Dolmen sites in Karnataka

The word dolmen was familiar to me since my early childhood days. Memories of seeing a dolmen in "Asterix and the Golden Sickle" are fresh to this day. Asterix and Obelix are in search of a dolmen in a forest, it starts raining, they take shelter a dolmen unaware that's the very dolmen they wanted to find. Back then I would imagine how it would be see a real one and I thought dolmens were made for shelter. Decades later, I stumbled upon real dolmens and the possible reasons behind their creation. The first dolmen I saw was the one near Bachangudda hill near the World Heritage Site Pattadakal. Around that time I came across sources which evoked deeper interest in prehistoric sites which led to more research & explorations. The sources include historical books, online portals and people. One person I have mention here is Ramadasa of Sanganakallu village near Bellary. Ramadasa's interest & knowledge of prehistory is at another level, it combines archaeology and astronomy. Then there were accidental discoveries while exploring forts. At this point, I have mention that there's a strong connection between prehistoric sites and forts, only some forts  based on topography. Here's are brief writeups on each of the dolmen sites I happened to visit, followed by the sites I've heard and have intentions of visiting them.

Dolmen of Bachangudda: My first visit to this site was Dec 2011 during a solo tour of Badami, Pattadakal & Aihole. The dolmen is situated about 2 km from Pattadakal on Badami-Pattadakal road. It's situated right besides the road and surrounded by farm lands on three sides. I've stopped here at least half a dozen times since 2011 when it was unfenced. 

A few years ago the site was fenced and a writeup was posted. Below is the transcription of the writeup:

This megalith-a dolmen-is a burial or memorial burial belonging to 1st Millennium BCE to 3rd Century CE. It is a rectangular chamber formed by four large and thick orthostats on the sides. Bearing a larger capstone at the top. The side orthostats. At both the ends project laterally across the edges of the orthostats on the front and rear. The south-east facing front orthostat has a rectangular opening larger than a normal port-hole. On the front side. In continuation of the western orthostat. Is seen only the broken edge of another orthostat. There are three other huge fallen slabs in front of the chamber. These originally formed probably another north-south oriented compartment of the extant chamber. The present front slab with the rectangular opening is likely a segmental orthostat dividing the chamber into two compartments. Traces of cairn packing of stone rubbles and earth enclosing the chamber are visible on the northern side but this is a vague indication that the chamber was originally surrounded by a stone circle.

Of all the sites, this dolmen seems to be the most advanced in terms of design and finish. Also personally I feel this structure is an early form of Hindu temple.

During second or third visit here, local people told us about ancient stone structures about 230 meters towards Bachingudda village. There are three megalithic burial chambers, all have been vandalized badly. This is one of the three and that's Malatesh my travel partner for a few years. Compared to the previous dolmen these three are quite primitive, and similar to the ones at Aihole and Guledgudda.

Dolmens of Aihole: I discovered Aihole dolmens during my fourth or fifth visit i.e. in September 2012. This is one of the largest sites with close to eighty dolmens, many of them in ruins. The site is a sloping plateau overlooking the valley where river Malaprabha flows. Ever since this discovery I've come here again four times. I wanted people to see this site. On the same hill are natural rock shelters where you can see ancient paintings, mostly hyena fur pattern. This place gives a tiny glimpse into ancient practices. Here are a few sample burial chambers. The general design is four slabs placed vertically forming a square, the fifth slab is placed horizontally on top of the standing four. However, here most of them are vandalized, one or more slabs are removed or missing.

The first picture here, this burial chamber is the most stylish, it has an attitude. This one is about 3' high. Inside remains of red soil is seen. Originally the inner space was packed with red soil and a corpse, maybe more than one. The idea behind this elaborate arrangement is to protect the mortal remains from scavenging beats like hyenas which seemed to thrive here in those times. Maybe this kind of burial was reserved for tribe leaders and their families.

The second one here is shorter to the one above. This is not more than 2' high. This too is vandalized but the red soil inside is almost intact. Going by its height, this one might've contained one corpse. I'm wondering if archaeologists have run tests on this red soil. Surprisingly this site is unprotected. There's no declaration usually found at archaeological sites.

