THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
292
[Oct. 4, 1872.
heavy, it is placed on a wooden framework, and
mains, and affords practical evidence that respect for her memory was not wanting. Its dimen
so carried on the shoulders of the men to its destination. When however the stone is of
sions are 17 feet 2 inches x 9 feet 2 inches x 10 inches.
is to be raised.
If the flag selected is not very
large size, it is placed on a kind of truck with
No. II.
enormously massive wheels, specially constructed for the purpose. Sometimes it is necessary to make a road for the passage of such a truck; at others the number of men pushing and pulling
with ropes is sufficient to carry it over all the obstacles which are encountered on the way. No. I.
Menhirs–Cenotaph stones, Singhbham:
The second sketch represents a group of stones situated in a plain a few miles to the south-west of the other. not know the particulars.
Of its history I do
The groups of Menhirs which occur scattered throughout the Kolehan are, so far as my obser vation went, in no way limited as to the num Group of Cenotaph stones or Menhirs, at a village near Chaibassa, in Singhbhūm.
ber of stones.
I have counted as many as 30
stones in one group, and my impression is that
The history of the group of stones figured
I have seen more than that number. A circular
The stone on
arrangement is seldom seen, generally the stones
the left was erected to the memory of Kundapa thur, Manki, or head man of the village of Po karia, a few miles south of the station of Chai
are either ranged along a straight line or an arc. Chota Nagpur any attempt at sculpture on stone
The next two stones were erected to
monuments: this was in the district of Haza
Künchi and Somári, daughters, and the fourth to a son of Pasingh, the present Manki. This was in 1869, since that time others may have been added; possibly Pasingh himself, having lost father, wife and children, has also died.
ribagh. The stones had the appearance of great antiquity and, whether rightly or wrongly, they
in sketch No. 1 is as follows:
bassa.
For some reason there is no memorial stone
here to Pasingh's wife Seni. Irather think how ever, there was one standing by itself somewhat nearer the village. But in the centre of the village, under the shade of some glorious old tamarind trees, a stone, conspicuous among many others from its uncommon size, covers her re
Only one instance can I remember of seeing in
were attributed by the people of the neighbour hood to an ancient settlement of Kols.
Though not rich in ancient temples or other Hindu remains—as compared with some other parts of India—the Chota Nagpur division with its stone monuments of the aborigines and its
cave temples, mines,” and other traces of the early Jains is for the Antiquarian, as it is well known to be for the Ethnologist, a noble field for research.
NOTES ON THE RASAKALLOLA, AN ANCIENT ORIYA POEM. By JOHN BEAMES, B.C.S., M.R.A.S., &c., BALASOR,
No. 11.-Continued from p. 217.
A NoticeABLE feature in this poem is the readiness with which the poet's native language
lends itself to the metres which he employs. Consequently there are very few of those arbi
trary lengthenings and shortenings of vowels, elisions of case and tense-endings which in the oldest Hindi and Gujarati poems so much obscure the real language of the period. In reading
- See “on the ancient copper mines of Singhbhum,”—Proc. As. Soc. Beng. for June
1869.
