Prehistoric stone tools factory of Hiregudda, Sanganakallu - 1

March 7, 2013
During the first visit here, my friend Rama Dasa from this village showed us ancient petroglyphs of Sanganakallu. Rama Dasa shared the knowledge about this hill which he's been exploring since childhood days. We saw hundreds of rock etchings depicting humans and animals such as bulls, horses, elephants, tigers, serpents and birds. I must mention the bull-axe wheel, a complex drawing consisting of 5 axes and 5 bulls. Rama Dasa said that every drawing had a meaning, they connected our world on this planet to the cosmic world. The 5 hour tour clambering up the dolerite dyke was a tiring exercise. By 1 PM it was too hot for comfort, we ended the tour.

December 22, 2013
The second visit. We- Mohan mama, Rama Dasa and I -arrived here quite early, it was winter solstice, an important day in astronomy. Rama Dasa had gone to a field behind this hill to mark the shadow of this hill's peak - he marks the position of the shadow every year to study its movement. With that observation Rama Dasa understands the relative position of Earth and Sun. In this picture below, the moon is positioned just above Peacock hill, few minutes after shooting this picture the moon sank behind the rocks. Being here on Winter Solstice Day was a coincidence, objective of this visit was to see the Neolithic tools factory atop this hill i.e. the summit between Peacock hill and Dolerite Dyke.

Rama Dasa was bare foot again! Last time he climbed the blistering rocks barefoot and this time he's walking over thorn littered surfaces. In the background is the top portion of the Dolerite dyke. The spot we are standing on is about 150' above the plains. This spot is supposed to be stone tools grinding place i.e. rough cut tools were polished to get the required cutting edges.

A small area of plain land between the the three peaks of Hiregudda. Ramadasa believes that a stone dam existed here to capture rain water.

One of the flakes located by Rama Dasa. This piece of rock was created while manufacturing a stone tool - its a waste product back then but today its an important piece of evidence for that ancient activity. Only a trained eye can identify such stones.

Mama listens to Rama Dasa's explanation of stone tools manufacturing activities here. Some years ago quarrying was active which disturbed prehistoric evidences to a great extent. In the background is one of the peaks with a partly damaged standing stone - thanks to quarrying work.

A small collection of stone tools and flakes. Top left piece could be an axe while the top right piece could be an unfinished pounding or grinding stone. The rest are flakes of chips.

Close by I happened to see a large stone with a smooth concave surface, it looked manmade. This is an ancient grinding stone.. grains were ground into flour using a shaped stone with a gently curved surface which would fit into our palm.

We cleared off the shrub trying to get a clearer view of the ancient grinding mill. In the act of cleaning we discovered the second grinding stone right besides the first one. This is evidence that neolithic people worked in groups.. because they lived in groups.

A short demo by Rama Dasa-

Rama Dasa demonstrates how a man would have worked the mill. In his hand is the grinding stone which would go round and round crushing grains in the pit.

We located a third stone too, a much smaller though. Note how smooth the surface is yet it is rough enough to catch grains and crush them.

The grinding stone had multiple purposes, not only it was used to grind grains but it could also be used to sharpen tools. For instance this is a well formed stone axe but its unfinished. The edges would be rubbed patiently until they become smooth cutting edges.

We climb little higher.. in search of raw material for manufacturing tools. We take a short break under jaali-gida shade; we have a breakfast of dry snacks and water. In this picture below, the white circle marks the location of an ancient stone dam. The wall created a small tank to capture rain water.

A wider look of the valley.. and the plains of Kappagallu village below.

Mama and Rama Dasa inspecting one of the sources of raw material for stone implements. This rust colored stone is hard; well suited for making implements. I think its the effect of oxidation that has formed a rust colored coating on the originally dark brown stone.

A closer look at the standing stone.. and the western valley on the hill.

This is the second source of raw material for stone implements. These stones come in shades of grey, different compared to the brown stones.

Close to the standing stone, standing over a rock bed, I was trying to cool off in the breeze. I noticed a row of circular shallow pits. The line pointed towards the Pitalappa shrine in the Dolerite dyke across the valley - Rama Dasa confirmed the alignment of the line. About 20' away there was another similar row of pits at a slightly different angle.. no idea what it pointed.

