86 The Antiquities of the [No. 33, 



* 



sore to Coimbatoor. Instead of being the cemetries of an army it 

 must be quite clear to an unprejudiced mind that these edifices are 

 the sepulchres of a great people. 



2. Tippoo's army is^said to have crossed the Neilgherries about 

 the end of the last century. If the new theorists were correct, the 

 cairns would not be more than 50 years old ; but it is quite evident 

 they are hundreds. Their antiquity is manifest from the huge trees 

 that grow from their areas some of which must be three or four hun- 

 dred years old, their roots have interlaced themselves among the 

 stones composing the walls of the cairns, and in many instances com- 

 pletely environed the gravestones. 



The iron and brass utensils occasionally dug up have been so 

 roughly used by the hand of time, that they fall into dust on being 

 touched. 



3. I would ask whence it arises that we find no sepulchres of 

 Mussulmen on these hills. Did the entire army of Tippoo Sultan a 

 Mahomedan king, consist wholly of Hindoos ? or, if it were a mixed 

 assembly of Hindoos and Mussulmen, I presume the casualties 

 amongst the Mussulmen were as great as amongst the Hindoos, thus 

 although their tombs are not to be found, 350,000 Mussulmen as well 

 as 350,000 Hindoos perished as mere casualties : why ! the army of 

 Xerxes could not compare with that of Tippoo Sultan, a fact I have 

 no doubt the new theorists are prepared to maintain. 



4. Instead of the limited time, probably two days, occupied by 

 Tippoo's army in crossing the hills from Mysore to Coimbatoor, 

 weeks and months must have been consumed in constructing the 

 cairns which in some cases have walls 8 or 9 feet in thick- 

 ness and 5 feet high constructed of large stones placed with 

 mathematical exactness in the form of a circle ; in transporting the 

 huge slabs of Gneiss and Hornblende Schist serving as gravestones, 

 from distant parts of the Neilgherry range ; and in fashioning, manu- 

 facturing and baking the urns of clay and their ornamented lids, the 

 workmanship being frequently very elaborate. 



5. The cairns are erected on separate hills sometimes many miles 

 apart over an area of upwards of 200 miles long by 20 to 30 broad. 

 The burial places of an army on the contrary would be clustered in 

 an insignificant space. 



6. If these cairns are the graves of Hindoo Soldiers, why do we 



