VOL. XV. (2) RUDE STONE MONUMENTS OF INDIA 135 
may take refuge there." The Gonds of the Central Pro- 
vinces used to bury their dead in the house, but now 
prefer to use a burial ground near the village.* 
In the same class comes probably the custom of burying 
in caves, the home of the early troglodytes. Many such 
interments have been found along the Vindhyan hills 
dating as far back as neolithic times, a fact proved by the 
occurrence of agate knives with the remains. In fact, 
as Mr Windle observes,? the chambered tumulus is an 
artificial cave, composed of masses of stones arranged 
to form a cell. 
The same idea appears in what is known as shelf-burial, 
of which I have elsewhere+ given many examples. Here 
the side of the grave is hollowed out, and the corpse 
is deposited in a niche at one side. 
We now come to the actual structure of the Indian dol- 
mens and kistvaens. From the pictures which were thrown 
on the screen,> and which all represented monuments 
from Southern India, it was seen that in form and general 
structure the Indian examples were analogous to those 
found in Europe. Not that this implies, as has sometimes 
been rashly supposed, that the dolmen builders came from 
East to West, or vzce versé, or that the nations who buried 
their dead in this way were’ necessarily sprung from a 
common stock. It rather points to the fact which we find 
illustrated in the case of stone implements, that people 
using any material for the same definite purpose, are apt to 
work it up in the same way. 
The classification which Fergusson adopted from Col. 
Meadows Taylor divides the Indian dolmens into two 
1 Jbid., p. 67. 
2 “Central Provinces Gazetteer,” p. 278. 
3 OP. cit., p. 132. 
4 “ Journal Anthropological Institute,” xxix. 280 f. 
5 Some of these photographs are reproduced in Mr Breeks’ book. For other illustra- 
~ tions of Indian Rude Stone Monuments, see Borlase, “ Dolmens of Ireland,” iii. 750 ff ; 
Fergusson, “ Rude Stone Monuments,” 455 ff. 
