Of the hero stones awaiting discovery

Kirti Malhotra describes an expedition to Karlamangala, where ancient hero stones lay largely hidden in fields

While travelling from Magadi towards Ramanagara, I saw a painted stone slab at one end of the raised platform of an old temple. I stopped the vehicle and got down to have a closer look.

It was the Basavanna temple, and the village was Karlamangala. The painted stone turned out to be a hero stone. It depicts the hero fighting an animal, which I assume is probably a lion, as that part was eroded. On the other end of the raised platform, there was another slab with a painted Shivalinga on it. On close examination, it turned out to be an inscription stone!  

That triggered my curiosity and I enquired about the existence of some more hero stones or shasana kallu in the vicinity. Nagaraj, who lives close to the temple, indicated that there are two gudis deep in the fields.  

I followed his directions, but actually found the ancient nagarakallu under a peepal tree. The fields extended all around without evidence of any stone structures. That is when I met Laxmi Narayana, who took me across the fields to a mango grove. At the far end of the grove, I could make out some dolmen-like structures with bushes and weeds around them. They are called Pandavara Gudi by the villagers.

As I cleared the weeds and crawled inside the first dolmen, I was stunned to see carvings on two of its inner surfaces. As I removed various deposits and cobwebs and cleaned the stones with water, beautiful hero stones, in all probability belonging to the Ganga period, emerged. 

The one in front depicted the warrior fighting heroically, holding a shield in his left hand and attacking the opponent with the sword in his right hand. The hero arriving at his celestial abode was depicted at the top. The slab to the right depicted a unique scene of the hero holding the top knot of the hair of his opponent in his left hand and wielding the sword in his right hand. Large hoop earrings and other jewellery on the hero were clearly visible. 

Two beautiful hero stones inside the first dolmen

Excited at this find, when I cleared the entrance to the second dolmen, I was in for a surprise. The left and right inner surfaces of the vertical stones had a well-preserved inscription, though the central one had a much-effaced hero stone. Here, the warrior is accompanied by his wife, standing on his right and holding a flower. The warrior and the opponent are much eroded, though the left hand of the warrior holding his shield remains intact.  

I could not wait to get home to scan through the archives to know what the text of the inscriptions read. Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 9 (EC9) talks about one inscription at Karlamangala found on two stone pieces. This inscription, dated 1169 AD, mentions that ‘when Hoysala Narasimha Deva was ruling the kingdom of the world, the Savanta and others of Karlamangala attacked and fought against the fort’.  It is a single inscription carved on two stones. The text in EC9 matched the inscription found inside the second dolmen. The name Karlamangala is mentioned three times in this inscription, which clearly indicates the antiquity of the place.

As EC9 did not mention the inscription at the Basavanna temple, I scanned through its supplement, which mentioned it. Most of the lines are unreadable, except a few, which indicated ‘Rajadhiraja Rajaparameshwar Srivirapratapa’ ruling the kingdom of the world. The king’s full name is not decipherable.

Well preserved inscription found inside second dolmen

I referred to the Mysore Archaeological Survey 1914-15 (MAS) and was intrigued to read that ‘at Karlamangala are found numerous Pandavara Gudi or cromlechs with, as usual gigantic slabs for the roof, situated within a circle of rough boulders’. 

I decided to go there once again, to locate other Panadavara Gudis. When I enquired about these, a senior resident told me that there were many gudis ages ago, but over a period of time, lands exchanged hands and many of them were destroyed, as they were obstructing the field activities.

Clearing the entry to dolmens at Karlamangala

As I walked out of this small village with a recorded history of more than a thousand years, I wondered how many hero stones and inscriptions lying abandoned are waiting to be discovered.