The central and southern parts of India afford numerous examples of
dolmens. They are to be found in almost all parts of Lower India from
the Nerbudda River to Cape Comorin. In the Nilgiri hills there are stone
circles and dolmens, and numbers of dolmens are said to exist in the
Neermul jungle in Central India. In the collectorate of Bellary dolmens
and other monuments to the number of 2129 have been recorded. Others
occur in the principality of Sorapoor and near Vellore in the Madras
presidency. These latter appear to be of two types, either with three
supports only or with four supports, one of which is pierced with a
circular hole. Of the 2200 dolmens known in the Deccan, half are of this
pierced type. They are known to the natives as "dwarfs' houses." One
only had a pair of uprights outside the pierced stone, thus forming a
sort of portico to the dolmen. Near Chittore in North Arcot there is
said to be a square mile of ground covered with these monuments. In them
were found human remains in sarcophagi, and fragments of black pottery.
Several of the Indian dolmens are said to have contained objects of
iron. Occasionally the dolmen is surrounded by a double circle of stones
or covered with a cairn. The Deccan, in addition to its numerous
dolmens, possesses also megalithic monuments of another type. They
consist each of two rows, each of thirteen unworked stones set as close
together as possible, in front of which is a row of three stones, each
about 4 feet high, not let into the ground. The planted stones were
whitewashed, and each was marked with a large spot of red paint with
black in the centre. These stones seem to have been in use in modern
times. Colonel Forbes Leslie thinks that a cock had been sacrificed on
one of the three stones which lie in front of the double row, but there
seems to be no certain evidence for this. It is, however, very probable
that these _alignements_ had some religious signification, and the same
is no doubt true of certain small circles of small stones, also found in
the Deccan.

The modern inhabitants of the Khasi Hills in India still make use of
megalithic monuments. They set up a group of an odd number of menhirs,
3, 5, 7, 9, or 11, and in front of these two structures of dolmen form.
These are raised in honour of some important member of the tribe who has
died, and whose spirit is thought to have done some good to the tribe.
If the benefits continue it is usual to increase the n