Kodumanal excavation

Subject: Arts and culture

Context:

The Kodumanal excavation in Tamil Nadu of 10 pots and bowls, instead of the usual three or four pots, placed outside three-chambered burial cists and inside the cairn-circle, threw light on burial rituals and the concept of afterlife in megalithic culture.

Concept:

• It was once a flourishing ancient trade city known as Kodumanam, as inscribed in Patittrupathu of Sangam Literature.
• It is located on the northern banks of Noyyal River, a tributary of the Cauvery.
• Megaliths were constructed either as burial sites or commemorative (non-sepulchral) memorials.
• Cairn-circlesare the prehistoric stone row which is a linear arrangement of parallel megalithic standing stones.
• Megaliths are spread across the Indian subcontinent, though the bulk of them are found in peninsular India, concentrated in the states of Maharashtra (mainly in Vidarbha), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.