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1888.] A. Rea— Pre-historic Burial-places in Southern India. 
use of fertile land for burial; or it may have been that the same idea 
which the Hindus, along with other nations, have of the sacredness of 
the hills, induced them to choose such places for the deposit of their 
dead. The ancient Jews had such a belief ; we see the Chinese and 
other nations have it; and that such is not foreign to the traditions of 
the Hindus is evinced by some of their finest carvings of deities and 
most sacred shrines being placed on the hills. The custom now-a-days 
of placing a pot of food at a grave may be the lingering traces of the 
earlier custom. Even with castes which bury their dead,—and, the 
evidences point to these relics being the work of an aboriginal people 
who used burial in preference to cremation, as the bones I found are 
not calcined—no custom of placing such a number of utensils seems to 
prevail now, nor do any of them use any such receptacle for the body. 
With such a conservative race as the Hindus, who take ages to change 
any of their customs, it seems a very sufficient reason for assigning these 
antiquities to a very early period in the history of this country. 
These ancient burial-places in South India are known to the people 
by various names which indicate the belief that they are temples, and 
not places of sepulture, for example, Pandava Jcavil, or temple of the Pan- 
davas. It is curious that this should be the same idea once firmly be¬ 
lieved in by Antiquaries in Europe, till dispelled by Fergusson, who 
conclusively proved that they could only be temples in the sense that 
they were shrines of the dead, and might be shrines of the votaries of 
ancestor worship. 
Megalithic remains at Perianattam near Chingleput. 
These consist of some fine groups of kistvaens and stone-circles. 
On the Yilliyin hill, there are three or four tombs ; and on the northern 
face of the Vallari hill are from sixty to seventy examples. At least 
four classes of remains exist on the Villiyin hill; they are— 
(i.) Stone-circles, with kistvaens or dolmens in the centre, 
(2.) Circles, with no surface remains in the centre, 
(3.) Kistvaens or dolmens, without circles, 
(4.) Pottery sarcophagi, without stone enclosures. 
The remains generally are much the same as the megalithic tombs 
at Pallavaram ; but whereas at that place only one or two examples of 
the dolmens—in the centre of circles—occur, at Perianattam a large 
number exists in almost complete preservation. Of the first class, above 
noted, over a dozen were noted. They are formed of a number of large 
stones laid together, roughly forming three sides of a square, leaving 
the fourth side open, and the inside clear. A large flat slab is laid over 
the top of these as a roof. Close around the central group is a pile of 
H 
