The precious stones we forgot

South India’s megalithic sites tell stories from the days when history was not written, and they are in dire need of protection. DH journalist Rashmi Rajagopal visits two sites and brings you a status report

In Managondanahalli, about 50 km from Bengaluru, lies a vast expanse of land adjoining a quarry. Some parts are cultivated, while others lie vacant. The red and brown landscape is interrupted by dusty looking eucalyptus trees. 

Not many know that this is an important megalithic site. Mostly because there are no boards indicating its significance. Unfortunately, this is the story of numerous megalithic sites in the country. 

It was a little bit before midday when I found myself navigating the sparse undergrowth, looking for the megalithic structures a historian had told me to look for. 

Pavan Mourya Chakravarthy, researcher at Karnataka Itihasa Academy, Bengaluru, had alerted my editor to the vandalisation of a group of menhirs at the site. Chakravarthy and a group of researchers had visited the site two months ago. They found that the few remaining stone structures had been dismantled and placed on the side of the road. 

It is one of the oldest and largest surviving megalithic sites in South India. In 1916-17, the Archaeological Department of Mysore excavated some of the dolmens for research. They found pots and bowls of varying sizes.

However, the site has faced neglect and destruction over the years. Villagers and farmers have dug up several cists and stone circles, in the hope of finding buried treasures. This is the fate of numerous megalithic structures, historians say. 

Going in circles

As I walked around the field, I spotted a handful of circular stone arrangements. Some were just semi circles as half of the structure was covered in heaped mud. Some cists had been fully dug up and the stone arrangements around them were obscured by the unearthed soil. 

It was surprising that structures of such historic significance were lying unprotected, in the middle of nowhere. I was curious to learn about other such sites in the vicinity of Bengaluru. 

Across the border

Sri Kumar K Menon, architect and author, pointed me in the direction of the Mallasandram dolmens. They are located just outside the Karnataka border, in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district. It is just a two-hour drive from M G Road in Bengaluru. 

It turned out I was dressed completely wrong. That it involved a small trek up a rocky hill had escaped my attention. The sun was beating down on us when we reached the location. A woman from the village directed us — a photojournalist had accompanied me — to a small path, through rice fields, that led up to the site. As we got closer, it dawned on me that my cotton kurta and flat slippers were not going to cut it. But I put on a brave face and soldiered on, stepping over rocks, thorny shrubs and grass.

After a short trek, we reached the top of the small hill. My flimsy footwear had survived. A few steps further and we were met with a spectacular sight. 

A group of dolmens (a tomb consisting of two or more upright stones supporting a large, flat horizontal capstone) sat on almost flat rock. But for the cultivation and houses in the far distance, it looked dystopian. Small rock fragments covered the entire surface of the area, making it challenging to walk. 

Menon said the site was divided into three clusters — central, east and west. Over an hour, we explored all the three areas. Some of the structures had caved in, some of the upright slabs had fallen to the ground. 

On closer inspection, we found there were multiple kinds of dolmen. Apart from cairn circles, we came across structures surrounded by rubble, like broken stones and rocks for support. Some were simple, with just four upright slabs and a capstone. We even managed to spot a painting inside one of the dolmens. Overall, this site was in far better shape than the one I had seen in Managondanahalli. 

Animal excreta in some spots suggested the space was being used to graze cattle.

We were told the site comes under the care of the Tamil Nadu forest department. But there are no boards pointing to the place or any indication of its significance. 

Hampi and Kodagu

Karnataka has many megalithic sites. “The first one that comes to mind is Hire Benakal, north of Hampi,” Menon said. It comprises a group of around 1,000 megaliths of various types, but the dolmens are  “the most eye-catching”. 

Like most megalithic sites, this one too could have been a burial or commemorative place of Iron Age cultures 3,000 years ago.

According to noted archaeologist Ravi Korisettar, Hire Benakal is a prominent site because of its large concentration of dolmens, numbering in a couple of hundreds, and also because of its proximity to early historic sites in Maski and Piklihal. 

In Doddamalthe (in Kodagu) too, there are many dolmens, some with slab circles around them and curved “portal stones” denoting entry into the dolmens, Menon said.

Hanamsagar, in Koppal district of north Karnataka, was also a stunning megalithic site, with nearly 3,000 stones arranged in a pattern. A few years ago, the entire site was destroyed by villagers who cleared the land for agriculture. Megalithic structures are also found inside Bannerghatta National Park. As it is fully protected by park officials, it is in good shape, he added.

In the vicinity of Bengaluru, Devanahalli, Chitradurga, Tumakuru, Savandurga and Jadigenahalli offer a glimpse of our megalithic past, Korisettar said. 

First megalith excavation

“Col Philip Meadows Taylor, a British resident in the principality of Surpur, was the first to excavate a megalith in the world, at a site near Jay Wargi in Kalaburagi. His work, which began in the 1850s, set in motion the scientific study of megaliths in India, with many colonial civil servants following in his footsteps,” shared Korisettar.