View of peacock hill from the standing stone... some day I want to explore that rock formation. Might find a rock painting or two there.

From the standing stone, we move to the western face of the hill. On this face of the hill we found remains of a stone circle.

This article will continue.. do check out the following post - Prehistoric stone tools factory of Hiregudda, Sanganakallu - 2.

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Megalithic burial site of Brahmagiri

March 7, 2013
Our visit to Ashoka Siddapura was incomplete because we missed out Ashokan edict and the megalithic site of Brahmagiri. Time was a constraint that day, we had to rush to Gudekote fort.

December 22, 2013
Our day started with a visit to Sangankal hill to see the Neolithic stone implements factory with our guide Rama Dasa. The day was astronomically important- it was a day of winter solstice. Having spent half day touring the hill we came back to Bellary, had lunch and immediately left to Jatinga-Rameshwara. We climbed the hill in less than 30 minutes, spent an hour on the hill seeing Ashoka's inscription of Jatinga-Rameshwara, and an ancient Shiva temple. We descended the hill and drove to Siddapura. By 5-00 PM we had seen Siddapura's Ashokan edict. Next we head towards the last spot for the day - Brahmagiri Megalithic site.

Just next to Brahmagiri Ashokan rock inscription site is a narrow dirt path which runs along the base of the hill. About 800 meters into the path, our car could not proceed any further because of granite slabs protruding out of the ground.. Prakash felt they were high enough to touch the oil sump of his Indica. Our guide told us those slabs are remains of a 'More Mane' ~ megalithic tombs. This entire area was full of such granite structures, now all that we get to see are stubby remains. We decided to leave our cab and walk.

That's our guide Thipperudra and my uncle Mohan. Between them on the ground is a remains of a rectangular cist grave.

Below diagram gives the location of the Ashokan edicts and megalithic tombs.

As we walked further we reach a small fenced enclosure.. sadly this is all that remains of a once very important prehistoric site :( In the background is the southern slope of Brahmagiri hill. Barely 300 meters from here is a small village named Roppa.

a square cist grave

Thipperudra told us such remains were spread over a large area. Land owners/farmers found them a hindrance to cultivation and they were removed. The excavated slabs were used in construction of houses. In fact Thipperudra has eight tractor loads of such slabs piled up near his house :(

one of the largest tombs of this site

This site was studied by many archaeologists and some of the reports are available online. Below are the extracts of two such reports.

Extract from "Encyclopedia of Prehistory: Volume 8: South and Southwest Asia."

Brahmagiri
Inscriptions associated with the North Indian ruler Ashoka (273-232 BC) of the Mauryan empire (322-185 BC) were first identified in the region in 1892 and indicate the area was known as Isila; excavations at the site were conducted by Mortimer Wheeler in 1947 (wheeler 1948). The site extends over an area of c. 500m east-west by 100 m north-south, with settlement remains on the outcrop slopes and mortuary remains in the form of four to five clusters of megalithics on the plains below. Ten megaliths were excavated; these were stone circles with internal subterranean stone-lined rectangular burial chambers or stone circles containing burial pits. Grave goods include ceramics, iron implements, beads, and spindle whorls. No complete houses were excavated; some post holes and pits were identified. A reservoir or water tank is located on the eastern edge of the site.

Cultural Aspects
Cultural Features: Wheeler defined three chronological phases on the basis of stratigraphic dating and changes in artifact forms: "polished stone axe culture"; contemporary terminology refers to these periods as the South Indian Neolithic, Iron Age, and Early Historic respectively. No absolute dates are available from the site. Diagnostic artifacts of the Iron Age include black ware, and red ware, and russet-coated painted ware. Postfiring graffiti are common on ceramics, especially in mortuary contexts. Iron and copper artifacts and ornaments of shell, jasper, steatite, gold and carnelian were also recovered.

Extract from "Astronomical orientations of the megalithic stone circles of Brahmagiri" by N Kameswara Rao in Astronomical Society of India, Bulletin (ISSN 0304-9523), vol. 21, no. 1, p. 67-77.

