The oldest architectural remains in the district are believed to be the circles of stone are found in a number of villages, and are attributed by the people to the pastoral Gaolits or Airs. A race of Abhiras or herdsmen is mentioned in inscriptions of the fourth century as living in the country round Malwa and Khandesh. In several localities of the Nagpur plain local tradition tells of the dominance of the Gaolis, and some of the name of villages in the District as Gaurala Mendhe Pathar and Mhasepathar may be derived from their former encampments. Hislop describes the stone circles as follow. The vestiges of an ancient Scythian race in this part of India are very numerous. They are found chiefly as barrows surrounded by a circle of stones, and as stone boxes, which when complete are styled kistvaens, and when open on one side cromlechs. The kistvaens if not previously disturbed have been found to contain stone coffins and urns. If these remains in truth belong to a race of nomadic herdsmen who spread over the country and reduced it to subjection, they may have been immigrants from Central Asia like the Sakas who were living in India at about the same period; these were pastoral nomads of the Central Asian steppes, who were driven south wards by tribes stronger than themselves, and entering. India established themselves in the Punjab and at Mathura, Gujarat and Kathiawar. The calendar in common use in the Maratha Districts is named after them and was instituted by a prince of the Sakas in Gujarat in Gujarat in A.D. But whether these Abhiras were the same as the Gaolis of Nagpur tradition must remain matter of conjecture.