In the 1940s, Mortimer Wheeler, who was the last director general of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) prior to Independence, came to South India to understand the chronology of things. Who was responsible for the construction of these megaliths? When were they built? What is their prehistoric cultural affiliation? “Wheeler assigned megaliths of peninsular India to the Iron Age. When he excavated in Brahmagiri, he found black-and-red ware pottery alongside iron objects. He would go on to find similar black-and-red ware artifacts in cist burials in the neighbourhood,” he shared.

While the spots we visited did not have any protection, that is not always the case. “Some sites are quite well-protected — like the stone alignment at Vibhutihalli, just outside Shahpur. There are others like Hanamsagar which was, unfortunately, completely destroyed,” Menon said.

Some megaliths abroad are better protected, historians say, with extremely well-presented monuments like Stonehenge, for instance. “But I heard that part of the stone alignments at Carnac, in Brittany, France were destroyed to make way for a shopping complex!” he told me.

Treasure hunts

The biggest cause of vandalism is treasure-hunting, according to Menon. “I have seen vandalised megaliths at nearly every site I have visited. Some examples are Doddamalthe in Kodagu, Hire Benakal in Koppal district, and Mallasandram in Krishnagiri,” he said. Another reason people destroy megaliths is because they fear their land might be taken over by the government if monuments of archaeological interest are found on it. “The megalithic site of Kyadigere, near Aihole, is an example. The farmer removed over 60 megaliths from his land, using earth movers, in 2009,” he recalled. 

And, of course, the collateral damage of rapid urbanisation — road widening, clearance of land for construction — accounts for the destruction of many megalithic sites. The ancient stones have also been repurposed for building homes, Korisettar said.

What is the solution?

Protecting our megalithic heritage is not easy. “Many are in remote areas, or on private property,” Menon explained. The solution lies in creating awareness, as most people are blissfully unaware of our megalithic heritage.

“That double-edged sword — tourism, is another possibility to assure protection, if carefully handled. Creating ‘megalith tours’, for instance, can help, with the added benefit that the owners of private property on which megaliths are present can generate income,” he explained. He had heard of plans to create tours centred on the megaliths in the Bannerghatta National Park. 

Korisettar said the ASI has so far erected fences around small areas of dolmen fields at Rajankollur in Yadgir district and cist burials in Brahmagiri in Chitradurga district. Even though Hire Benekal is an ASI-notified site, it lacks physical protection, he notes. 

The neglect of our past can be attributed to a lack of a sense of history, and the absence of a cultural resource management policy. Korisettar explained: “Before any development project is undertaken, the government should mandate trained archaeologists to assess the site, document its archaeological significance, and only then should the project be approved.” Furthermore, he advocates for an intersectional approach, calling for the government to consult geologists, historians, and environmentalists to assess what we stand to lose. Sanganakallu, near Ballari, is both a site of granitic hills and megalithic importance. It was following the efforts of Korisettar and his colleagues, and the support from the deputy commissioner that quarrying was brought to a stop there.

He also recalled the campaign he led in Kudatini, near the present Bellary Thermal Power Station, where Colin Mackenzie first documented an ashmound in 1802. In the 1830s, Thomas Newbold sent samples from here for testing, and by 1870, Robert Bruce traced these structures to the Neolithic era. A part of these ashmounds was first cut for roadlaying. However, when the government proposed leveling it for a highway a decade ago, Korisettar and his colleagues at Ballari Heritage Foundation stepped in. “We raised funds with the support of the deputy commissioner of the Ballari district. We built a wall around the remaining ashmounds. We also installed 15-foot sculptures of two bulls to spark public interest, because these ashmounds are linked to Neolithic cattle pastoralism,” he adds.

He recognises that safeguarding every site or structure is not feasible. Instead, he advocates prioritising the preservation of key structures that embody a particular style, while the remainder can be digitally archived for future research and posterity.

(With inputs from Barkha Kumari.)

Explainer

What is a megalith?

It is a huge stone monument. It can be monolithic or structural, comprising stone boulders or slabs.

Types: A menhir is a free-standing single stone; a stone circle is a heap of stones arranged in a circular fashion with a pit in the center; a dolmen is a chamber comprising two or more upright stones supporting a
flat slab on top – dolmens are above the ground, while cist burials are subsurface; a sarcophagus is a terracota coffin.

Use cases: These can be classified into sepulchral and non-sepulchral megaliths. The former are associated with burial, while the latter, such as menhirs, lack this association.

Prevalence: With over 3,000 recorded sites, peninsular south India has a higher concentration of megaliths than the north.

(By Ravi Korisettar)

What megaliths tell us

Megaliths are found all over the world and were constructed in other phases of prehistory. The megalith-builders were agro-pastoralists, the main occupations being agriculture and rearing cattle, sheep, horses and goats. Carpentry, smithery, metallurgy, and bead-making were some of the other occupations of the times. That they also had their belief systems is almost certain. The times they lived in were before the advent of written language — so no scripts exist. Many archaeologists believe that megaliths were the precursors from which many of the later architectural forms — both religious and secular — evolved.

(By Sri Kumar Menon)