The third one is the largest dolmen of Aihole site. It's almost 4½' high. Going by its volume this could contain four or five bodies. In the background is Meguti Gudi which marks the end of this plateau.

Dolmens of Hire Benakal: Now we are talking about the largest megalithic site of Karnataka state, hoping I'm not wrong in saying this. I'd visited this site in July 2012. Situated on a range of hillocks near Koppal, the site is spread over a large area which could be marked off as three clusters. We reached the site with just an hour left for sunset, so we spent most of the time at the main part of the site, just walked through another cluster and missed one cluster completely. Local people call them Moreyara Mane which roughly translates to dwarves houses. I feel that's not case, they are meant to be burial chambers.

The below pictures are part of the first cluster which consisted of smaller burial chambers with and without port-holes. Some of the burial chambers were smaller. As you see most of them had been vandalized. I just hope the destruction of these invaluable artifacts has stopped hence.

Moving on to the main cluster. The sight of these huge structures left us wondering, surprised and admiration for those ancient builders' talents. These dolmens are assembly of granite slabs of uniform thickness. The construction is similar to dolmens of other sites except for minor differences. Here we have four trapezoidal slabs placed vertically which form the walls, and a circular slab forming the cover. The smallest dolmen was maybe 5' high and the tallest almost 10'. The extent of damage is evident - broken pieces of slabs strewn between the dolmens. As per archaeologists there were around 300 dolmens in this particular cluster however the numbers were much lesser during our visit.

 Coming to the purpose of these huge structures, I'm little confused. Unlike the smaller dolmens there's no loose soil under the larger dolmens. No packed soil inside any of the dolmens. So wondering how the burials were done.

Before moving on to the next site, I would like to add that there are a number of rock paintings close to these dolmens. Also, there one sculpted stone known as the kettle drum which is about a meter in diameter. Apparently the stone drum emits a boom when struck with wooden club. I'm keeping my fingers crossed wishing the kettle drum- which is one of it's kind in Karnataka -is safe and untouched.

Dolmens of Rajan Kollur: I learned about this site in Philip Meadows Taylor's "Megalithic tombs and other ancient remains in the Deccan." Taylor had called Rajan Kollur a major megalithic site of Karnataka. Indeed it is. Based on my knowledge, Rajan Kollur is third largest, Aihole site is second largest and Hire Benakal is the largest. There's another site near Konnur town in Belagavi district. Size of the site is one matter but dolmen size is another. The larger dolmens here beat the largest dolmen of Aihole. Yes, some of the dolmen are massive, the slabs are seriously bulky.

While most other places dolmen are called Moreyara Manae, people of Rajan Kollur call them Buddara Manae. I'd visited this site in November 2013, it was well protected and an infographic posted near the entrance gave out detailed archaeological findings of this site. I hope the site is well maintained. Besides the main enclosure, there are a few more dolmens in an open ground 200 meters to east.

Remains of Brahmagiri dolmens: This prehistoric burial site is situated at the base of Brahmagiri hill at Ashoka Siddapura village in Chitradurga district, about 2.3 km from the village bus-stop. I'd visited this site in December 2013. I was expecting to see dolmens similar to Hire Benkal. I was shattered seeing the broken remains of granite slabs sticking out from the ground. Apparently local people 'harvested' the slabs for construction work. A local man told us there were hundreds of them scattered in fields, people just removed them to clear their fields. The slabs were either sold off or used as construction material. This is a lost site.

The sites where dolmens are made of granite are Hire Benakal, Kumathi and Brahmagiri. Maybe sites in southern Karnataka too. At sites in the northern parts like Aihole, Rajan Kollur, and others dolmens are made of sandstone blocks or other darker harder stone types.

Dolmen of Hanamasagar hill: This little dolmen was an accidental discovery while exploring the ruins of the fort on Hanamasagar hill in November 2012. Within the fort is a temple dedicated to Venkateshwara popularly known as Abhinava Thirupathi. After seeing the inner space of the small fort, I was going around the walls checking out for ruins on the slopes and I bumped into this little structure, barely 2'x2'x2'. A  few meters away there was a damaged dolmen of similar size. As I remember only two dolmen were seen here. I'd read that a stone circle existed in the plains near the hill but I couldn't find it. Made of rough cut blocks, this dolmen could be from the same period as dolmens of Aihole, Konnur and Rajan Kollur.

