My concern

The Hindu, as always has reported a number new burials being discovered. These burials are being found during some construction work. Once found,these are dug out and shifted to near by museums. Now its surprising that it doesnt click to the authorities that the surrounding region need to be cordoned off and further excavation need to be carried on in the location for meaningful discoveries.instead once the burials are shifted work goes on as usual. Why this megalithic burialsites in our state are not getting the attention they deserve? If at all if there is a sure way of establishing sangam or pre sangam history of tamilnadu,it can happen only thru preserving these sites.
Recently read article about an australian archaeologist who sitting in his place at australia was able to identify some 1977 potential burial mounds in saudi arabia with the help of google earth. Such a study is highly required for our burial sites also.there must be a pattern of these sites which followed the ancient settlement of early tamils.also trying to map them with aerial view can be of great use to study the population densities of various places of ancient tamil country. I offer my assistance to anyone who is involved in such a study.i wish to see those burial sites get the attention they deserve.

Tunnel of Eupalinos - Do we have any??

Strictly speaking I should not be talking about the "Tunnel of Eupalinos" in this blog titled megalithic burial sites in TamilNadu. But I wish to take a exception here.
The tunnel of Eupalinos was built in the 6th Century BC in the greek Island of Samos. Its length is 1036 mtrs and was made beneath a mountain of limestone. The thing that makes it a miracle is the fact that, the tunnel was started from both its end simultaneously and completed by meeting at the centre. Its mindboggling to figure out, how they managed to maintain the course and successfully complete it. Number of Hypothesis exists on how they managed to do it, but that i shall keep beyond the scope of this blog.
When i visited ancient temples and forts in Tamilnadu, one of the popular legends one hears about is the tunnels which connected one particular place with other places miles away. I have infact seen such a tunnel entrance at Rockfort temple at Trichirappalli. Now I am really curious, why no one made an attempt to check whether these tunnels really exists or not? second, was there any serious attempt to excavate any of these tunnels.Is there a structured study carried out by any Govt or private organisation on this tunnels...Iam curious,....very very curious to know....

Visit to Munnar

Last month aVisit to Munnar created a lot of expectation in me. Munnar is a hill station in the neighbouring state of Kerala. We were to take the Munnar-Alluva road on our way to Munnar from Ernakulam. Historically, Kodungallur(known as Muziri in olden days, near present day ernakulam) is known for the sea port from pre christian era.Some where around 10th Century AD, Floods in the Periyar river destroyed this port city and was believed to be a cause for formation of the present day port at Cochin.

Munnar-Alluva road was a very important trade link between Ancient tamilnadu and Port city of Kodungallur. I assume this road must have been a major trade route from at least 4000 years ago. i have read from internet sources that the present day Munnar Alluva road is running almost the same way it had run thousands of years ago, but we can never be sure of that, because the road essentially follows the periyar river and because of geological factors the river might have changed its course many times during the past.

The ancientness of the road is being validated by the presence of large no of Dolmens and burial sites along its course.So I was very eager that I might see atleast a couple of Dolmens along the road, but the driver disappointed by saying that most of the dolmens are atleast a kilometer walk away in the dense jungle. Since I was on a short family trip, I thought it would'nt be fair on my part to make everyone wait for my visit.

Also I have trekked in this region in my school days and had seen a lot of dolmens at that time. Since there are a lot of visitors in this part and the guides and local people are well aware of the significance of Dolmens, I believe they will remain preserved till I make a trip again to this region, It was a disappointment,but this short visit will definitely help me in planning my next trip (Exclusively for Dolmens) effectively.

Dolmen with Petroglyphs - Kollur Village,Villupuram

K.T.Gandhirajan and his team has discovered a large dolmen with three petroglyphs(engravings made with a tool) in a lake bank near Kollur Village in Villupuram District. The petroglyphs depict two human figures with trident in their hands and the third figure is carrying an unknown weapon. The dolmen might be 2500 years old and the petroglyphs to a later period.The team also found six more dolmens near the site.

Sh.Gandhirajan says “Hundreds of megalithic dolmens were once found in Tamil Nadu. Urban development and extension of agricultural land led to locals smashing them up or carting away the granite slabs for use in their houses. The Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department must make a survey of the surviving dolmens, and it should fence them. For these sites are directly connected with the pre-Sangam or Sangam age culture of Tamil Nadu,” ---We also through this blog request everyone to take the necessary efforts to preserve the dolmens in your rrespective districts. Once again thanks to Sh.Gandhirajan's team for their extraordinary efffort.

