1873.] 
E. T. Dalton —Rude Stone Monuments. 
115 
I am indebted to Mr. T. F. Peppe for having directed my attention to 
the great Munda burial ground of Chokahatu (‘ the place of mourning’), 
and for the photograph of this very interesting scene, which I am sending 
with this paper. 
This village is situated between Bundu and Buranda with Tamar to 
the south. These are all estates in the Lohardagga District, or it would be 
better to say in Chutia Nagpur proper, called now, with two others, Panch 
(five) Parganah. The majority of the population and oldest people are 
Mundas, and the chiefs, who are usually called Rajas, are unquestionably 
Mundas too, though they are now thoroughly Hinduised, and call themselves 
Rajputs and Kshatriyas. There is a burial ground at Bundu, which merits 
attention, as a section of an understratum of graves, buried by time, is shewn 
where the soil has been cut away by water, and the cinerary urns are ex¬ 
posed, but the account of one will suffice. 
The road from Bundu to Chokahatu goes east through a highly culti¬ 
vated country. It crosses the Kanchi River, and on the right bank of that 
stream, I came unexpectedly on some very old looking ruins of stone temples, 
eight in number, apparently dedicated to Siva, as I noticed several lingas 
about, the only visible objects of worship. 
The temples were mere shrines built of cut stones, squared and put to¬ 
gether without any cement or clamps. No one in the neighbourhood has 
the faintest notion by whom, or at what period, these shrines were construct¬ 
ed. A quarter of a mile east of the ruins, I found a deserted Kol burial- 
ground, close to the village of Daruharu, but the people of Daruharu dare 
not use the old burial-ground; the descendants of those whose ashes lie 
there are gone out of sight and memory. And the Daruharu people’s re¬ 
mains must be taken to a spot two miles distant from their houses ! Now 
I noticed that in this deserted burial-ground a very free use had been made 
of the stones cut for the temples, the slabs rested on such cut stones, so 
the deserted burial-ground was in use when the temple was in ruins, but 
all around have now passed away from the recollection of man, both those 
who worshipped the Sivas of the shrines, and those of another dispensation 
who helped to destroy them. 
It was past noon when we came in sight of the great Chokahatu* burial- 
ground. It was then between us and the village of the name, the centre of a 
great plain, an anomalous interruption to a huge expanse of terraced cul¬ 
tivation. There are no great trees here to shade the graves, the field of 
mourning has no such solace. 
The march had been a long one, and there was no time to lose, as I could 
not afford a halt, so I set all my clerks at once to work to count the slabs, 
and to measure the area of the space which they covered. The result gave 
* Lat. 23° 10', North ; Long. 85° 5G', East. 
