130 MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS IN INDIA. 



which abound in our native country, and are seen here and 

 there in all parts of Europe and Western Asia." * Mr. Fer- 

 gusson goes farther, and argues with great ingenuity that 

 the " Buddhist architecture in India, as practised from the 

 third century B.C. to seventh A.D., is essentially tumular, 

 circular, and external, thus possessing the three great cha- 

 racteristics of all the so-called Druidical remains."^ These 

 resemblances, indeed, are too great to be accidental, and the 

 differences represent, not so much a difference in style, as in 

 civilization. " In the most celebrated example in India, that 

 at Sanchee, the circle consists of roughly squared upright stone 

 posts, joined at the top by an architrave of the same thickness 

 as the posts, exactly as at Stonehenge ; the only difference 

 being the insertion of three stone rails between each of the 

 uprights, which is a masonic refinement hardly to be expected 

 among the Celts." In India, then, the circles of stones seem 

 generally to have surrounded tumuli ; but this is not always 

 the case, and there are some "which apparently enclose 

 nothing." Again, they are generally covered with sculpture ; 

 but to this also there are exceptions, as, for instance, at 

 Amravati, where there are numberless little circles of rude 

 unhewn stone, identical with those in this country, but 

 smaller. 



In Europe we know that the stones of Megalithic monu- 

 ments are almost invariably uncarved. 



There is indeed a dolmen, near Confolens in Charente, in 

 which the upper stone is supported, not on rude stone blocks, 

 but on four slender columns.! I agree, however, with M. 



* Jour, of the Asiat. Soc. of Ben- Wise, ditto, p. 154. Hooker's Hima- 



gal, vol. xiii. p. 617. See also Proc. layan Journals. Taylor, Trans. Roy. 



Soc. Antiq. Scotland, vol. i. p. 93. Irish Acad. vol. xxiv. etc. 



Babington, Trans. Lit. Soc. Bombay, f I.e. p. 212. 



1823. Congreve, Madras Jour, of Statistique Monumentale de la 



Lit. and Science, 1847. Yule, Proc. Charente. 

 Soc. Ant. Scotland, vol. i. p. 93. 