Abstract: The megalithic stone circles at Brahmagiri which have been dated as 900 BC show clear astronomical orientations. The site lines from the centre of a circle to an outer tangent of another circle points out to the direction sunrise and moon rise (full) at the time of solar and lunar solstices and equinox. Site lines towards the maximum azimuthal elongation of the then circumpolar star β UMi (which also happens to be the brightest star near the pole) indicates that the time of the establishment of these Megaliths is earlier than 600 BC, may be between 900 to 600 BC. The megalithic people were probably aware of the 18.61 year period of the moon's solstice in addition to keeping track of the sideral day, the seasons and the year.

Coming to think of these sites, there's a close relationship between megalithic sites and Ashoka's edicts.

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Megalithic tomb & Anthropomorphic statues of Kumathi

March 2013
During a one of the discussions over phone with Rama Dasa of Sangankal village there was a mention of Kumati dolmens. I could neither locate Kumathi on Google Maps nor find any useful information about those dolmen on the net. Even Rama Dasa wasn't sure of the location except that it is situated near Kudligi town and Gudekote village. On the trip, at Gudekote I inquired directions to Kumathi and got a good reference. Later I could locate the village on Google Maps but there was no further info. I'll have to remain patient until I reached the village.

December 21, 2013
Kumathi was the last place for the day, reaching it was easy- Kudligi to Iyyanahalli to Valase to Kumathi. At the village I was in for a surprise, two or three people I spoke to had no idea about Moryara Mane :( I felt its best to check with Rama Dasa and called him. Luckily he was at Sangankallu and told he'll call back after checking his collection of newspaper cuttings. While waiting I decided to walk to the village square to inquire and at the same time a man was walking towards me. We got introduced. This man, Iyyanahalli Kamayya seem to know what I was looking for and told us he had something to show us. Rama Dasa called back with the location; the dolmen were in Shri.Tipperudraswami's fields - our friend Kamayya knew that location too :) Rama Dasa also told me about another dolmen at Hulikote in Harijan Borakka's field. During all the waiting and discussions I happened to notice a bastion on a mound situated in the village. Centuries ago a chieftain must have planned to have a fort here.

With Kamayya as our guide we drove down a dirt track going south and stopped near a hillock named Sharanappa hill. All we saw barren fields, sand like soil. Kamayya lead us into the fields... about 400 meters from dirt track was a badly damaged dolmen, similar to the dolmens of Hire Benkal except for the cap-stone.

right to left - Mohan S Patil, Iyyanahalli Kamayya

The dolmen was made of granite, the north facing slab has a port hole and the cap-stone is rectangular. At Hire Benkal are two types of dolmen - short (1 to 2 feet) and tall (6 to 10 feet). While the shorter ones had square cap-stones the taller ones had circular cap-stones. In the background is a hillock named Sharanappa Gudda.

Now I'm facing north; 340 meters to east is a stream (dry at this time of the year) and 600 meters to west is Sharanappa Gudda. On the hill is an ancient temple where village folks perform rituals regularly. The dolmen is badly damaged but does not seem to be disturbed over the past few years. Hope people do not loot the slabs. I inquired if there are any more such dolmen - Kamayya said no, this is the only one.

The slabs are approximately 4" to 5" thick measuring 6' wide, standing 6' above ground level and the port-hole is 10" to 12" diameter.

The circular hole is neat and filleted.

Day was coming to its end.. we walk back to the cab and drive back to Kumati and then head towards Valase.

Kamayya spotted Shri. Tipperudraswamy in his fields, we decided to meet him before going to his fields. A quick intro and a snap.

Mohan Mama and Tipperudraswamy

Soon we were heading west on a dirt track and I was expecting to see some more megalithic tombs but some between bushes I got a glimpse of a standing object which seemed like a scare-crow. As we drove further, it became clear.. I was looking a altogether new type of artifact.

Mama said they look like Christian characters. To me they looked like male and female figures. These statues are made of 5" to 6" thick granite slabs standing 11' to 12' tall. Considering the buried portion of the statues the overall length of these slabs must be 16' to 18'. While the shorter statue is symmetrical the taller statue is asymmetrical. Since the figures have no facial features its hard to tell front and back. Perhaps, its OK to assume they are facing east.