Dolmens of Konnur: I read about this site on ASI Dharwad website but failed to find the site's location  online. A few years later I happened to travel towards Konnur and located it with the help of local person's help. A couple of kilometers away from Konnur, the site is hidden among farm lands. As per the two local guys who showed us around, dolmens here are known as Munivasada Guhegalu. First Moryara Manae, then Buddara Manae and now Munivasada Guhegalu.

A group of cist graves are in an enclosure along with five tombs of Jaina ascetics. The group consists of 2' high dolmen to larger ones spacious enough for an adult human. It is possible that Jaina ascetics used these dolmen to meditate hence they are called as Munivasada Guhegalu, meaning ascetic's cave.

The cist graves have been built using rough-cut sandstone blocks. Their build and looks are similar to the ones at Aihole, Hanamasagar and Rajan Kollur. It's possible all are from the same period. Some of the dolmen have been altered to increase inner space. For example; the one below. This one is perfect for a meditating monk.

While the fenced enclosure has a dozen or so structures, there are another dozen larger dolmens outside the enclosure. One unique feature seen in Konnur dolmens is the pair of horizontally buries slabs in front of the opening. Small or big, many of them have it.. let's call it a crude form of balustrade. One common feature of dolmens of Aihole, Konnur, Rajan Konnur, Hanamasagar- all are south facing.

After the tour of this site our guides said that many more dolmens in the hillocks not very far from here. Since we were out of time, I told our guides that would for another day. I'm yet to follow up on that.

Remains of Kutkankeri cist graves: Kutkankeri hill is situated 8 km to the north of Badami. I read about rock paintings at this prehistoric site on The Megalithic Portal. On these hills are fairly well preserved rock painting of Indian hyena fur pattern, an outline of a hand, an alien creature similar to human form and few other things. I'd visited Kutkankeri in September 2012. Though I was not expecting to see dolmens here it wasn't a surprise to see about eight dolmens but completely vandalized. These dolmens were made of sandstone blocks, the type of stone which is available easily here. I think there were stone circles as well around the dolmens.

Among all the ruins, below is the least damaged one. It was sad to see these invaluable monuments torn apart for petty gains.

Prehistoric graves of Guledgudda: Guledgudda is about 23 km northeast of Badami. The name Guledgudda roughly means nomad's hill. The objective of my visit was to see the fort ruins atop the hill. The hill is barren and has plenty of rock outcrops. We did find ruins of a fort and also ruined houses built of stone blocks. As we explored we found several dolmen and stone circles. Most of the artifacts were vandalized except for one stone circle which seemed perfectly preserved.

Here's the well preserved stone circle. In the background, there's stone arc, maybe it was a circle before a few stones went missing.

This looks remains of a cist grave.

I wish I had paid more attention to prehistoric graves. Perhaps I must visit this site again.

Dolmen in the jungles of Bandipur: This was another accidental discovery. I was traveling by cab to Ooty with a colleague. It's my habit to look out and study places. Somewhere in the jungles of Bandipur I spotted this dolmen. Since stopping was prohibited, I requested the driver to slow down for a couple of pictures. The dolmen was a hundred feet away from the road, used telephoto lens to shoot this picture. The dolmen is made of granite slabs. Like I said earlier, dolmens in southern Karnataka are made of granite slabs. I wonder if any more dolmens have survived here.

Ruins of a dolmen at Kumathi: I learned about Kumathi from my friend Ramadasa of Sanganakallu village. He had read a newspaper article about a dolmen at Kumathi. However, it so happened that Ramadasa was talking about two prehistoric anthropomorphic statues, and we at Kumathi located the remains of a dolmen. Here's our first discovery- a ruined dolmen made of granite slabs, with one of the slabs having a porthole. Had this been intact, this would've been similar to the dolmens of Hire Benakal.

