THE TALL MENHIR OF DUNDWA

This giant of a menhir could be a boundary marker or a marker of an isolated burial of a person who may have died for unnatural reasons like snake bite, dead during sowing or  harvest etc.

The standing stone reveals acraftmanship and skill that once prevailed among the ancient megalith makers.

MY ARTICLE ON CHOKAHATU MEGALITHIC BURIAL IN PRABHAT KHABAR

 

Megaliths of Jharkhand: Destruction of the Megalithic Complex of Chano

 Subhashis Das

Cited from my following books :

1. UNKNOWN CIVILIZATION OF PREHISTORIC INDIA: Kaveri Books. New Delhi.

2. THE ARCHAEOASTRONOMY OF A FEW MEGALITHIC SITES OF JHARKAHND. Niyogi Books. New Delhi.

3. LOST HERITAGE OF JHARKHAND INCLUDING MEGALITHS (Colours of Jharkhand). Outlook. Traveller Getaways. New Delhi.

The now demolished tiny yet the most significant megalithic complex of Chano

In this blog page I mention one major megalithic complex of Chano in the state of Jharkhand in East India which I had discovered over 2 decades ago. These stunning megaliths apart from being burials of the dead were created by using using basic geometry and astronomy.

Chano was a very small and insignificant looking megalithic complex. A few slim recumbent stones suggested that they were used as burial covers which differed from the sasandiri type burials of the proto austroloid Mundas, Asurs and other tribes.

The walls of a large dug out from which the villagers collected mud for their use revealed fragments of pottery and microliths. I had collected a few broken Black on Red Ware pottery and even a section of a bone flute apart from iron arrowheads, few iron implements and large amount of iron slags. 
Chano also comprised of a phallus stone. 

The site interestingly had three triangular stones of which two smaller ones were accurately positioned towards the sunrises and sets of the Summer and the Winter Solstices. 

This image shows the accurate positioning of the stones within the complex

We gather to witness the Winter Solstice Sunrise at the now demolished Chano megaliths where the small stone triangle A points towards it.

I am not citing more about the mathematics and alignments of the site in here as for that you need to read my above mentioned books, particularly THE ARCHAEOASTRONOMY OF A FEW MEGALITHIC SITES OF JHARKHAND which can be procured from major book stalls or online from Flipkart or Amazon etc.

 Today this major site exists no more as the land mafia has felled and towed with them the prehistoric stones demolishing this major heritage of our country, forever. 
   

THE AMAZING BARABAR AND NAGARJUNA ROCK CUT CAVES

 We travelled to the Barabar caves through Gaya. The 10 km stretch from Bela to the rock-cut caves of Barabar Hill is perhaps the worst road I have travelled on  so far. The villagers say that the road has not been repaired for decades.

Our local contact Avinash met us midway to the Hills who accompanied us as our guide . He told us that the twin hills of Nagarjuna and Barabar comprise of seven rock-cut caves, the oldest of it kind in India. 

These caves were built for the now defunct Ajivika monks during the reins of Ashoka and Dashrath (Ashoka’s descendant) between 3^rd and 2nd cent BCE. 

We decided to drive to the Barabar Hill first about 1.5 kms from the Nagarjuna Hill. Avinash, our guided highlighted us that the Barabar Hill comprised of four rock-cut caves. 

The Barabar Rock-Cut caves

                   (Co ordinates: Long: 85 deg 3' 46.8" E Lat : 25 deg 0' 18" N)

MEGALITHIC AND OTHER POEMS

THE HERITAGE TRUST of  England features my poem THE MESSENGER  in their blog.

Click on the link below to read:

https://megalithicpoems.blogspot.com/2012/04/messenger.html

RUPKATHA  JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES IN HUMANITIES features three of my poems in their journal.

Click on the link below to read :

https://rupkatha.com/poems-subhashis-das/

Katia Murwey

Subhashis Das stands beside one of the tall standing stones in the megalithic complex of Katia Murwey.

 To know more about this amazing megalithic complex, you can read about it in one of my books THE ARCHAEOASTRONOMY OF A FEW MEGALITHIC SITES OF JHARKHAND, published by Niyogi Books  New Delhi.

Click at the link below to catch a glimpse of the book: 
https://www.niyogibooksindia.com/books/the-archaeoastronomy-of-a-few-megalithic-sites-of-jharkhand

Click at the Amazon link below to purchase the book: 
https://www.amazon.in/Archaeoastronomy-Few-Megalithic-Sites-Jharkhand/dp/9386906163

LARGEST CUPMARK SITE OF JHARKHAND IN EAST INDIA

 

 The largest cupule site of Jharkhand is at Silwar in Hazaribagh. Cupules on horizontal stones.

 Cupules on vertical stones in Jharkhand

Click on the below link to read my paper to know more of the above mentioned cupmarks in Hazaribagh and cupules on megaliths in Jharkhand; all discovered by me:

https://www.chitrolekha.com/V6/n3/02_cupules.pdf

or 

Click on the link below to read another of my paper on cupules on megaliths in  Hazaribagh; all discovered by me and appeared in Purakala:

https://www.academia.edu/19121276/DISCOVERY_OF_CUPULE_BEARING_MEGALITHIC_SITES_IN_HAZARIBAGH_REGION_JHARKHAND

My new book on MEGALITHS OF JHARKHAND with OUTLOOK TRAVELLER GETAWAYS

 Subhashis Das

  My new book on the Megaliths of Jharkhand called LOST HERITAGE OF JHARKHAND INCLUDING MEGALITHS is published with three other booklets of OUTLOOK TRAVELLER GETAWAYS under the jacket of COLOURS OF JHARKHAND.

