ANTiqriTiES. 



MANUAL OP THE NlLAGIRl DISTRICT. 247 



be numerous ; such is the case in Coimbatore— pillar stones, marking CUAP. X. 

 boundaries, are found everywhere. 



Most of them are dressed stones : some are inscribed, and many have 

 carvings of Hindu figures upon them. 



18. Occasionally other pillar stones are met with, which seem to 

 have been raised to commemorate some gallant deed in the destruction 

 of tigers, as they are carved with representations of struggles between 

 these animals and human beings. There are many of these thi'ough- 

 out the district. 



19. I found one half of an inscribed pillar stone a short time ago in 

 an irrigation channel near the base of the Anamalais. So far as we could 

 make out the inscription, from the one half that was present, it was to 

 the effect that a large tract of juugle had been granted to some person 

 by a raja who reserved to himself certain privileges ; this inscription 

 is evidently very old. I have directed search to be made for the other 

 half. 



20. All these pillar stones are, however, comparatively modern, 

 and have yet to exist for a few centuries before they become what is 

 generally understood by the name. They are evidently of a date long 

 posterior to that of the cromlechs and tumuli. I have, however, met 

 with pillar stones which I consider coeval with those monuments of 

 antiquity — rude, unhewn stones having an unmistakable family like- 

 ness to the Leagans of Ireland, the hoar stones of Scotland, and the 

 hoar stones of England. 



21. In a thick jungle in the valley of the Kodangiri, a tributary of 

 the Bawani, there are two or three of these stones at a place called 

 Kutirai Kuttu' Palam, and there is a good specimen about nine or ten 

 feet in height in the valley of the Bawdni near the village of Sunda- 

 patti. 



22. In the valley of the Moyar near a place called Mangadu there 

 are two. 



Rock Inscriptions. 



48. I have met with but one, near Anamalai : it is cut in a flat 

 rock, which, up to the time of my seeing it, had been used by the 

 villagers to beat out grain upon. 



49. It is in old Tamil, and to the effect that a certain quantity 

 of land had been granted for the support of the Anamalai Temple, 

 and pronouncing anathemas against any one who should deprive the 

 temple of those lands- The temple was demolished by Tippu, who 

 I suppose by appropriating the lands earned the anathema in full. 



By beating grain upon it a portion of the inscription has been 

 destroyed. 



I directed a low wall to be built around it. 



' The " Kattu " here does not refer to building — but to tying. The 

 Erulars who live near, say it is named from a tradition, handed down by their 

 1 fathers, that a small band of predatory horsemen who were skulking in this 

 valley tied their horses to these stones. 



In an adjoining valley called Kalkattu Palam, there are about 20 sepulchral 

 tumuli. 