The second discovery of that day was anthropomorphic statues, each 10' from the ground level. These two ancient creations are simply wonderful. Our day was made. Prehistoric people, like Mother Nature, keep springing surprises. Just to get an idea of their creations, do take a look at the 

Dolmen like structure of Wakkandurga: If I remember correctly, I located Wakkandurga fort on Wikimapia.org. I had noted location details of some six forts in this region and targeted to visit them all by the end of the day. Wakkandurga was the second fort of that morning. I was expecting to see a fort but the fort sprang a surprise- a dolmen like arrangement of stones.

A huge boulder of irregular shape is balanced on smaller boulders creating a shelter beneath. The capstone seems natural enough but the way its balanced on smaller boulders seems manmade unless. Not saying that it's not possible naturally because Nature is capable of anything.

Those were the sites I've been to. Following is the list of sites I'm yet to see:

1. Arasinaguppe, Chikkamagaluru District
2. Chikkajala, Bangalore Urban District
3. Doddamalthe, Somvarpet Taluk, Kodagu District
4. Gamangatti?
5. Hejjala, Ramanagara District
6. Hujagal, Magadi Taluk, Ramanagara District
7. Hunkunda, Kolar District
8. Kallur Naganahalli, Mysore District
9. Kittur, Mysore District
10. Managondanahalli, Bangalore Rural District
11. Palli, Karkala Taluk, Udupi District
12. Savandurga, Ramanagara District
13. Sulimolathe, Somvarpet Taluk, Kodagu District
14. Thalavadi Betta (fort), Ramanagara District.
15. Timmappana Betta, Ramanagara District
16. Valpady, Dakshina Kannada District

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Dolmen on Vakkandurga hill

In the beginning of 2010s I started exploring the remotely situated historical sites in the northeastern districts. I frequented Bagalkot and Koppal since they were close to Dharwad and then went further towards Raichur, Kalburgi and Yadgir. All these being the so called 'backward' districts have sites which were kind of untouched. The places felt as thought time had frozen, that feeling was stronger in unrecognized or unprotected prehistoric sites. It was a kind of time travel experience. On Nov 6, 2011 I happened to visit five small forts namely Belur, Vakkandurga, Chikanal, Gudur, and Kelur. All these places are situated in barren hills, even the surrounding plains were barren, probably they were uncultivable. However, these hills had their own beauty, there was peace, serenity.

More than a decade later, while researching dolmen sites, I happened to remember seeing a dolmen like stone arrangement on Vakkandurga hillock. The hillock is mix of sandstone formation and loose dirt. The hill top is a collection of several flat patches & slopes upon which rampart walls have been raised to make a small fort.  Most hill fort sites were naturally secure places and inhabited in the prehistoric times.

Vakkandurga too has those characteristics like its elevation and close proximity to a natural source of water. So I'm assuming this hill was inhabited for a long time and during that period they constructed this stone shelter also called a dolmen. The inside of the shelter is large enough to hold five or six adults with a fireplace in the center or a side. So this structure could've been a prehistoric house, or it could be a place to bury the dead. It would be interesting to know what an archaeologist thinks about this structure.

On the northern edge is this rock shelter with an unhindered view of the valley and the neighboring hill. Further to the right in the valley is a relatively recently made waterbody. Rainwater flowing down the slopes, flows into the pond via this valley. If we go back a few millennium, I can imagine a stream flowing through this valley round the year. The scene of two guys sitting in the shelter is something which might have happened a million times in the past.

Seeing the photos and reading the blog post published in Feb 2012 on Vakkandurga has evoked thoughts of revisiting the place and explore the surrounding hills.

A heads-up: an article on the dolmen sites in Karnataka visited/seen by me will be published shortly.

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lighter side of prehistoric life

Pink Panther is one of my favourite characters.. of all his videos, two are special because they connect with prehistoric life. Here they are..

"Extinct Pink" is about competition for food.  Pink Panther, a human, two dinosaurs and a crocodile compete for one bone. The video is fast and unpredictable, hardly a slow moment. Watch it, you'll like it!

In "Prehistoric Pink" the idea of wheel takes birth followed by evolution of wheeled vehicle. I won't say much but ask you to watch it.

Hope you enjoyed!
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Watagal hill and fort

Watgal was spotted on Wikimapia some time in 2012. The hill viewed from air looked like a tadpole.. an elliptical head and a tail. Its another boulder hill heap hill just like Rishimukha Betta of Anegundi. Another interesting thing about it is the natural fort on the hill top.. just like Onake Kindi, again near Anegundi. With little research, I learnt that Watgal was a confirmed prehistoric site.

