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VOL. XV. (2) RUDE STONE MONUMENTS OF INDIA 125 
In some of the older examples of the Indian tumuli, an 
additional protection is afforded by the erection of a circle 
of standing stones round the mound, the special signi- 
ficance of which will appear later on. 
But in studying the embryology of monuments of this 
kind it is important to note the later evolution of the 
tumulus. At the outset it is merely an earthen grave- 
heap: with stones added it becomes acairn. The cairn, 
finally, when cased with carved stones and provided with 
other architectural ornament, turns into the Stupa or Tope, 
which was introduced by the Buddhists to provide for 
their worship of relics, primarily those of the Master him- 
self. But as time advanced, all these buildings did not 
contain the relics which have occasionally been found in a 
stone chamber, the successor of the kistvaen, buried deep 
down in the body of the mound. Many of them then 
became merely dedicatory or memorial. Some of these 
Stupas were magnificent structures, and the type survives 
in the comparatively modern Shwe Dagon, or Golden 
Shrine, which dominates the city of Rangoon, and is 
regarded with the deepest reverence by the Buddhists 
of Burma.* 
We next come to the dolmen and the kistvaen. As I 
have said, monuments of this class are found in great 
numbers in India; but we have not as yet sufficient 
information to construct a map showing their exact distri- 
bution. They do not appear north of the Vindhyan range 
of hills, which is a sort of backbone of the Peninsula, 
running from about the latitude of Bombay to that of 
Calcutta, and dividing Hindustan, the seat of the original 
Aryan settlements, from the Deccan or Southern plateau. 
They are very common in the country drained by the two 
great southern rivers, the Godavari and the Krishna, or 
1 For Stupas, see Fergusson, ‘“ History of Indian and Eastern Architecture,” chap. iii. 
