11-1 E. T. Dalton —Rude Stone Monuments. [No. 2, 
There are no ruins in Saranda, no indications of its having ever been 
even partially inhabited by people of civilization superior to those who 
are now there. The Saranda Garh (i. e. fort) shewn in the map is a 
mere earthen wall and moat constructed round the site of a house, formerly 
occupied by a family who are said to have held the position of chiefs of 
Saranda. Within this enclosure, there is a wonderful iron kettle-drum of 
gigantic size. It lies bottom upwards half buried in the earth. The people 
of the place could not be induced to go near it, except as postulants in an 
attitude of prayer ! The tradition is that when the chief wished to summon 
his people, the drum was conveyed to the summit of the highest hill, and it 
could thence be heard in every village in the Pir. 
I give these extracts from my journal to shew that in the Saranda 
Kols we find a very primitive type of the race. They are, by their own ac¬ 
count, the true autochtones of the country, and till recently, no one has ever 
attempted to intrude on their exclusive occupation of this mass of hills. 
They repudiate all traditions of migrations which neighbouring cognates 
accept. The country they occupy was made for them and they for the coun¬ 
try, and how long have they been here ? 
The oldest looking village that I saw, was called Rongso, where my 
tents were pitched under some grand old tamarind trees of immense age. 
Close adjoining, two noble Banyan trees stretch out their long arms and 
great hands over a vast area of massive slabs, which cover the ashes of 
past generations of the villagers. The small huts in which the living dwell, 
are miserable structures, but the dead lie in the most solemn and impressive 
burial ground that I have ever beheld. I have seen no finer Banyan 
trees than those which here form not only the canopy of the mausoleum, but 
grow columns and arches separating the whole into compartments, which 
fill the mind with a vision or dream of aisles, transepts, and crypts,—an 
old abbey of the Elves or Dryads. The site, it is said, was originally taken 
up by one family. There are now fifteen houses and about 75 inhabitants. 
The deaths are at the rate of about two per cent, per annum. All who die 
do not attain to the dignity of a slab, and the ashes of several members of 
a family may be deposited under one stone; for this is the custom of the 
Mundas, and I found the Saranda people more Munda than Ho, that is, in 
customs resembling more the Kols of Chutia Nagpur proper, than the Sing- 
bhum members of the family. The slabs above ground considerably exceeded 
300 in number, but there were more buried or nearly buried. We may 
assume 400 slabs, and if we give only two to a slab and make allowance for 
the increase which starting with one family there must have been in num¬ 
bers, we have proof of great age in what we see. 
But this is a pigmy burial-ground in comparison to some which I subse¬ 
quently visited. 