December 25, 2012
I was touring parts of Raichur, Maski being the most important destination of the day. While travelling from Raichur we turned off at Kavital towards to Maski. Before moving on I would like to mention that Kavital, a barely known village, has the historic Tryambakeshwara Gudi, it's deity a Shivalinga is one of it's type. Though Watagal was barely 4 kms from Kavital we missed it. Probably it wasn't destined for the day.

January 23, 2016
We were driving from Hyderabad to Dharwad; instead of Koppal-Gadag-Hubli route we decided to take Lingsugur-Mudgal-Ron-Navalgund route. It was around 11 when we reached Watagal. As usual, I stopped and spoke to people and found a guide :) So Mahantesh would be our guide to show Watagal hill. I suggested Pushpa to stay back because of the sunny condition but she protested and joined. Good spirit! We drove through the village and parked it near a temple, under a small Neem tree. From there the hill's base was about 250 meters. These white colored boulders are natural.. our guide confirmed when I asked about them. Another person from the village joined us out of curiosity..

Initially it was a dirt and rock path which gave away to a only boulder path, As you see rocks have been positioned carefully to create a level path. The path we are treading on is clearly seen in the aerial view. That's Mahantesh leading us..

As we walked I asked how the name Watgal got formed. gal ~ kal ~ stone. What about Wat? While our guides weren't sure what to say Pushpa pitched in Watgal could have been Wattidakal originally. Wattidakal means 'heap of boulders.' Makes sense.. isn't it?

Among this heap of boulders, a plant managed to  grow into a tree. That's the strength of plant life.

The gradient wasn't steep, so our climb wasn't strenous but we had to be alert with every step and careful not to trip over. Here's a boulder with a pit.. unsure if its natural or man-made. Probably a combination of both. The pit would fill when it rained and probably the water remained for months together.. The pit's mouth was about 2 feet across. Boulder looks like a shark's snout with a toohless mouth.

Now we are close to the hill top. In the top-middle you can see a bastion.. this indicates the hill was a fort too. Like I mentioned earlier, this is a natural fort. Close by we saw a stone with a polished face. Must be an ancient tool, may be from Neolithic times.

So we reached the hill top, now are standing on ground made of dirt. Here's a looking rock-formation with shelter fit for animals like leopards, bears and even hyenas.

Looking back towards the white-boulder strewn gentle slope of the hill top plateau. My guess is these rocks are kind of granite, probably related to Mudgal granite.

This is the clearing that can be seen in the aerial view which was inhabited long time back. Ruins of stone structures can be seen here. Also here's a shrine. It seems local people offer silver eyes to this standing stone deity for their wishes to become true.

Remains of a water tank made of stones and mortar. This could be built around 500 years ago.

We move further up to a bastion in ruins. We manage to clamber on to the top.. looking around 360 degrees.

Our guides were telling there's another ancient shrine on this hill deep inside a rock-shelter; only one person from Watagal is said to have seen it. Who knows what lies beneath these heap of stones. Yes, talking about stones.. hundreds of thousands of years ago this would have been a single rock which fragmented over the years. You can see several stones with matching edges which proves that stones disintegrate over time. What was once a monolith today is a heap of boulders and with passing time these stones will disintegrate further and become dirt.

Looking towards west..

On exploring the clearing we decided to turn back towards the way we came. Our plan was to climb towards another shrine. This shrine can be seen from the village, its painted in white lime. This climb was difficult.. reminded me of my adventure at Kappagallu.. the dolerite dyke of Hiregudda.

Some of the spots were quite dangerous. One missed step or slip would end with broken bones for sure. Pushpa was quite brave.. she never once spoke of giving up or turning back. We reached the shrine and next to it is another sentry point of the fort. That's where I'm standing now and looking down..

The clearing as seen from the bastion.

The descent was slower, we has to be very careful while negotiating tricky parts.

We made it back safely to the boulder path. Our guides were really nice to us, patient and caring. We pause our trek for a picture. Mahantesh's lungi is actually very stylish.. a rare shade of blue suits the garment.

