Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c9.21

c9.21

To these categories, of which 1 and 2 are the most widespread, should be added an extensive series of *burial-caves*²² which have been cut into the laterite of Kerala, since their contents, so far as known, are similar to those of the megaliths. The laterite lies on the foot-hills between the alluvial coast and the granite ghats. The caves have been made first by scooping out a square stepped pit in the rock, approached by rock-cut steps; then by cutting one or more doorways in one or more sides of the pit, each doorway about 1½ feet high and just large enough to admit the workman; and finally by opening up beyond the doorways a dome-shaped (rarely flat-roofed) cave or caves, normally circular but sometimes rectangular on plan and sometimes with a central rock-cut pillar of rectangular section rising to the roof. Often there are rock-cut benches along the sides, and occasionally there is a central opening in the dome of the cave.