DOLMENS OF INDIA

Subhahsis Das 

Dolmens are unique structures of the megalithic tribals. A dolmen normally has a centrestone or a capstone placed on one or more stones. The capstone is mostly horizontal, is either table flat or may be a little spherical on the upper part or be flat raised towards the sky with one stone beneath one of its end. The stands could be of three sided vertical slabs or have four sided slabs as a box/room like formation with or without portholes. The opening may face the east, north or have the orientation towards the sunrise of the day of the person's death. The stands could also be of boulders on which the capstone is made to rest. 

The etymology of the term dolmen has possibly originated from the ancient Keltic term Taol Maen which means stone table. However the other interpretation is that the term has stemmed from the French  Tolmen meaning "hole of a stone". 

A sasandiri dolmen.

A memorial dolmen with a large capstone

Dolmens are either memorials or burials of the dead. In India if they are placed on rocky knobs or on hill slopes they are possibly meant to function as memorials, if they are found on levelled grounds they are possibly burials with chambers beneath the monuments.

A dolmen in Marayoor. kerela

                         

A memorial dolmen with a large capstone   

The very primitive ones with crude and large capstones are generally believed to belong to hoary times and were possibly raised in the memory of a matriarch, female priest/chief. Among the Khasis in the North-East a dolmen is known as Maokenthayi and is normally raised in the memory of a dead women, reminiscent of the now defunct fertility cult.

Among the tribals in Jharkhand, dolmens known as Sasandiris are still raised by the Austric Mundas, and Dravidian speaking Oraons . The Mundaric sasandiri is a sort of family vault. The bones of the dead family member are inserted through a porthole made on the dolmen/sasandiri into its chamber after his cremation where in the bones of his other dead family members are placed. This custom however is dying, as small dolmens are now raised with the bones now being placed in a small pitcher symbolical of the now defunct chamber represenatative of the mother's womb is dug insde the earth upon which the dolmen/sasandiri is built.

A dolmen now converted in a Hindu temple

A memorial dolmen on a hill slope

A dolmen by the road; this could be a burial

A large flat capstoned sasandiri

This memorial dolmen is on a hill 

A memorial dolmen

Dolmens in Shillong

A Double capstoned dolmen

Dolmen in Hirebenkal

Excavation of a dolmen in Hirapur, Maharastra

An excavated dolmen in Hirapur, Maharstra

This is a memorial dolmen with the capstone made in the form of a turtle shell and a lizard's head

The modern day sasandiri dolmens

Dolmen of Sindh, Pakistan (Photo: Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro)

©Subhahsis Das