1877.] W. King — Cruciform Monoliths near Mimr/apet. 191 



of visiting the very singular remains described, although he heard of them 

 from Captain Grlasfurd, Mr. Vanstavern and others. Despite the very high 

 authority of Mr. Fergusson, he could but agree with Mr. King and the 

 Chairman in thinking it questionable whether the crosses in the Godavari 

 valley have any connection with Christianity. There are two circumstances 

 which should, he thought, be taken into consideration before admitting the 

 Christian origin of these monoliths. 



The first has been already noticed by Mr. King ; it is the absence of 

 any inscription, of any distinctive sculpture, or of any Christian symbol 

 except the cross. Now a people who were sufflcieiitly civilized to carve 

 and transport monoliths of this size, must, if they were Christians, have 

 been acquainted with the art of writing, and it is inconceivable that they 

 should not have engraved some memorial of the purpose for which the 

 stones were erected. 



The second reason is the association of the crosses with cromlechs and 

 stone circles. In the Proceedings of the Society for 1868, besides Mr. 

 Mulheran's description of the crosses and cromlechs on the Godavari, at 

 pp. 116 and 148, there are several notices of cromlechs or kistvaens in Coorg 

 and other parts of India, pp. 151, 184, 243. But no one appears to have 

 called attention to the very remarkable explorations of kistvaens and stone 

 circles in the Southern Maratha country by Captain Meadows Taylor. The 

 details of these explo rations were published in the Journal of the Bombay 

 Branch of the Eoyal Asiatic Society in two papers, one entitled " Ancient 

 Remains at the village of Jimarji near Ferozabad on the Bhima," (Vol. Ill, 

 Pt. 2, p. 179) ; the other, " Notices of Cromlechs, Cairns and other ancient 

 Scytho-Druidical remains in the principality of Sorapur", (Vol. IV, p. 380.) 

 In some of the circles stone kists were found containing human skeletons, 

 and, together with the perfect skeletons, were skulls detached from the 

 bodies to which they had belonged, in a manner which appeared to prove 

 that human victims had been sacrificed at the funerals of chiefs. In the 

 kistvaens were found urns with bones which had been subjected to the 

 action of fire. 



Now it is not likely that any Christian people either sacrificed slaves or 

 concubines at the tombs of their Chiefs, or that they burned bodies. Is it 

 probable that, after they became Christian, they would so far have preserv- 

 ed their former funeral rites as to bury their dead in cromlechs, or to mark 

 their graves with stone circles ? It is of course possible that the crosses 

 may be of later date than the cromlechs, but all observers appear to think 

 the contrary. 



