Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi

Udupi, Mar 3: Megalithic stone circles of about 800 BC old have been discovered at Male Mahadeshwara hill ranges, said Prof T Murugeshi, department of ancient history and archaeology, M S R S College, Shirva in a media release.

Megalithic culture or Iron Age has been considered as a formative period in the south Indian history. It was introduced into south India a full-fledged agriculture, based on irrigation.

"On February 27, we went to the survey of a deserted temple at Alambady, on the right bank of the river Kaveri, in the hill range of Male Mahadeshwara, near Gopinathapuram in the Kollegal taluk, Chamarajnagar district, at the request of Sri Pattada Immadi Mahadeva Swamiji of Sri Saluru Bruhan Math. On the way back towards Hogenkal falls, just on right side of the falls we noticed on the slopes of MM hills a number of megalithic burials spreading all over the site," said Prof Murugeshi.

"Normally, megaliths were identified by their special identities of themselves. The site, we noticed was locally called as Mari Kote. It was there that a number of stone circles and cairns were found. By surface features we are not able to say the kind of burial in subsurface, but as some of the burials were already robbed by treasure hunters, it helped us to identify the type of burials. In one of the exposed burials, four orthostats making a box like square, without port hole was found. On the basis of this feature we recognized them as stone circles consisting of Dolmenoid cists. More than twenty burials were spreading over there," the release stated.

"This significant megalithic site was discovered by me and Dr R Gopal, the director of the state archaeology, Mysore. We are thankful to the swamiji of Salur Bruhan Math and forest watcher for their support and help. At the time of discovery, when we explained the significance of those monuments, the swamiji lamented that the same things had been leveled without knowing their significance near the Math, at MM hills.