It is not just ancient temples or monuments but ‘simple stone structures’ from a bygone era that has fascinated me for a long time. Imagining how people lived, worked and what kind of food they ate say 3000 to 5000 years ago has been a topic for discussion with my friends.
As such the Hampi excavations and the unearthing of the most fascinating temples built by the Vijaynagar kings in Karnataka is a story to be visited any number of times. But Neolithic or megalithic structures which are disappearing due to urbanisation too makes for an interesting and fascinating account for anybody who believes that history is to be known and understood in its right perspective for us to live in the present times.
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| A view of the Menhir in the far corner |
In our wanderings across the state of Karnataka, we have been trying to visit new archaeological discoveries and once we came to know about the discovery of ‘Menhir’ in Bhadravathi taluk – it became a prayer to visit this place and see for ourselves.
If Menhirs have to be described in easy language – it is nothing but standing stones slanted to one side and depicting either the burial practices or commemorating something or having a ritualistic significance.
The urge to see this discovery took us to Benkipura or Bhadravathi – once the steel town of Karnataka - housing the famous VISL company. However, finding the Menhir became a bit difficult as many people had not heard about it or even understood what we were talking about. It was only at the Lakshminarsimha Swamy Temple that somebody gave us a clue on how to locate this place.
After lot of twists and turnings, we somehow managed to reach Hosananjapura falling in Hiriyur grama where a stranger walking on the road led us to the site and asked us to go back a little to a fenced area next to a huge site of the VISL company. This fenced area of about 3-4 acres which we roamed around in the blazing afternoon revealed a tall visible slanting stone on one corner while it had another big natural rock near it.
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| The slanting Menhir |
Come what may - we could not enter the area as it was fenced completely and had lot of thorny bushes and brambles which in fact prevented us from taking good pictures and also go near the Menhir. Alas! I would have loved to touch I and get a feel of the striking stone that has stood for 3000 years withstanding many battles, floods, droughts and conversion of lands.
I wondered and felt sorry for the local people who did not seem to evince any interest in the Menhir as nobody could even tell its proper location. People seem to have lost interest in their past which is so rich and varied. And imagine these people are residing in a place where people had lived and died thousands of years ago. So definitely Bhadravathi can be identified as a region in Shivamogga district which has seen history as old as ranging between 1200-1000 BCE.
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| The menhir was almost 7.5 ft tall |
The person who investigated this discovery is none other than Shejeshwar R, Assistant Director, Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage, located in Shivappa Nayaka’s Palace in the heart of Shivamogga town.
The Menhir is about 7.5 feet tall and is slanting towards the right hand side. According to Shejeshwar, the Menhir was located inside a forest land while more studies needs to be done to know about this Megalithic site.
“Shivamogga has a good number of such sites and it actually demonstrates the rich Megalithic past. There is a big natural rock near this stone and they must have cut the stone on this. This is a burial stone that has been standing tall for thousands of years amid the local communities near their agricultural lands,” the assistant director adds.
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| Nearby rocks from the same era |
There are many other megalithic structures found in Malnad region, informs the assistant director and you can visit those places where not just one Menhir but many standing stones have been discovered.
So in our next trip, we plan to see dolmens/cists/burial chambers that have been forgotten by many and we will try to give a peek into the life of people who lived more than thousands of years ago. There are many questions to be answered on how people used these stones and did they reveal anything special to archaeologists living in the modern computer age.
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