158 



ON DRUIDICAL AND 



to the statue of that god at Sravana-Belgula. It is in an 

 upright posture, its face has been struck off, as well as another 

 part of the person too conspicuous in the f orementioned naked 

 statue. A snake, whose body appears behind the figure, 

 raises and expands its seven heads over the head of it. From 

 the summit of the stone is sculptured an umbrella. 



Eeturning to the ruined pagoda I noticed on a plinth an 

 inscription. There are some Hindu pagodas in this neigh- 

 bourhood, one completely gone to ruin, presents an instance 

 of the most pristine method of laying on a roof. Across the 

 four angles of its square outline long blocks of stone are laid 

 diagonally. The square hole necessarily left in the middle 

 of the roof by the junction of the ends of these stones, is 

 covered by other stones also laid diagonally across the hole. 

 Smaller blocks are then laid on the others, until the roof is 

 sufficiently high, when the aperture, I suppose, is closed by 

 a single stone. I shall here endeavor to indicate by what 

 means the Druidical objects in India, which I believe I was 

 the first to bring to notice, {Madras Journal of Literature 

 and Science, No. XXXI, 1844, " Eemarkable Cromlech near 

 Paliconda in the Carnatic," No. XXXII, 1847, " Anti- 

 quities Nilgherry Hills," and No. XII, December 1861, 

 " On the Druidic Antiquities of the South of India,") were 

 introduced into that country ; but before I commence I am 

 tempted to annex the subjoined extract from Bishop Caldwell's 

 " Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages," p. 

 528:— 



" The resemblance of the barrows and their contents (with the 

 cromlechs, &c.,) to the Druidical remains which are discovered 

 in the ancient seats of the Celtic race in Europe, is too exact and 

 remarkable to be accounted for on any other supposition than 

 that of their derivation from the same origin. Hence the 

 people by whom Druidical rites were introduced into India must 

 have brought them with them from Central Asia ; and this 

 favors the conclusion that they must have entered India at a 



