( 349 ) 
Art. XIX . — Notice regarding the Working and Polishing 
of Granite In India. By Alexander Kennedy, M. D. 
F. R. S. Edin. Communicated by tke Author 
HE following observations have been suggested by the very 
excellent paper upon the Temples of Thebes, lately read by Co- 
lonel Straton in this Society. In that paper, he had occasion to 
mention the very high polish still retained by the granite sta- 
tues, columns, and other remains of Egyptian antiquity ; and in 
illustration of the great hardness of the material of which these 
are formed, he noticed incidentally the difficulty which had 
been found in operating upon one of these granite statues now in 
the British Museum, and the number of tools which had been 
broken in the process of replacing one of its arms. 
That the arts, as well as the religion of the Hindoos, were 
originally derived from the Egyptians, seems not to admit of 
any doubt ; and among the arts now practised by the Hindoos, 
that of working and polishing granite, has, in all probability, 
undergone no change from the period of its first introduction 
among them. Most probably, therefore, the processes may be 
the very same as those by which the materials of the stupen- 
dous temples of Egypt were prepared and finished ; and as the 
subject thus acquires an additional degree both of curiosity and 
interest, I shall subjoin some notices of the manner in which I 
have seen the hardest granite cut and polished by Hindoo work- 
men. 
The only tools which they employ, are a small steel chisel 
and an iron mallet. The chisel is short, probably not longer 
than twice the breadth of the small hands which work with it •(*. 
I think it most probable that each of these chisels may be form- 
ed of one of the short bars of Berar wootz, described by Dr 
Heyne in his Tracts on India ; but this is merely conjecture. 
The chisel tapers to a round point like that of a drawing pencil ; 
and this I believe to be the only shape ever given to the points 
of their chisels. 
• Read before the Royal Society Feb, 19. 1821. 
•j* The snjallness of the handle of the Hindoo sword has often been lemarked. 
