98 CUP-MARKINGS. 



The conclusion to which our author comes in this connec- 

 tion is : — " It seems, then, hardly improbable that the ruins in 

 Europe are the remains of that primitive form of worship 

 which is known to have extended at one time over a great 

 portion of the globe, and which still exists all over India, and 

 that these markings are the rude records of a nomadic race 

 which at an early epoch of the world's history left the Central 

 Asian nursery, and travelling in different directions have left 

 their traces in Europe as in India, of tumuli and rock sculp- 

 turings generally to be found in hill countries and in accessible 

 spots, whither at a later period they were forced to retreat be- 

 fore the advance of a more civilized and a more powerful race." 



In trying to show the possible connection of these marks 

 with the religious observances of the people who made them, 

 our author bases his arguments on their similarity to objects 

 used or erected by the Hindoos of the present day, in 

 connection with the worship of Siva or Mahadeo, and 

 undoubtedly the resemblance is very close, and the connection 

 seems evident. In the temple near the sculptured rock in 

 Kumaon, before mentioned, beside the principal shrine, he 

 counted 37 minor shrines, consisting mostly of a rough 

 pedestal formed of loose stones surrounding a Mahadeo and 

 Yoni. The Mahadeo (representing the deity) is an upright 

 stone, more or less carved ; the Yoni is a horizontal stone or 

 stones of the well-known jews'-harp shape. 



But in the poorer type the upright stone is missing, and 

 the structure or single stone is apparently a conventional 

 rendering of the same idea, a kind of ground plan of the 

 proper Mahadeo and Yoni. Some 20 or 30 of these occur 

 in the Chandeshwar enclosure, varying from a well-defined 

 inner and outer circle to a very poor type, which is little more 

 than a rough cup-mark surrounded by a circle and gutter ; the 

 centre mark would appear to do duty for the linga (Mahadeo), 

 the circle for the Yoni, and the gutter is the depression to be 

 found on most stone Yonis, by means of which the votive 

 libations are drawn off from the symbols. The old priest at 

 Chandeshwar said : — " Those who can afford it put up a big 

 Mahadeo, those who cannot, put up these slabs." And thus 

 the symbols of the Mahadeo and Yoni are indicated on these 

 stones by a ground plan which has degenerated into the rough 

 conventional treatment of the cup-mark and circle so common 

 on monoliths in Europe as well as India. 



It is to be noticed that native surveyors indicate on their 

 plans the position of a Mahadeo temple by a sign exactly 

 resembling these markings. 



