part 3 .] Ball: Building and Ornamental Stones of India. 
117 
thousand years ago, while the posts of to-day have been subservient to the destruction of 
space, for it may be said that the telegraph which bears our messages from Calcutta to 
Peshawur over a distance of 1,500 miles in a few seconds of time practically overcomes space. 
The preceding remarks refer only to the Vindhyan rocks, as exhibited in the great Vin- 
dhyan and associated ranges on the south of the Gangetic valley. In order to complete this 
notice, it will be necessary to allude to the occurrence of rocks believed to belong to the 
same geological period in other parts of the peninsula. 
Between Sambalpur and Raipur in the valley of the Mahanadi, a series of sandstones j 
shales and limestones, considered to be contemporaneous with some of the Vindhyan series, 
occupy a considerable area. But in that wild part of the country there has as yet been no 
local demand for building stones. 
Again, rocks referable to the Vindhyan series occur in the country to the south 
of Nagpur, in the region about the confluence of the Weinganga and Warda rivers. 
In the Kamul district south of the Kistna there is another series of limestones, shales 
and quartzites which is considered to be referable to the Vindhyans. 
Mr. King, in his description of these rocks and the underlying Kadapa formation, says : 
“ There is no lack of good and easily wrought stone all over the district; but these can only 
become of value as they are locally required or as the means of communication are opened 
out over the district.”* 
For further examples of the uses to which these sandstones have been put in ancient 
times reference should be made to General Cunningham’s Archaeological Survey Reports. 
Among the sandstones of the Damuda series (the representative of the carboniferous 
period in India) there are several varieties which are suited for building purposes and which 
have already to a small extent been made use of. 
Throughout the Damuda valley where these rocks occur, they have been used in the 
construction of temples, some of which are of considerable antiquity. Among the finest 
examples three Jain temples at Barakar are deserving of particular notice, as exhibiting some 
rather elaborate carving which has stood well. 
But still more ancient work in this material is to be seen in the caves of Sirguja and 
Chang Bokkar, which bear inscriptions in the old Pali character, testifying to their extreme 
antiquity. 
In recent times the sandstones at Barakar have been quarried largely for local use in the 
construction of the Barakar bridge and for various purposes in connection with the East 
Indian Bailway. A considerable portion of the new High Court in Calcutta is also built of 
this material. Being readily accessible at the terminus of the Barakar branch of the railway, 
this rock will probably always be more or less used for purposes to which brick is not suited. 
In Hazaribagh and Ranchi some of the sandstones of this series have been used to a 
small extent, and the flaggy beds of the underlying Talchirs to a somewhat larger extent for 
paving the European barracks, &c. 
References to these sandstones will be found in the numerous reports on coal-fields 
in the Memoirs and Records of the Geological Survey. 
* References. 
Voysey, on the building stones and Mosaic of Akberabad or Agra, Asiatic Kesearches, XV, 1825, p. 429. 
Owen, Purtabpur stone quarries, P. P. on I. E., II, 1865, p. 81. 
Blanford, W. T., Western India, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, VI, 218. 
Mallet, Vindhyan series, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, VII, p. 116. 
King, Kadapa and Kamul formations, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, VIII, p. 281. 
