Note 32 — Chapter XXVIII · THE CLANS OF THE TODAS

Breeks points out that the characteristic feature of the cairns and barrows of the Nilgiris is the circle of stones, and that some consist of an insignificant circle hardly to be distinguished from the Toda azaram. He often found it difficult to say whether a given monument was a cairn or an azaram, so that it would appear that there are intermediate gradations between the more elaborate cairns or barrows containing the pottery and metal work and the simple Toda azaram. From the amount of rust on the iron implements, however, Breeks concluded that there was a long interval of time between the most recent of the cairns and the oldest azaram, but he points out that if the latter are really azaram, they show that the Todas used at one time to bury such objects as iron spears.32