ptian _mastabas_ were introduced into India at some
time after the adoption of the other, the Nubian modification of the
_mastaba_ which is represented by the first variety of stone
circle.[121]

I have referred to these Indian dolmens for the specific purpose of
illustrating the complexities of the processes of diffusion of culture.
For not only have several variously specialized degradation-products of
the same original type of Egyptian _mastaba_ reached India, possibly by
different routes and at different times, but also many of the ideas
that developed out of the funerary ritual in Egypt--of which the
_mastaba_ was merely one of the manifestations--made their way to India
at various times and became secondarily blended with other expressions
of the same or associated ideas there. I have already referred to the
essential elements of the Egyptian funerary ritual--the statues,
incense, libations, and the rest--as still persisting among the
Dravidian peoples.

But in the Madras Presidency dolmens are found converted into Siva
temples.[122] Now in the inner chamber of the shrine--which represents
the homologue of the _serdab_--in place of the statue or bas-relief of
the deceased or of the deity, which is found in some of them (see Plate
I), there is the stone _linga-yoni_ emblem in the position corresponding
to that in which, in the later temple in the same locality (Kambaduru),
there is an image of Parvati, the consort of Siva.

The earliest deities in Egypt, both Osiris and Hathor, were really
expressions of the creative principle. In the case of Hathor, the
goddess was, in fact, the personification of the female organs of
reproduction.[123] In these early Siva temples in India these principles
of creation were given their literal interpretation, and represented
frankly as the organs of reproduction of the two sexes. The gods of
creation were symbolized by models in stone of the creating organs.
Further illustrations of the same principle are witnessed in the
Indonesian megalithic monuments which Perry calls "dissoliths".[124]

The later Indian temples, both Buddhist and Hindu, were developed from
these early dolmens, as Mr. Longhurst's reports so clearly demonstrate.
But from time to time there was an influx of new ideas from the West
which found expression in a series of modifications of the architecture.
Thus India provides an admirable illustration of this principle of
culture contact. A series of waves of mega