181 
[No. 3, 
W. King— Notice of a pre-hist or ic Burial Place 
is a very general resemblance between them and the other sepulchral ruins 
scattered over the country above indicated and even as far south as the 
Ivavari river, which ruins are doubtless the relics of pre-Aryan races, an 
early branch of whom, is possibly now represented in the small degraded 
tribe of Yanadis* of Striharicotta, and a later branch by the more civilized 
though still low Ivois and Kols of the north. 
Here at Kakshasgudium, however, we have the most improved form 
of the type burial-place, the placing of the corpse in a horizontal receptacle, 
and the unique cruciform monuments, all of which are evidences of civiliza¬ 
tion, possibly of the highest form at which the Kolarian people had arrived 
when their country was inundated by the great Aryan wave. 
It is at the same time very remarkable that in the part of the country 
where I would have it that the evidences of the highest phase of civiliza¬ 
tion of the pre-Aryan exists, we have now only a very degraded remnant of 
the race with no knowledge of the ruins in question. May I suggest 
on this, that the Kois of the present day possibly had no direct ancestors 
living here at the time of the Aryan invasion, or are they the returned residue 
of so much of the race as was driven outwards by the invaders, or perhaps 
the after outspreading of those branches of the race who were never 
touched in the fastnesses of Sambalpur and Ckutia Nagpur by the w T ave of 
conquest, while the more refined tribes then existing became gradually 
absorbed into, or amalgamated with the new race. 
A great difficulty in tracing out the age of these remains, presents 
itself in the cruciform character of the monoliths ; for I believe these are 
unique in the pre-historic sepulchral remains of India, and it might 
naturally be expected that a like though rougher form of the same 
type should occur among the ruder examples of similar places in the neigh¬ 
bourhood, while at the same time it is necessary to face the apparently 
much easier solution of the problem that the monoliths and even the ceme¬ 
tery itself may be of very early Christian origin. It is, however, more 
probable that a more refined section of the pre-Aryan people should have 
had one burial-place with special monuments for their greatest families, 
than that a single early Christian cemetery should have been planted far 
inland, in the centre of heathendom wfithout a trace of the cross being 
left in the countries outside. 
As stated in the commencement of this paper, it is very possible some 
previous observer may have seen this place and recorded his observations ; 
but I am unable to learn of such, while my means of reference to any pre¬ 
vious literature on the subject is very small. At the same time, I must 
* The Yanadis frequent the country around Pulicat Lake (Madras) : and I saw, 
in 1863-64, two of these people producing fire by the manipulation of pieces of wood, 
on a rainy day, within 200 yards of a modern village. 
