mungapetta, in the Nizam's dominions. The cemetery consists of an assemblage of about 150 stone cists, enclosed in megalithic rings, with four large monoliths in the shape of crosses. Each tomb is formed of four upright slabs of stone, with another for a covering-lid, the largest cist measuring 9 feet in length by 9 feet in width, with a height of about 5 feet. Thb stone slab which forms the floor of each cist is hollowed into one or more cavities for reception of the bodies, which were probably embalmed. The surrounding circle of stones is in some cases 30 or 40 feet in diameter; and one of the crosses measures 16 feet in height. The cists and crosses are all of dressed stone, the material being the sand stone of the country. It is suggested by Mr. King that this burial-place is of pre-Aryan age, or be longs to Hindu-Kolarian times. Ruder remains of
NOTE.-CANARESE INSCRIPTION. In February 1874, rambling about Chaul, the old Grook Simylla, (or Tipova) I came upon an unfinished Saiva temple, commenced, it was said, in memoriam of one of the Northern or Kuldb& branch of the pirate house of Angria. Just to the east of this, beautifully embosomed in the coconut orchards, was a fine temple of the 18th century, with tank and ghats, of which I was told the following legend :
"In the quasi-reign of one of the earlier Peshvås a Dravidian Brâhmân dwelling at Chaul was warned in a dream, by I forget what god, that he should proceed to Punâ and demand from the Government money wherewith on this spot to dig a tank and build a temple. He obeyed, found that a corresponding dream had simultaneously visited the ruler, and faithfully applied the grant;
