1853.] Maunkyala. 571 



ancient habitations. The space in which these building materials 

 occur may be an area half or three quarters of a mile in circuit, a 

 space which might have contained a good-sized village of two or 

 three hundred houses. A street occurs in the village paved with 

 massive slabs. But as this is at the very summit of the tumulus 

 upon which the village stands, it may have been made since the 

 destruction of the original buildings. Outside the village, however, 

 on the north-west, the paved street appears to be original ; for on 

 one side are the remains of a foundation elaborately constructed of 

 squared stone without cement, but accurately fitted together. 



This village occupies an elevated site partly natural, partly artifi- 

 cial, about four hundred yards north of the Maunkyala Tope. No 

 one, on examining superficially this site, could conjecture that beneath 

 it are the ruins abovementioned. The soil shows no admixture 

 with particles of brick, pottery or building stone. It appears like 

 the natural undisturbed soil of the country. 



The stones which lie beneath the soil are of two kinds, the com- 

 mon unsquared building stone, of which houses are built in this 

 neighbourhood, and large slabs of sandstone carefully squared, some 

 of them from two to four feet in length by a cubit in breadth. 

 These occur in such numbers as to leave no doubt that a consider* 

 able building has here existed, very different in structure from the 

 dwelling houses of the present century. 



On carefully observing the surface of the neighbourhood, several 

 mounds are apparent, which, on examination, prove to be the ruins 

 of religious or sepulchral edifices. All of these have, I believe, been 

 violated by that antiquarian frensy which spares neither religion 

 nor piety, but rudely spoils alike the sepulchre and the shrine, to 

 gratify the avarice of curiosity or of ambition. This sacrilege can- 

 not be too much execrated. The veneration which attaches to 

 sepulchres is so closely interwoven with religion, that its demolition 

 endangers interests the most sacred to humanity. If we can warp 

 our hearts to take delight in plundering the dead, how shall we 

 respect the rights of the living ? — that solemn, time-honored legion 

 who have preceded us to the unknown shore, who have explored 

 for us the mystic path, who have dared the perils of regions without 

 a name, that we might profit by their success or their error, and 



