1847.] 



Neilgherry Hills, ^c. 



117 



Additional Chapters, 



ClIAPTEK UtH. 



I am actuated to renew the subject of the foregoing chapters by 

 some discoveries I have made, of more decided monuments of Druid- 

 ism or Scythicism than any hitherto observed, and of ancient sculp- 

 tures in the North-east angle of the Neilgherries. I say discoveries, 

 because I cannot ascertain that any other person has previously 

 taken notice of these interesting relics of past ages. But before I 

 proceed to describe them, it is necessary to make some observations 

 in elucidation of certain passages in my last papers. 



I mentioned the existence of a tradition that the Pandaver once in=. 

 habited the Neilgherries. By the Pandaver I understand the Pan- 

 dyan kings of Southern India, the country of the Pandyans being 

 called Pandava : and I hazarded the conjecture that these Pandaver 

 were either Buddhists or Jains. Kuna Pandya king of Pandava 

 introduced the Jain religion into his empire, which included besides 

 other districts Coimbatore, and therefore in all probability the Neil- 

 gherry Hills. The Jain image of Gomuta at Carculla, according to 

 an inscription on the stone, was made by Vira Pandia. The Jain 

 religion in former times was most widely spread in Lower India. 

 The capital of the ancient Bellala dynasty had no less than seven 

 hundred temples to Jaina in it. The same religion prevailed in Kar- 

 nata and Kerala (Malabar). The Chola Rajahs were sometime 

 Jains, indeed the Brahmins assert that this heresy was universally 

 spread amongst kings and people before the advent of Rama Anuja 

 A. D. 1000. The prevalence of the Jain rehgion in former times 

 inclines me to think, that the mysterious Prester John or Pretre Jean 

 of our early travellers was no other than a Jain priest, whence 

 Pretre Jain. Volney thinks he was a Buddhist priest and derives 

 his name from Pretre Jhan, a compound of French and Persian words 

 meaning priest of the world. 



In a preceding Chapter I referred to Pandoo and his children. The 

 Pandoos belong to the Brahmin age of heroes ; Dharma Rajah, the last 

 of the five brothers, according to their accounts, died 4865 years ago. 

 The Brahmins moreover state that the Tulava country over which 

 they reigned became a state two thousand millions of years ago. 

 The propriety of dismissing such fables is consequently obvious. 



