ON SOME FORMERLY EXISTING ANTIQUITIES ON THE NILGIRIS.
BY M. J. WALHOUSE, late M.C.S.
ALTHOUGH the antiquities of the Nilgiri Hills were thoroughly investigated by the late Commissioner of the Nilgiris, Mr. J. Breeks, under the direction and with the aid of the Madras Government, and although it is understood his account of them was completed before his lamented and untimely death, and will be published, it will not, I hope, be regarded as superfluous to record the original features of some of the antiquities which have long ago been destroyed, and are not mentioned in Colonel Congreve's account.
I.
In April 1849, when at Kunûr (Coonoor) and inquiring amongst the natives about the ancient remains, I was told by a Toḍâ that there were some to be seen beyond the Nidi Mănd. So, starting early one morning, and crossing the great ravine which lies between Kunûr and the Hălikâl ridge, then clothed with deep magnificent forest, where now the eye meets nothing save productive—but, alas! ugly—coffee-clearings, I wound upwards through the picturesque foldings of the hills to the Nidi Mănd, where my informant met me. All Toḍâ mănds, i. e. villages, are beautifully placed, and this (whether still existing or improved into a coffee-garden, I cannot say) was nestled in a cleft between two peaks, at the edge of a thick grove, the trees of which stretched their great moss-hung arms over the wild-looking primitive huts, by which stood the tall men wrapt classic-wise in their cloths, whilst the handsome black-ringleted women sat chattering in a row, and the boys—their thick shocks of hair cut quaintly thatch-fashion across their foreheads—came running over the close fresh green-sward which lies before every Mănd.
Passing through the high secluded cleft, round the base of one of the sheltering peaks, I decended for fully 1000 feet on the other side of the ridge, by an excessively steep and difficult track, to a hollow, where on three sides the slopes ran very precipitously down, enclosing at the bottom a small platform, open on the fourth or south side, whence the mountain-side fell steeply down to the Bhavânî valley at the foot of the range. On a knoll in the middle of the platform stood a cromlech of very large size, or rather a row of connected cromlechs, forming five partitions, three large ones of equal height in the centre, and a smaller and lower one at each end. They stood in a line, the three central compartments being covered with three huge capstones, the edge of one overlapping the edge of the next; the supporting stones, four in number, being great slabs, set up end-wise, with slabs enclosing the back or north side—the front or south side of all was open; the smaller structure at each end was formed in like manner. Unfortunately I omitted to take the exact dimensions, but a man could sit easily in any of the three central cells; within them lay the skeleton of a fawn, and part of an elephant's tooth much hacked with a knife. The supporting slabs were sculptured all over on their sides within with figures in the Hindu style, processional or warlike, but there were none on the under-sides of the capstones. The figures were evidently ancient, as, though covered from the weather, their outlines were much worn. Whether these sculptures were coæval with the stones and wrought by the men who first placed them, or whether they were subsequent additions, is a controversy still sub judice. They have been found on cromlechs and kistvaens in other parts of the hills, and if regarded as contemporary with the stones would at once mark the age of these structures, as emblems, such as the Basava bull, of known date, occur amongst them. They appear always to have struck observers as later additions cut upon the previously existing cromlechs; such was my impression and also that of Col. Congreve, and others,[1] but the point is by no means settled yet. I may observe that a man sitting inside the cells could easily have cut the sculptures in the cromlech now described by me.
On visiting the spot again in 1856 this curious monument had been entirely destroyed, every stone overthrown and lying scattered around; the work evidently of some barbarians—not, I fear, dark-skinned. Though hitherto calling it 'cromlech,' I hardly know how to class it. It was indeed rather a succession of open-sided connected kistvaens. Single dolmens or kistvaens, consisting of upright side and back slabs sup-
- ↑ See Madras Journal of Literature and Science, vol. XIV. page 120, Old Series, and vol. IV. page 119, New Series.