A close look at the southern bastion. Its not easily reachable to humans, hence its preserved well. The boulder in the foreground with two niches is different from other stones.. it seems Mudgal granite. How did it get mixed up in this pile?

Back at the village, we thank our friends and prepare to leave. Mahantesh suggests us to visit Basaveshwara temple another ancient shrine dedicated to Shiva's mount Basava. I made note of postal address to send some pictures and said bye to our friends.

Here's one bastion at ground level. Looks like a fort wall was present here long time back, probably the walls' stones are part of houses' foundations now.

We head towards Watagal Basaveshwara Gudi.

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Comparison of prehistoric paintings

The key to understanding any people is in its art: its writing, painting, sculpture.― Louis L'Amour, Education of a Wandering Man

Its true that art reveals a community's culture. Culture and art go hand in hand, they have evolved together. The human mind, the ever thinking machine, with its audio-visual inputs, churned out what we call art.. drawings, paintings, sculptures, music, dance, literature and what not. Humans imitated Nature with a twist of imagination and created beautiful things. Here's a quote by a Colombian artist named Fernando Botero: A painted landscape is always more beautiful than a real one, because there's more there. Everything is more sensual, and one takes refuge in its beauty. And man needs spiritual expression and nourishing. It's why even in the prehistoric era, people would scrawl pictures of bison on the walls of caves. Man needs music, literature, and painting-all those oases of perfection that make up art-to compensate for the rudeness and materialism of life.

I'm trying to imagine how paintings evolved.. humans must have drawn on sand or dirt using their fingers or twigs or stones. Probably random lines and curves in the beginning. Plants and hills might have been next because they were stationary. So man learns to draw leaves and flowers. Then came human themselves because they lived together. Humans drew individual humans, then couples, and groups. Then came animals pictures.. the animal figures had to be remembered and then drawn.. not as easy as plants or human. Sand drawings would fade out soon. Some one tried drawing with animal blood on a rock with fingers.. blood dried up and remained on stone for longer time. Or some herbs or minerals were discovered whose color was similar to blood. The ever thinking human mind experimented with blood, herbs pigment and minerals pigment, did some mixing and discovered paint. On the other hand, man found better ways to apply paint.. they must have tried feathers, twigs, leaves, animal hair among other things. With passing of time, rock painting became prehistoric diaries. A tribute to some brave huntsman or a warrior or in memory of a dance ritual. Humans had reared cattle and hunting dogs, they must have drawn pictures of the largest bull or the most shrewd canine... So here we have a painting of oxen, dogs and a bird too.

Onake Kindi near Anegundi - oxen and dogs

The first four pictures are all from Onake Kindi, a rock fort created by Mother Nature. Onake Kindi is near Anegundi, the place with a very long history. At the spot are several paintings of human figures, oxen, dogs, birds, a large serpent, a tiger, a hunting scene showing men on horse back, a life-size anthropomorphic painting and a diagram which I'm yet to understand.

Onake Kindi near Anegundi - unknown

Artists who had painted these not only knew how to draw but also knew how to prepare the stone surface and how to prepare the paint itself. Drawing on a horizontal surface is one thing but drawing on a vertical surface is something else. The liquid had to be a particular viscosity so that we wouldn't run off. We found a small pit in one of the rocks close by which might have been used to crush all the ingredients to obtain a consistent fluid. Probably some shells were used to carry paint from here to the canvas.

paint bowl

As you see these drawings are made of fine lines. Especially the oxen's horns in the first picture. The artists has a fine hand but the paint brush had to be convenient too. I guess paintings were made during a certain time of year.. when the air had the right balance of moisture in it at the right temperature so that the liquid dries over certain period of time. If the paint dries too quickly it might turn brittle and crumble. So humans understood the chemistry and physics of paints. 

Onake Kindi near Anegundi - tiger hunting

Here we have a unique painting. This life-size human figure is painted on the ceiling of a rock shelter. The rock is about 16' from the ground level. Wondering how the painter was positioned that high. Did the painter lie down on some sort of scaffolding? Coming to human figure, why are its arms disproportionate. There's a small bull close to his feet. Does this painting depict some sort of gigantic figure?  

