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&

Project to document rock art in Dolmens and Caves

IGNCA-Indira Gandhi National Centre for the arts has undertaken a stupendous project of documenting rock art in over 80 sites in Tamil nadu.This will include Megalithic Burial sites especially dolmens and prehistoric caves. These rock arts belong to Mesolithic Age (circa 10,000 B.C.), Neolithic Age (3,000 B.C) and Iron Age and to some extent in early historic phase,
The above image shows rock art inside a dolmen at Maharajakadai in Krishnagiri district.(Photo - K.Rajan - The Hindu)
Please visit for more details
http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/26/stories/2009012653302000.htm
For more rock art images at Mallachandiram-Krishngiri district-please visit gallery of ACJ
http://acjnewsline.asianmedia.org.in/PHOTO%20FEATURES/rock-gallery.html

A write up on Sitthanavasal Megalithic sites

Here is an interesting link on Burial sites in Sitthannavasal By Sh.Subramanian Swaminathan
Please visit - http://www.saigan.com/heritage/swaminathan/sittannavasal/megalith.html

2500 Year old Skeletons and script found near Adhichanallur

An urn containing a human skull and bones unearthed by the Archaeological Survey of India at Adhichanallur, near Tirunelveli town in Tamil Nadu. Twelve of these urns (below) contain human skeletons. Three of them, which may be 2,800 years old, bear inscriptions that resemble the early Tamil Brahmi script. -- Photos: A. Shaikmohideen

Source - The Hindu

Please visit - http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/05/26/stories/2004052602871200.htm

Megalithic burial site being destroyed near Madurai

An Iron Age burial site dotted with cairn circles, standing stones and cist-slabs, near Vellaripatti village near Madurai on the Madurai-Tiruchi highway (India), is being destroyed. Archaeologists date the megalithic site between 1000 BCE and 500 BCE. Real estate developers have uprooted and swept up hundreds of cairn circles (big stones arranged in the form of circles), standing stones and cist-slabs (rectangular granite slabs laid on the ground), all of which mark burial spots. Bulldozers have swept clean a big area that had earlier been crowded with cairn circles, standing stones and cist-slabs. Border stones have been planted in the cleaned-up area to indicate house sites. A fencing post has been erected close to a beautifully laid cairn circle, and it is only a matter of time before this cairn circle disappears.
For the full article-Please visit
http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/002921.html