Megaliths

Megaliths

Subject: History

Section: Ancient India

• While “megalith” is often used to describe a single piece of stone, it also can be used to denote one or more rocks hewn in a definite shape for special purposes.
• It has been used to describe structures built by people from many parts of the world living in many different periods.
• Megaliths were constructed either as burial sites or commemorative (non-sepulchral) memorials.

Types of Megalith structures

• Menhir: Menhir is the name used in Western Europe for a single upright stone erected in prehistoric times; sometimes called a “standing stone”.
• Monolith: Any single standing stone erected in prehistoric times. Sometimes synonymous with “megalith” and “menhir”; for later periods, the word monolith is more likely to be used to describe single stones.
• Capstone style: Single megaliths placed horizontally, often over burial chambers, without the use of support stones.
• Stone circles: In most languages, stone circles are called “cromlechs” (a word in the Welch language); the word “cromlech” is sometimes used with that meaning in English.
• Dolmen: A Dolmen is a megalithic form created by placing a large capstone on two or more support stones creating a chamber below, sometimes closed in on one or more sides. Often used as a tomb or burial chamber.
• Cist: Cist is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Burials are megalithic forms very similar to dolmens in structure. These types of burials were completely underground. There were single- and multiple-chambered cists.

Megaliths in India

• Megaliths in India are dated before 3000 BC, with recent findings dated back to 5000 BC in southern India.
• 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.
• There is also a broad time evolution with the megaliths in central India and the upper Indus valley where the oldest megaliths are found, while those in the east are of much later date.
• A large fraction of these is assumed to be associated with burial or post burial rituals, including memorials for those whose remains may or may not be available.
• The case-example is that of Brahmagiri, which was excavated in 1975 and helped establish the culture sequence in south Indian prehistory.
• However, there is another distinct class of megaliths that do not seem to be associated with burials.
• Even today, a living megalithic culture endures among some tribes such as the Gonds of central India and the Khasis of Meghalaya.

Theory behind megaliths

• For a while, scientific consensus was in favour of the theory that ideas emanated from a single cultural centre and were transported across the world by migrating populations—trans-cultural diffusion.
• Radical diffusionists went a step further, denying the possibility of parallel evolution of ideas completely, and asserting that all cultures and inventions can be tracked down to a single culture.
• Modern research, however, increasingly disputes this view, with a tilt in favour of independent origin of ideas and inventions.

Megalithic Culture in India

• As megalithic societies were preliterate, the racial or ethnic origins of the megalithic people are thus difficult to pin down.
• The discovery of a stone axe with what seemed to be inscriptions in the Harappan script from a burial chamber in Tamil Nadu did bring up the tantalizing possibility of cultural contact between Harappans and the megalithic people.
• Some historians believe that Megaliths were not built for commoners. They signify the emergence of a ruling class or elite who presided over a surplus economy.
• Megalithic people carried out agricultural activity in both the rabi and kharif seasons.
• A large variety of grains such as rice, wheat, kodo millet, barley lentil, black gram, horse gram, common pea, pigeon pea and Indian jujube have been recovered from habitations.
• The very idea of burying the dead along with burial goods indicates strong belief in life after death and possibly rebirth among megalithic people.
• Banded agate beads with eye patterns have been recovered from megalithic sites.
• These were generally used by them as protection against evil spirits, a belief that survives to this day in India in the form of nazar battus such as amulets or strings of limes and chillies.

Historical continuity

• According to Korisettar, the collapse of trade gave rise to a change in the urban character of the Harappan civilization.
• The Harappans then diffused eastwards and came into contact with the early agricultural settlements in the Gangetic plain and moved southwards, and gradually reverted to a more primitive way of life.
• This is indicated by the smaller, but greater number of settlements found after 1800 BC, compared to earlier sites.
• Megalithism indicates the developments of a second urbanization, a chieftain society or chiefdoms, as reflected in monumental architecture as well as other aspects: surplus being generated, multiple crops including cash crops and horticultural crops, minerals, stones.
• Essentially, the emergence of the Megalithic period marks the beginning of second urbanization in various parts of India beyond what was covered by Indus Valley Civilization.
• While their association with the Iron Age breaks down in the case of some older megaliths dating to 2000 BC, megaliths in peninsular India are more strongly associated with a characteristic wheel-made pottery type known as Black and Red Ware, which is found across sites.
• The range of iron artifacts recovered indicate that the megalithic people practiced a wide range of occupations and included carpenters, cobblers, bamboo craftsmen, lapidaries engaged in gemstone work, blacksmiths, coppersmiths and goldsmiths, proof of complex social organization.
• Beads made of various semi-precious stones and steatite have also been found.
• Bronze figurines of animals like buffalos, goats, tigers, elephants and antelopes have been recovered from inside urn burials at the site of Adichanallur in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.
• Significantly, Roman coins have been found in some megalithic burials in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
• In fact, megalithic culture finds several references in ancient Tamil Sangam literature. For instance, menhirs are referred to as nadukal(Hero Stones).
• Manimekalai (5th century AD), refers to the various kinds of burials namely cremation (cuṭuvōr), post excarnation burial (iṭuvōr), burying the deceased in a pit (toṭukuḻip paṭuvōr), rock chamber or cist burial (tāḻvāyiṉ aṭaippōr), urn burial with lid (tāḻiyiṟ kavippōr).