Vernal Equinox in Punkri Burwadih Megaliths. Hazaribagh. Jharkhand. East India.

Self portrait at the Punkri Burwadih Megaliths.

The crowd had begun to gather in the Punkri Burwadih megalithic complex from about 5.00 AM.  We arrived at around 5.45 A.M. The sun here was to rise at about 6.06 A.M.

A day prior we laid down lime markers to indicate people where to stand and from where to view the sunrise.

Marking with lime to show the alignment of the stones and the place to stand

Two menhirs M2 and M3 can be seen positioned adjacent to each other so that a "V" notch is formed. I have observed that menhirs in the state are oriented towards the mid-winter sunrise.Similarly the menhirs in this complex were made to face the Winter Solstice sunrise.

A small stone marked A is placed in a North-South orientation about a few meters towards the NW of the two menhirs.

At about 93" towards the Summer Solstice observing point to its right is the point from where the Equinox Sunrises can be viewed through the V; in other words from this point the V is to its Due East

The three menhirs M1, M2 and M3

The North-South aligned stone A

Waiting eagerly for the sun to rise

The anxious wait for the sun...

...and there is the solar orb visible right in the centre of the V, behind the hill...cameras flash.

Why did the ancients observe the Equinox Sunrise ?

This is something difficult to answer as the ancient megalithic astronomer-priests left behind no written documents. But we can speculate from the positioning of the stones that these were surely placed after observing the movements of the sun for reasons more than one. 

Explaining the functioning of the Punkri Burwadih megalithic observatory to the crowd

One reason for such arrangements of the stones could be perhaps to observe the Equinoxes and Summer Solstice sunrises from which they could fix these significant days in the year  for their day-to-day life as marriages and agriculture et al. 

The sun is cradled inside the V  between the two male female menhirs

Therefore Punkri Burwadi megalithic complex functioned not only as a burial but also as an observatory of the transits of the sun for it to perform as a calendar for the community. An Indian Hindu even today wouldn't move a foot without referring to their calendars.

What does the sun in the "V" signify?

We need to realise that that megaliths were appendages of the fertility cult, rather a cult related to birth and death, worship of the sexual organs and the wombs, and  worship of the ancestor. All these found expression in symbols.

Of the two menhirs of M2 and M3 one is of red colour comprising of hematite which perhaps symbolises the female whereas the one adjacent to it as the male. 

The "V" in the middle of both the male and the female stones is symbol of the pubic triangle or the female vulva. Through the symbolical vagina of the V notch therefore the new sun takes birth on Equinox mornings exactly though the middle of the V vulva as consequence of the union of M2 and M3.

It is widely believed that on the Equinox day the new sun was born. Therefore on this day or the day after was considered to be the beginning of the New Year for the megalithic multitude.