92 



The Antiquities of the [Ko. 3^, 



round the ^Yaist. The effigies found in the cairns are decorated in a 

 remarkably similar manner being destitute of covering in every other 

 respect ; with one exception, and this figure has a cloth wound round 

 the middle of her person. The countenances of these images exhibit 

 the Hebrew physiognomy conspicuous in some of the Thautawar fa- 

 milies. 



Notwithstanding such strong testimony, to the cairns having been 

 constructed by the early Thautawar people, exists, coupled with 

 what I have just adduced, I will have the candour to say it is yet 

 possible these edifices may be the w^ork of a Pandyan people once the 

 inhabitants of these hills. 



The urns found in the cairns seem to be of Jain or Buddh fashion, 

 while the animals in pottery resemble those sculptured on the ancient 

 monolithe temples at Mahabaliporam on the Coromandel coast. A 

 tradition of a Pandyan race I found amongst the Polygars of the 

 mountain districts of Papanassum in Tinnevelly ; and was told several 

 forts of former Pandyan kings were seated up the mountain : these 

 may have been cairns frequently called forts by the Natives owing to 

 their shape. It is satisfactorily established that the Pandyan kings had 

 their empire in the South of India ; and one of the ancient geographers 

 speaks of them. The Romans traded largely with the Pandyan peo- 

 ple, and there is every reason to believe Killikerry on the Gulf of 

 Manaar was the chief mart of the pearl trade. At this point probably 

 the Roman coins distributed over the site of the ancient Pandyan 

 empire found their way into India. One of these coins was dug out 

 of a cairn on the Neilgherries some years back. 



Many Jain temples are simply open areas surrounded by a wall and 

 called Betta meaning a hill. The cairns are of this construction and 

 seated on the summit of a hill or peak of a mountain. The urns 

 under the large slabs in the centre of the cairn may have contained 

 the ashes of the males of a Pandyan family whose domestic implements 

 were buried with them ; while the urns buried round the interior with 

 less care may have held the remains of the wives perhaps destroyed 

 at a Suttee : the numerous female figures in pottery in the cairns 

 being their effigies. The conjecture derives some force from the 

 family likeness found to prevail among the figures of the respective 

 cairns. 



I leave the two theories, both my own, at the bar of public opinion 

 until more facts and further research settle the question. 



The adoption of the theory of the cairns haying belonged to the 