Photos : Sh.K.T.Gandhirajan

Source : The Hindu

Please visit the following link for the Hindu article
http://www.thehindu.com/2009/09/20/stories/2009092052290900.htm

Visit to Megalithic burial sites - Sittannavasal

15.10.2009 -We (my wife,her brother and uncle - all burial site enthusiasts) drove 50 Kms from Trichy to Pudukkotttai city. After an hour's visit to Pudukkottai district museum ( very fine collection of items excavated from Burial sites like iron swords, earthen pots and large burial urns), we drove to sittannavasal,around 20 km from the city.Just around the place,where the Highway is marked with a road sign pointing the exit to the famous Jain caves, on either side of the road is the Megalithic burial site, we almost screamed in excitement. Apart from a board by ASI as a protected site, the area is not fenced. We could count atleast 10 distinguishable stone circles, the circle formed by dark red porous rocks and the burial chamber marked by large granite boulders. It was a remarkable feeling to walk on that ancient site.This is my first visit to a burial site after around 15 years- the last one being in 1994, as part of a school trek, we accidentaly stumbled upon some fifteen Dolmens in a rocky slope of a hill called aattu malai nearAmaravathinagar- coimbatore.

We took some photos and carried on towards the world famous jain caves, again on either side of the road very distinguishable and clearly marked burial sites - these ones are well fenced and better protected than the ones in highway.

We also visited the 8th century Jain caves famous for its paintings. Thanks to Sh.Paramasivam who is the guide and caretaker for the Caves (he works for ASI) we could enjoy the paintings to all its finery and extraordinary reverberating effect when chanting "Om" ,which is to be done in a very specific way, Only sh.Paramasivam could chant "Om" in the way it gets amplified inside the cave. Please don't forget to meet Sh.Paramasivam,without whom the cave cannot be appreciated.

Also we visited the 200 BC cave dwelling(called "Ezhadipattam) of jain monks,which they used when fleeing hostile groups.There is a distinct Tamil Brahmi inscription in the dwelling.

We promised ourselves that we will return back to other sites in Pudukkottai district, the next time we visit Tamilnadu again.

I have posted some photos in this blog, anyone interested can contact me for more photos and info.

Please visit following link for an interesting material on Sittannavasal

http://www.saigan.com/heritage/swaminathan/sittannavasal/Sittannavasal%20-%20a%20booklet.pdf

Dolmens found near Kallampalayam, close to Moyar river in Nilgiris district.

A team comprising Mr. Gandhirajan, M.V. Ganesh, K. Narendran, photographer Thanigai Mani and an Irula tribal person named Chandran made the discovery while returning from a temple festival of the Irula and Baduga tribes in Allimoyar hamlet. The team found 20 collapsed dolmens near Vanchiyur. On venturing further into the forest, it discovered about 100 dolmens near Beruthorapatti. Most of them had been wrecked by humans or elephants.The teams primary interest is documenting rock art.

The dolmens were of three varieties: normal rectangular ones with a capstone; circular ones made of slab-stones meeting at the top to form a roof; and bigger circular dolmens, with a diameter of about 6 metres, with unfinished roofs. One of the big dolmens had the two petroglyphs.

Mr.Gandhirajan (in the image)specialises in art history, estimates the age of the dolmens at 2300 to 2500 BC ( Sangam age ).Mr. Gandhirajan, is documenting “rock art in Sangam age environment in Tamil Nadu” under a project sponsored by the Central Institute of Indian Languages.

The entire tamil community is thankful to Mr.Gandhirajan and his team for their extraordinary effort.

PHOTO : THANIGAI MANI

For more details

http://www.thehindu.com/2009/05/24/stories/2009052457142000.htm

Dolmens and Rock art near Aliyar - Coimbatore

Around 40 Dolemns near Mavadaippu Village -45 Kms from Aliyar were discovered by Prof. G. Chandrasekaran, Principal of the Government College of Fine Arts in Chennai, his colleague K. Natarajan and K.T. Gandhirajan and P. Manivannan. Gandhirajan is a postgraduate in Art History from Madurai-Kamaraj University, Madurai, and Manivannan is Senior Designer at The Hindu, Chennai.

The groups primary interest is in documenting rock art. They have been succcessful in locating Rock art as old as 3000 BC.I am adding one photo of rock art discovered by them. For more details on their work and more photos and interesting story on how they located the rock art site,please visit the link below.

Photos - K.T. GANDHIRAJAN AND P. MANIVANNAN

Link - http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=20070629000206400.htm&date=fl2412/&prd=fline&