Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c15.51

c15.51

120 — 16. On recently visiting the so-called tombs of the Rājas near Tanjore, I found a small monument erected quite recently with a Mahrāṭha inscription on it, but so badly written as not to be legible. Memorials erected on the places where cremation has taken place, are either: temples, with a liṅga, if in memorial of a male, and a female idol, if of a woman; or are small masonry platforms with an ornamental short pillar, and a kind of pot on the top for a tulasī (*Ocymum Sanctum*) plant. Liṅgavants are buried, and a liṅga, usually in cement, is erected over the place.