Indian Antiquary Vol 01

SR No.: 032493
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 22 MB

Page 289

AUGUST 2, 1872.]
CORRESPONDENCE.
257
85 miles, there are six tribes, i. e., Bor Duárias, Mú- the use of the jattee they seemn clumsy and bad - tons, Banparas, Jobokas, Sanglors, and Lakmas, and shots ; I have tried batches of several tribes at a this gives but six miles average frontage. They mark for prizes, but found them unable to reach 80 do not extend far into the hills, so that each may yards. Nor could they touch a sack of straw for half Bafely be said to occupy about 40 or 50 square miles. an hour at 60 yards, but at 40 yards one did succeed. In some cases a tribe is more extensively placed ; "They use their jatties for close work, usually but again in others, as Sinyong, the entire tribe con- from ambush, and never attack in the open. The siata of but one village. I know of no cases where dháo is used as & hatchet or mace, and held one tribe has conquered and become possessed of by both hands. One blow is usually enough, if the lands of another; hence the status quo seems of fairly given in a fight, as they can cut with trelong continuance. The oldest Nogáons," or nw mendous force. The jungle is so thick and comyillages, are not less seemingly than 40 or 50 years. mon, that their warfare is wholly by ambush and
As a consequence of the above noted custom of surprise, and this gives the dháo great advantages. head-cutting, and its isolating influence, few Nágás | The bow is chiefly used for game and pigs." reach the plains, but those living on the border. " There religion seems confined to the fear of a We thus see a community of some hundreds perched legion of deotás or devils, and has no system, and on a hill, and depending almost exclusively on their their devils are of course on a par with their limitown resources, constantly fighting others similarly ed ideas. Whatever they do not understand, is the isolated, on all sides, yet thoroughly able to main- work of a deota. Every tree, rock, or path has tain themselves. Perhaps in no other part of the its . deo, especially bor trees and waterfalls. If & world can so complete a tribal isolation be seen, man is inad, a deo possesses him, who is propitiated and subdivision carried to such an extreme. The by offerings of dhán, spirits, or other eatables. Deos available land, too, seems all taken up. To every in fact are omnipresent, and are supposed to do little 40 or 50 square miles 'there are about four villages, else than distress human beings. The only remedy of perhaps one hundred families encli; yet from the is presents and counter witchcraft.". There are no nature of the case, as before stated, not more than regular priests, though they have deorie,' wen whose an eighth or tenth of the land available can be cul- office it is to bury or attend to the dead. Two or tivated at one time, and the population would seem more such men are in each Village, They tie up to have reached its maximum.
the corpse in toooo leaves, and put it on the rúk The Banparas, like most Nágás, use the Jatti or túás,' where it is left till sufficiently docayed when spear, and the 'dháo. They also use the cross bow. the skull is put in the Morrang." (Hap in Naga). It is not, I hear, of recent date. In
.. (To be continued.)
. .
CORRESPONDENCE, &c. AGE OF INDIAN CAVES AND TEMPLES." opportunity of personally inspecting these build. To the Editor of the Indian Antiquary.
ings, more than thirty years ago, the whole subject
was in its infancy, and nothing had then been Str.-In the XXVIth number of the Proceedings
published that was of any real value or assistance. of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatio Society
Since then numberless inscriptions have been pul which has just reached this country, I perceive that
lished and translated, and almost all the buildings Dr. Bhau Daji adheres to the assertion made by him
I then knew have been visited and described by at the meeting in July 1869, to the following
others. Under these circumstances, I would natureffect :-"I have personally," he says, "visited
ally expect that, with all the increased knowledge " many of the older Orissa Temples, with inscriptions
and facilities now available, any one miglit detect "in many of them, and have also examined almost
errors in my determinations. It would hardly, "every cave in this Presidency, as well as many in
however, be in Orissa temples. I only ascribed " Behar and Eastern India. I have sometimes
dates to three of them :-Bhubaneswar, Kanarak, " found Mr. Fergusson in error to the extent of one
and Jagannath. These dates I took, not from their " to three centuries in respect to the age of Temples
style, but from Sterling's Essay in the XVth volume " and Caves. He generally postdated thero.".
of the Asiatio Rosearches; where they are recorded (No. XXVI. p. cxxxix).
in evidence that seemed so clear that it will be very Nothing would surprise me less than that this interesting to know how Dr. Bhau Daji can upset Mortion should, in some cases, at least, prove cor- it. Dr. Hunter, I see, tumbles into the same pit, rect. As I stated in my “History of Architec- and it is high time we were both resched. turo" (vol. ii, p. 591), "when I visited Bhobaneswar With regard to Temples and Caves in Western " the subject was new to me, and I had had no India, Dr. Bhau Daji may be in possession of infor* practice in inferring the dates of Hinda buildings mation not now available to the general public; but a trote their styles. Indeed when I last had an I have seen nothing yet in print that shakes my