The female statue is symmetrical and curvy.

The male statue has straight edges. Perhaps this statue was also symmetrical originally. Looks like the slanting limb is a result of a damage.

Setting sunlight lights up the statues with a soft glow. Locals call them as Rakshasa Kallu ~ demon stones. The story behind the name goes like this - a godly person named Nunkemala Siddeshwara was passing by this spot. Two Rakshas living in the vicinity troubled him and the enraged Nunkemala Siddeshwara's curse turned the Rakshas into stone statues.

A short video:

There are questions now:
Who created them and when were they made?
Based on the material used, I think its OK to assume these statues belong to the same time period as that of the port-chambered tomb. So it must be Neolithic. They could be much older too.

Why were they made?
Perhaps these statues were grave markers and the surrounding plains was a burial ground.

 If we look beyond Kumati and Valase, especially towards Gudekote in the North and Brahmagiri to the East.. both are known prehistoric sites.. we'll know that an area under a circle of 50 kms diameter has several prehistoric sites. During my visit to Gudekote after seeing rock art I had imagined a large prehistoric settlement between Kudligi, Iyyanahalli, Molakalmuru and Rampura. Read Rock art at Gudekote fort.

December 22, 2013
Next day when we met Rama Dasa, he expressed his thoughts; he said the curvy statue can also be seen as a bird. He was right, it seems like a flying pigeon. Do share your thoughts and opinions, I'm sure the discussions will be interesting.

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Prehistoric Ash Mounds of Budihal

Budhihal village is located in Surpur taluq of Yadgiri district. Budhihal is mentioned along with Hagaratgi and Rajan Kollur in Meadows Taylor's 'Megalithic Tombs and Other Ancient Remains in the Deccan'. The name Budhihal literally means 'old ash'. Hence this village is known for its ancient ash mounds.

November 26, 2013

We drove from Talikoti side, passed through Hagaratgi village and reached Budhihal village. The ash mounds are situated a kilometer to the northern and north-eastern sides.

At least four large ash mounds can be identified in satellite maps; 1½ kms away are three mounds and another 1½ kms fruther is a larger ash-mound. In the picture below is the first group of mounds. Mounds 1 and 2 are nearly 150 meters in diameter. Both are badly damaged.. vandalized would be the right word.

This is Eranna from Budhihal village, he was my guide. Eranna is standing close to the center of ash mound 2. Most of the ash has been carted away.. Eranna said people use it for construction work. Sad.

A closer look at the mound. On the outside it is harder, a crust has formed because of exposure to air and moisture. There are spots where grey ash can be seem clearly. Beside ash the mound seems to consist dirt, stones and lime powder too. The white powdery substance could be lime (see inset).

Here is a close up of the section of the mound. Different layers are visible. Focus on the dark grey patch within the circle - the light grey arc is piece of pottery.

I pulled out the pottery piece to expose the ash inside. I felt it with my finger tips, it is definitely ash.. seems it is wood ash.

I collected few pottery pieces and ash lumps to add to my collection. Eranna is holding the samples.

Artifacts from Budhihal- two ash lumps and three pieces of pottery. The pottery pieces still have a coating of fine ash.

This mound is about 5' at the tallest point.

On the edge of the mound are fist sized stones mixed into the ash. Looks like a ring of stone wall encircled the burning mass. The stone circle might have been created to contain the ash from spreading out and also to contain the fire. It is also possible that a shallow but wide pit existed which eventually filled with ash and became a mound.

What was the purpose of these fires?
Burn limestone to produce lime for domestic use like white-wash dwellings?
An annual ritual where old house-hold articles were incinerated?
A kiln to bake pottery?
To scare away wild animals?

We come to mound 2. As you see a road has cut right through the mound.

This mound is about 3 feet at the highest point. Eranna said if you stood on this mound and pounded it with your feet you hear a dull sound.. as though it is hollow within.

People here are aware of the historical importance of these mounds, yet they vandalize it.

A mound of excavated sand dumped in a fenced farm land. That seems like two or three tractor loads of ash.

This site needs to be protected and preserved.. at least for the sake of Budhihal's name.

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