Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 2.djvu/225

 July, 1873.] MONUMENTS IN KHANDESH. 201 They are of various shapes and sizes, the largest about 8 feet high above ground, square, finished with a round head, and ornamented with figures in relief on all sides. Others are long slabs, and some mere flat stones erected much as they were found. A great many are of wood, invariably teak, which seems to last a wonderful time. It is difficult to get at the precise age of such remairis; but I have seen many teak monuments of which the name had entirely passed away, yet which were still in fair preservation. They are always in the shape of a post about half as thick as it is wide, with a round head. The Thildns, or shep¬ herds, merely dab a little red paint on the spot where a man happened actually to die. The monuments are generally cenotaphs, and erect¬ ed in groups in a favourite spot near the village, perhaps near a temple. I was fortunate lately in getting a pretty full explanation of such a group from a Patti. No. 1 was a flat stone 7 ft. by 1 ft. 6 in. by 5 in. “ This,” quoth my informant, “ is Bula Patil, who died about 60 years ago. Here he is on his horse, and here he is driving in his cart. This was his stone (pointing to another of the same class but broader, and with only a mounted figure on it), but it was broken; so I made and set up the other some seven years since.” As far as the execution of the carving, or appearance, of the stone went, the one looked as old as the other. “ This,” said the Patil, “ is my ancestor VithoM, and this is fire over his head, because he was burned in the vddd that you were looking at now. The Band-wallas did that, two hundred years ago, in the days of the Sahu Rajas. This is Mahadev Patil. He was going to Umbarpate, and a tiger came out and pulled him off his horse and ate him.” These two stones were of the same class as the first—long rough slabs. The burnt patil was represented on foot, with flames over his head; the others on caparisoned horses. It is to be remarked that a man who never in his lifetime owned anything more warlike than a “ bail ” is often represented on his monument as a gallant cavalier. Another stone in the same place represented a Teli who had left no family; wherefore, as the patil ex¬ plained, his mother spent his remaining estate on giving him a good stone. It was about seven years old, four or five feet above ground, square with a round head, of the class first mentioned. There is a remarkable group of stones, to the number of about a dozen, at a spot on the Dhulia and Surat Road about two miles west of the village of Dahiwel. It com¬ memorates a fight that took place there in the “ days of trouble ” about 75 years ago, respect¬ ing the cause and conclusion of which there are two sides to the story. The Kunbis and Mu- salmans say that the Bhills broke out and began plundering the country, and were met and de¬ feated at this spot by a detachment of the Pesh* wa’s troops from the post at Sarai, below the Kon- dai Bari Ghat. The Bhill version is that “ certain Musalmans came up out of the Gaikwadi to loot; and Sabhaji, Konkani Patil of Malangaum, called together the Gawids and the Konkanis and Naiks, and gave them battle and beat them. Sabhaji, in any case, was killed in the skir¬ mish, and his is the largest of the group of monuments. It is about 8 feet above ground and 18 inches square, of a single stone. On each side of it in an even line, the smallest outside, are the cenotaphs of the others slain on the Bhill side. All the Bhills and Konkanis make pilgrimage to this place in Ihe middle of April, and build a mdndvd, or tabernacle of boughs, over the stones, and slay goats and fowls in honour of Sabhaji, winding up the proceedings by getting “ most abnormal drunk.” There is a stone of the same class at the head of the Kondai Bari pass, said to have been erected in memory of a Rajput warrior slain the same day— on which side does not appear. Also there is one at the Babul Dhara pass, about which I could get no information ; but similar rites are observed at both by the village Bhills, although there is no pilgrimage to them. In explanation of the caste terms used above, it should be explained that the Gawids or Ma- wachas, and Konkanis, are races inhabiting Western Khandesh, and very similar to Bhills with whom they are generally confounded They however keep up a distinction; the Gawids consider themselves superior to the Konkanis, and the latter to the Bhill Naiks, or pure Bhills; and this relation is admitted by the last. The Gawids and Konkanis, moreover, are more given to agriculture (such as it is) than the Bhill Naiks. They bury their dead; in some instances all the dead man’s property is buried with him. Various figures are carved besides that of the