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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY,
A JOURNAL OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH.
ON THE SÅVANDURGA RUDE STONE CEMETERY, CENTRAL I. AISUR.
BY COL. B. R. BRANFILL. 1.-General Remarks.
out-is undressed, and projects beyond the CIRCLES of stones, of all sizes up to 30 feet corner of the chamber (see platos, Figs. lu
or more in diameter, surrounding buried and 2). or half-buried kistvaens, are to be seen in several The four side-slabs rest upon a single flat places on the west and southern sides of the stone laid deep in the ground, and are covered well-known and conspicuous fortified rock of by the wapstone, a comparatively huge undressed Sá vandurga, 22 miles west of Bengalúr, slab, which projects beyond the sides, especially and 4 south-east of Måga di, in Maisar. They on the east and south. are numerous at a spot called Ittige-bailu The sidestones vary from 5 to 10' in length, (Brickfield), a piece of rising ground or spur 4'-6" to 5'-6" in height, and from 2 to 6' in running out west from the centre of the hill thickness. The interiors are from 6 to near the foot of the western entrance, called long, 3 to 6 wide, and about 5' high. The Chandrayan-b å gilu. Grassy slopes and capstones vary from 8 to 14' in length, 7 to shady glades alternate with thickets of trees 10 in width, and are from 6" to 16" thick. and undergrowth, whilst groups of rocky boul- They seem to have been left in the rough, just ders and patches of bare sheet-rock combine to as they were taken from the quarry (i.e. scaled enhance the beauty of the scenery here. But off the surface of the hill), with their edges there is no good drinking water procurable vertical and entirely undressed. near.
To have rested and adjusted these huge The kistvaens vary much in size and appear- capstones on the thin side slabs would surely ance. The commonest form being an oblong have broken the latter, and it appears hence that chest projecting a foot or two above the ground, the chamber must have been surrounded by, and surrounded by a circle of stones, whose and probably also filled with, earth before the tops are seen only a little above the surface. capstone was put on.
The length, which is usually nearly double T he east side or front is still much banked the breadth, lies more or less east and west, up by earth, but on the other sides the earth but the direction varies considerably.
is now scarcely raised at all above the general The sides are composed each of a single thin ground level. A rounded hole has been chipped stone slab, chipped or hammer-dressed along high up in the front or east wall, large enough three edges, so as to fit together and form a for a man to pass through, and an entrance rectangular chamber. The fourth edge—the passage walled off by thin slabs of stone. right-hand end of the stone viewed from with When closed, a rounded shutter-stone has been
