222 
J. H. Rivett-Carnac —Stone Implements. 
[No. 3, 
In nearly all its characteristics, Banda differs from its sister Districts of the 
Doab. The country is hilly and well wooded, and the monotonous level of 
the plain is exchanged for pleasant valleys and picturesque upland. 
The rocks most commonly met with, are the Kaimur Sandstones, gra- 
natoid gneiss, diorite, the hornblendic rock, of which the celts later to be 
noticed, are chiefly formed, and the basalt of the trap sheet of the Deccan, 
veins of which intrude themselves here and there among the more common 
formations. In the south of the district the lower Yindhian formation, 
known as the Tirhowan Limestone, is met with. This is the matrix of the 
chert nodules and bands, the material used for the smaller and more deli¬ 
cate implements, the description of which will be found in Mr. Cockburn’s 
paper. 
This wild and picturesque country, lying within easy reach of that old 
established centre of Aryan civilization, Prayag, the “ Sangarn” or sacred 
junction of the two holy streams, having been familiar to the Hindus for many 
centuries, has enjoyed great popularity, and has been invested with a 
full share of romance by the Aryan invaders, whose appreciation of the 
picturesque nooks and cool retreats of the upland, must have been enhanced 
by a long and tedious progress through the monotonous plains of Upper 
India. It was in the Banda District that Rama, having resigned his kingdom 
in filial deference to his father’s vow, and accompanied by Sita, and his 
brother Lakshman, took up his abode, choosing the wild forest which then 
covered the hill of Chitrakut, or Kamadagiri, or “ abode of delight,” a site 
now marked by hundreds of temples, the annual resort of hundreds of 
thousands of pilgrims. Some of the most beautiful passages of the 
Ramayan describe the picturesque forest, and this pleasant country among 
the Banda hills, into which civilization has not even yet fully penetrated 
or robbed of its many sylvan attractions. It was in this forest that Sita 
was carried off by Havana, and it was here that Rama undertook the 
avenging expedition against Lanka, during which, as tradition has it, he 
received valuable assistance from the monkeys of the forest, or in other 
words from the wild tribes inhabiting this tract, who were probably armed 
with the stone hatchets and the stone clubs which form the subject of the 
present paper. 
The hill country of which Banda forms the eastern limit, still contains 
semicivilized tribes, differing in their language, in their physical and other 
characteristics from the Aryans of the plains. The old Hindu records con¬ 
tain accounts of these wild men of the woods, and the ancient stone carvings, 
occasionally found among the ruined temples of the forest, or on Buddhist 
topes like Sanchi, represent a class easily distinguishable in form and 
feature from the Aryan invaders. A carving found by Mr. Cockburn at 
Kalanjar, evidently of great antiquity, represents a figure holding in the 
