Menhirs of megalithic age discovered in Karnataka's Melkote

A Mysuru-based historian and researcher has stumbled upon four megalithic age menhirs, first of their kind in Mandya district, in his native of Melkote, Pandavapura taluk, on Saturday.

Head of the department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Karnataka State Open University, Shalva Pille Iyengar said, he found the 3,500-year-old menhirs on the way to the tamarind grove at the foot of Yoganarasimhaswamy Hill, in Melkote.

Shalva Pille Iyengar  

“They are on a farmland of Devaraju of Melkote, near Dhanushkoti at the Vaishnava pilgrim centre. They look like they are from the stoneage. While one of them stands erect, around 15 feet tall, another one is almost half of it and the remaining two are lying on the ground. Farmer Devaraju said, he used an earthmover to dig one of them, recently,” he said.

Credit: Special Arrangement

Iyengar said, “I found them while researching and documenting heritage water-bodies of Melkote. I have provided information about the discovery of the menhirs to the Karnataka department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage. I have appealed to the officials, to take steps, to protect them and facilitate study and research, to throw new light on the history of Mysuru region,” he said.

Iyengar said, as it was weekend, his family members accompanied him and assisted him to document and study the discovery from around 1500 BCE (before the common era). “Similar menhirs have been discovered in Kushalnagar in South Karnataka, while they were found in Ballari and other places in North Karnataka. Thus, this can be an important reference object, for research in ancient history. This needs more research,” he said.

Iyengar said, the discovery is an indication that Melkote was inhabited by humans from BCE 1500 to BCE 500 itself. “Menhirs were erected to mark the burial site of the deceased. They used to choose a big boulder, chop it with new-found metal tools, in an effort to give a shape, and erect it. Menhirs are usually found in the North-South direction, as it is still a practice among a few sections of people in Bharat, to place the head of the deceased towards the South, while burying,” he said.

Iyengar said, there is also a theory that menhirs were erected in the particular direction, to denote the axis, for reference by natives or passersby.

“The stone looked out of place in the vicinity. Thus it attracted my attention. So, I studied a few worn out symbols on it, to come to a conclusion that it might be a menhir. My wife Vanitha, brothers Santhana Raman and Srinivasa Narasimhan, sister Yashoda Prasad and nephew Sahasrakshan joined me in the search for any similar stones in the vicinity. We were able to discover three more such objects. There is need for more studies and research in this regard,” he said.