Wednesday, April 15, 2015

ORIGINS OF MEMORIAL STONES

Memorializing dead have been old phenomena in the human civilization.The stone-age man used to bury the dead along with his worldly possessions, such as ornament, snail shells and even his long-lost tooth. The origin of the erecting memorial can be associated with the megalithic burials. This association is highly doubtful .Further  the origin of the hero stone can be associated with the Buddhist who practiced relics or the formation of stupa or the funeral practices of the easterner. The Tulsi-like memorials might have been specially evolved and dedicated to deceased priests and holy men. Later on the carving on the granite boulder pillar became elaborate in the eighth century. It is very important that these are mostly restricted to Bastar district which suggest that this art might have come into central region from the Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh as other memorial stone like the nishidi and sati stone are derived from this region. Some scholars suggests that the existence of this custom among people of Dravidian origin and almost its absence among Aryans indicated its tribal origin. Verrir Elwin suggests that erecting the memorials among tribal is custom which borrowed from Hindus. Therefore it is not very clear to trace the origin of the memorial stone among the tribal



[1] (PATIL 1982)
[2] (GHOSA 1932)
[3] (ELWIN 1951)

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