A
continuation Post to Krishnagiri Heritage Visit Pallipadai temple and Sati stone
11th
March, 2018.
It
was a great day, 11th March 2018. We, Mrs. Sakthi Prakash, Mr. Srinivasan, Mr. Sadanandam Krishnakumar, and Mr. Saravanan traveled to the past, to
visit the Dolmens erected for the
ancestors at Mallachandram. These dolmens are erected during the Stone Age 5000 years before. There are many such prehistoric megalithic sites in Tamil Nadu,
especially in the Krishnagiri district. Mallachandram is one such hill where
we can see some prehistoric, natural caves, caves with rock art, and Dolmens
of different types.
These
different types of dolmens are evidence that Mallachandram was once a prehistoric settlement used continuously for
several thousand years. The prehistoric megalithic dolmens are used
for the burials of the dead. The basic Dolmen structures usually comprise four vertically standing flat stones about 5 to 6 feet high, a floor
stone to cover the cost, and a capstone to form a room area of about 6 to 7 feet
square. These structures will be added with cairn circles, double-walled vertical
flat stones depending on the social status of the deceased like group leader /
King, queen, important persons, general citizen, etc,. Some of the dolmens have
the menhirs of flat stone slabs top
finished with semi-circular shape. The four flat vertical stone slabs that hold the
cover stone are erected in such a way that they extend on the side either to form
right side swastika or left side swastika. The east side vertical stone slab
has round holes. It was believed that the spirit of the deceased buried used to come out through this hole. It was told that the position of these hole
openings depends on the period/ time when the person died. It is interesting to note that dolmens with
holes available are facing only the east direction. It was also said that the specially
shaped Dolmens with menhirs with two or
three passages are an example of the
construction of temples with prakaras of the historic period.
There are more than 200 Dolmens on the two hills of Mallachandram. In recent years, miscreants have disturbed 90% of them in search of gold or silver buried with the deceased. The public has requested that this megalithic site be preserved to show the culture of our ancestors to our younger generations.
HOW TO REACH:
Beerahalli Village is about 25 km from Hosur, towards Krishnagiri, and 33.7 km from Krishnagiri, about 3.5 km off the National Highway.
From the Beerahalli main road, we have to walk through a rainwater path with thorny bushes on both sides, up to the base of the hill.
LOCATION: CLICK HERE
Dolmen for a group leader
This
dolmens may be for general citizens
Trekking
on the path
ROCK ARTS:
Some
of the Dolmen side walls have white ochre paintings done during prehistoric
periods. Some paintings were done with fingers and some were with brush since
the lines drawn are thin. The paintings depict scenes of fighting between
men, houses, Pandil lamps, rituals, fields with crops, etc,.
A man riding on a tiger
Do not know the animal may be like yazhi of dinosaur
It is observed that this paintings are done in
two different periods with hands and brush ( on the right top Pandil lamp )
Hey there,
ReplyDeletenice blog
check put our blogs
mansa devi temple history in hindi