1877.] 
9 
Ancient Sculpturings on rocks in Kamaon . 
race of nomads, “ Shepherd Kings”, who held the country before the 
advent of Aryan civilisation, and here among the Himalayas, the same 
idea seems to prevail, and to the same people is attributed the construction 
of similar Cyclopean works. All this would seem to indicate that the 
markings are not of modern origin. 
28. Then as to the significance, if any, of these markings. First as 
to the cup-marks. They are generally arranged in rows, large and small. 
Sometimes a row is composed entirely of large and small marks. Often 
the large and small holes are found in juxta-jposition. The combinations 
and permutations are numerous. This would seem to suggest that the 
markings have some significance, and are not so arranged for ornament only. 
In a brief paper written for the late Earl of Mayo, shortly before his death, 
on the cup-markings found in Central India, and which I believe it was 
Lord Mayo’s intention to communicate to the Royal Irish Academy, by 
which Society the subject of cup markings on similar remains in Ireland 
had been discussed, it was suggested by me that these markings might 
possibly represent a primitive form of writing. The Agham writing con¬ 
sists of combinations of long and short strokes cut on sandstone. On sand¬ 
stone it would be easier to cut lines with the grain, so to speak, of the 
stone. To attempt to make a cup mark would be to risk splitting the 
slab. On the other hand to cut a line on hard trap would be difficult, 
whereas to work an iron instrument round and round so as to make a 
“ cup-mark”, would be comparatively easy. It was also pointed out that 
the American invention by which a record of the message sent by the 
Electric Telegraph is made by the instrument itself, the most primitive 
style of marking, or writing on the paper was necessarily adopted. And 
the letters in the Morse Code are consequently composed of numerous 
combinations of long and short strokes. In Army signalling, which I saw 
recently carried on here from the hill tops by men of the 19th (Princess of 
Wales’s Own) Regiment stationed at Ranikhet, the same simple system is 
adopted to represent letters by long and short wavings of a flag. By night 
a lamp is used, long and short flashes taking the place of the long and 
short wavings of the flag. It is then perhaps not impossible that the 
many permutations of large and small cup markings may have some such 
sort of significance having been adopted as a primitive style of record 
many hundreds of years back by a people who had not advanced very far in 
civilisation. I have not had time during my recent march in Kamaon to 
collect many specimens of such permutations, and have been obliged to con¬ 
tent myself with the knowledge of the existence of such markings in many 
parts of the province, leaving any further investigations for some future 
pleasant holiday. But the permutations at Chandeshwar, as the annexed 
sketch will shew, are numerous enough for the sake of the argument, if 
E 
