THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
348
a former Rāja, who built it and several others of
a height to enable her to see the lights at Dipal dinna.
Two of these were said to be at Gudivāda”
and Bhattipral; and I ascertained that a remark able 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 des
patched 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
[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 Wegi, the capital of Wegidesam, and the residence of a Buddhist dynasty ante rior to the foundation of the Eastern Chālukyan kingdom about the end of the sixth century. Some notice of Wegi will be found in the Madras Journal.if 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-inscrip tion in the Ganjam district, exhibiting another version of Asoka's celebrated edicts.
Some account
of the place is also given in the Madras Journal.f At my request Mr. Minchin of the Aska Factory took a photograph of it, but at too great a dis A
tin-cases, the combined action of the sea-water and
tance and on too small a scale to be of use.
sugarcompletely destroyed them,together with many
better photograph or rubbing on moistened car tridge paper would be much prized by Orientalists here. §
books, drawings, and other manuscripts. I have still a number of Copper Sāsanams which I hope to utilize.
ON THE GONDS AND KURRUS 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 improvi dent 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 Hindús generally in that respect. The Gonds are found more or less over the whole
of the range of the Săthpura hills as far as Amara kanthak to the east and also north of the Narmadā
- 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 Gudivāda 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 reli gion, language, and ceremonial observances, are the representatives of the aboriginal people who inhabit ed 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 Rāj Gond, the branch of the race from which the reigning family of the old Gond kingdom was sprung, are said to be of Rājpút descent, and their Thäkärs or chiefs many of them even at this day affect the bearing of Rājpúts; but little trace how ever of the Rājpät 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 I 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 Gorert. of India, Foreign Dept. No. LVII. pp. 28–31.