Onake Kindi near Anegundi - anthropomorphic

During my journeys, I cam across six sites with ancient rock paintings spread around Bellary, Koppal, Raichur and Bagalkot. There are many more known sites and God knows how many unknown sites. Hampi is also known for rock paintings.

Here are paintings seen at other sites.. starting with Kutkankeri. The most predominant pattern seen here are zig-zag lines of the striped hyena which are local to this region. 

Kutkankeri - pattern of Indian striped hyena

Here's a lovely painting of a hyena. Kannada name for a hyena is Kattekirba. Katte means donkey; since hyena has large ears resembles donkey ears hence the name. Hyenas dwell in caverns and rock shelters which are plenty in rocky hills of Badami and surrounding area. Their dens usually stink because of their habit of feeding on highly decomposed carcasses.

Kutkankeri - Indian striped hyena

Close to the hyena is a human-like figure with slender limbs and giraffe like head. Does this depict some type of alien creature?

Kutkankeri - unknown creature resembling a human

On the same hill, at a different rock shelter are two small paintings. This is one of them. This seems like a battle scene; the two warriors are wielding swords and shields. The horse's features are nicely drawn- upright hair on its neck, its eye is clearly visible, its four legs, one of the fore legs hoof is predominant and its tail is long. Such a sweet little drawing. I have a feeling this has been created by a very young artists.. may be 8 or 9 year old.

Kutkankeri - battle scene

Next are small paintings we discovered at a rock shelter in Mudgal fort. The contrast between rock and paint is not much, hence they are barely visible.

rock shelter at Mudgal fort

Human figures and some geometric figures.

rock shelter at Mudgal fort - human forms

Gudekote is another historic spot with a shelters on its hills. One of the rock shelters close to the fort entrance has a large group of painting of human figures and few animals like oxen.

Gudekote hill

Gudekote hill - pair of oxen

Also, about 4 kms from Gudekote, right next to the road is a boulder with a small overhang. Under the overhang was a small painting. I think the rocky hills around Gudekote are many a rock shelters with rock paintings. It would be interesting to explore the hills & plains and see the paintings.

Next here are paintings of Beerappa Rock Shelter near Sanganakallu and Kappagallu villages of Bellary. This seems like a peacock. In fact one of the peaks of Hiregudda resembles a peacock head and its called Peacock hill. Probably the plains surrounding the hills were covered with woods, making it an ideal terrain for peacocks.

Beerappa Rock Shelter - Peacock

On the same rock is a creature with forked horns.. it has to be a deer. These paintings are at a height of 10' to 12' above the ground level. I remember there were images of fish as well.

Beerappa Rock Shelter - Deer

Now we are at the Chitra Gundu (picture boulder) of Hire Benekal hill. These drawings are slightly different.. human figures have long curvy arms. In fact this is one place I've seen a human couple, probably a married couple, leader of a group. The larger group of drawings shows scenes of hunting, men on horse back wielding spears.

Hire Benkal's  Chitra Gundu - hunting scenes

More four legged creatures.. ox and horses.

Hire Benkal's  Chitra Gundu - deer

All the while we saw humans, oxen, horses, dogs, peacock, serpent, and other creatures of our planet. Coming to the next set of paintings of Hiregudda of Badami.. these are completely different. The creatures seen here are similar but different. What seems like pigs, cows and humans are not exactly the ones we see now. These creature look outlandish.

Badami Hiregudda - strange looking animals

Then we have human like creatures but humans were never depicted this way in any of the scientific articles. Except for the structure of body, head and limbs, these creatures are completely different than the human figures of other sites. Humanoids from some other planet? Mars?

Badami Hiregudda - strange looking anthropomorphic figures

In fact the presence of this astronaut like creature gives a feeling these might be alien creatures. The objects behind the astronaut's head seems like a spaceship. Pretty mysterious set of paintings there are.

Badami Hiregudda - astronaut? 

One thing common in all these paintings is the color - ochre. Ochre, a shade of red. red is the most visible color, the color of blood, the color of life. These pictures, tell us stories, they give us a glimpse of past life, they have enough details for us to imagine how life might have been back then.

There are many more such sites.. places which I wish to visit, which I wish to discover.

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