IN NORTH ARGOT DISTRICT, 



39 



common with the Brahmans, traditions of the cruel perse- 

 cutions to which they were subjected by the latter. In 

 the time of their prosperity the Mamandur hills were doubt- 

 less the resort of a party of Jain monks, who occupied 

 themselves in cutting out of the rock retreats, in which they 

 might erect their idols, and apply themselves to worship and 

 meditation protected from the sun and rain. 



Leaving the caves, and returning northwards towards the 

 village, the path leads among boulders fantastically arranged 

 below the tank bund. At first sight there is nothing remark- 

 able about their appearance, but a closer examination reveals 

 the fact that many form those strange monumental sepulchres 

 called cromlechs or dolmens, which are frequently found in 

 Southern India. The ordinary dolmen is constructed of six 

 flat quarried stones, forming a cubical chamber, and in the 

 eastern wall is invariably cut a circular aperture about 18 

 inches in diameter. The specimens found at Mamandur, 

 however, have a character of their own. Many of them have 

 fallen into ruin, but one close to the path is in a good state 

 of preservation, and affords a good example of what all were. 

 It is rectangular in shape, the dimensions of the enclosed 

 chamber being 10 feet square, with a height above the soil of 

 rather more than 3 feet. Excavation to a depth of 3 feet more 

 failed to reach the flooring stone, and the rapid percolation of 

 water from the adjacent paddy fields made further trial 

 impossible. The roof is a gigantic mass of granite, evidently 

 not quarried, measuring 12 feet each way with a thickness of 

 a foot at the edges, and more than 2 feet in the middle. 

 This enormous mass has been raised upon several upright 

 stones, some 10 inches thick, which are buried in the soil to an 

 unknown depth, and are roughly fitted one by the side of the 

 other. No attempt has been made to shape them artificially 

 that the joints may meet closely, but the numerous interstices 



