Cairns and dolmen of Guledgudda

Guledgudda is one of the prehistoric sites of northern Karnataka. It is situated within the area known as Malaprabha Basin. The name Guledgudda can be split into Guled and Gudda. The latter means hill, and the former means gypsies or nomads. Together it could mean the hill where nomads camped. This is my understanding, it could have an entirely different meaning.

To the south of Guledgudda are other prehistoric sites namely Aihole, Pattadakal, Bachangudda, Kutkankeri, Hiregudda of Badami to name a few. In fact the entire area between Badami and Guledgudda is full of sandstone hillocks which were well suited for human habitation. These hills had natural shelters, abundant sources of water and wildlife. This place took care of the necessities of prehistoric times- food, water and shelter. Naturally, these hills were homes to ancient people.

I had visited Guledgudda on 23rd Feb 2013 and these photographs were shot during that visit. The purpose of my visit was to see the ruins of the fort on the hill top. On the flat topped hillock were a few shrines, ruins of walls & bastions, natural rock shelters, heaps of stones which were once stacked neatly as walls, and lastly there were stone arrangements on the north western side. Here are a few pictures of the stone arrangements seen at Guledguddda. These slabs are partially buried to keep them erect. They seem to be a part of the circle of stones forming a cairn.

Here we have two long lines of stones intersecting in the background. This seems like a boundary marker of a graveyard.

This place has a number of sandstone outcrops, a few of which are natural shelters. From my experience, almost all prehistoric sites have had one or more rock shelters which could be completely natural or a combination of natural and manmade. BTW, the person seen in these pictures is Malatesh, he had accompanied me on many excursions like this.

This is another view of the intersecting stone lines. 

There are hundreds of such boulders arranged in lines, arcs or circles.

Of all the artifacts seen here, this one seems like a damaged dolmen.

Next is a well preserved stone circle, a cairn. Looks like this was somehow not touched by vandals. In the background, there's a stone arc, probably a disturbed cairn burial tomb.

On another side of the stone circle is a badly disturbed burial site. I think this could be a cist burial.

After having restudied the decade old photos, I have thoughts of visiting Guldegudda again.

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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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