  In this new book/booklet I have cited not only the various megaliths (most of which are my discoveries) of the state but other heritages as well, as that of the archaeological site of Benisagar in West Singhbhum, the fascinating colourful mud huts of the Ho tribes, rock cut temples, various water bodies around Ranchi, the different haunts of the migratory birds and scores of alluring places. 

The book is interspersed with fascinating photographs of a variety of megalithic architectures of the state from Chatra, to Chaibasa including Hazaribagh, Lohardagga etc clicked by me and by others apart from the other lesser known heritages of the state. 

Written lucidly as an itinerant traveller, the book is indeed worth a read hence is worth a buy. 

Apart from the LOST HERITAGE OF JHARKHAND INCLUDING MEGALITHS the COLOURS OF JHARKHAND is an assortment of three other interesting booklets called WATERFALLS OF JHARKHAND, FAMOUS TEMPLES OF JHARKHAND, CULTURE, CRAFTS AND CUISINE OF JHARKHAND.

The booklets would soon be available in all book stores and stalls of the country and also on line.

My research on the Megaliths of Jharkhand gets included in the syllabus of Jharkhand Education Board

Megaliths of Jharkhand: Megalithic site of JABRA aka Pacahi Baba/ Megaliths of India.

Megaliths of Jharkhand: Megalithic site of BIRBIR/ Megaliths of India.

Megaliths of Jharkhand: MEGALITHIC COMPLEX OF CHANO/ROLA / MEGALITHS OF INDIA.

Megaliths of Chokahatu. JHARKHAND. Megaliths of India.

WINTER SOLSTICE 2019

Below are photographs of sunrises during the Winter Solstice morning in two megalithic sites of Jharkhand discovered by me some 20 years ago.

The megalithic sites apart from being burials are also astronomical sites that validates that these sites were created by the ancient tribal megalith makers who possessed a fair knowledge of basic mathematics and astronomy thousands of years prior to the Brahmanical astronomers and mathematicians. 

PUNKRI BURWDIH

The first photograph is that of the megalithic complex of Punkri Burwadih. 
Studying the site for several years I have found it having alignment towards the sunrise of the Equinoxes and that of the both Summer and the Winter Solstices.

THE WINTER SOLSTICE SUNRISE IN PUNKRI BURWADIH

The ancient tribal megalith makers have positioned the two menhirs so accurately that standing on a particular point on the North-South axis one can view the sun rise today exactly from the gap created by the two tall menhirs M1 and M2 in the Punkri Burwadih Megalithic complex. 

THE WINTER SOLSTICE SUNRISE IN PUNKRI BURWADIH

The ancient tribal megalith makers have positioned the two menhirs so accurately that standing on a particular point on the North-South axis one can view the sun rise today exactly from the gap created by the two tall menhirs M1 and M2 in the Punkri Burwadih Megalithic complex. 

 

Sharing a hot cuppa tea with Bubu, my wife and Shib Shankar in the foggy and shivering cold Winter Solstice morning while the megalithic site is visible in the distance

 

Bubu, Prantik, my son and I look for the sunrise in the foggy morning

CHANO (ROLA)

The Chano (aka Rola) Megalithic complex near Hazaribagh in the Eastern State of Jharkhand in India no more exists today; thanks to the negligence and disregard of tribal megalithic sites by Hazaribagh District Administration, State Archaeological Department and the Archaeological Survey of India.

Chano was one of the most fascinating megalithic sites that was created with mathematics and astronomy in times of prehistory by the erstwhile tribes.

This amazing site when it existed was aligned towards the sunrises and sets of both the Summer and Winter Solstices. 

The small triangle within the now defunct megalithic complex was positioned so accurately by the ancient tribal megalithic astronomers  that on Winter Solstice mornings the triangle pointed towards the sunrise of this day (as seen in the photograph).

THE WINTER SOLSTICE SUNRISE OF THE NOW DEFUNCT MEGALITHIC SITE OF CHANO (ROLA)

The tiny triangular pointer pointed exactly towards the Winter Solstice Sunrise

This is the perhaps the last photograph of the gathering during the Winter Solstice sunrise viewing at the Chano megalithic site.

If you wish to know more of these and a few more of other archaeoastronomical megalithic sites of Jharkhand you may order  one of my earlier books THE ARCHAEOASTRONOMY OF A FEW MEGALITHIC SITES OF JHARKHAND from Amazon or other online book stores (if it is not available at a bookstore near you):

https://www.amazon.in/Archaeoastronomy-Few-Megalithic-Sites-Jharkhand/dp/9386906163

the astronomical megaliths of Rola/Chano completely destroyed

The demolished astronomical megaliths of Rola/Chano

Rola/Chano megalithic complex in her hey days.

It was about 20 years ago that I had first discovered this tiny megalithic site of Chano also known as Rola. Finding this to be a tiny megalith I held this to be an insignificant site while I contemplated on my other discovered megalithic sites.

Much later only when I took up Rola/Chano megaliths as my study site then I realized what a major site this was; something which the country had never seen earlier.
The site was indeed a very early form of a sasandiri burial of the erstwhile tribals. Apart from this I found the megalithic complex was exactly located at the intersection of the alignments of the hills in the landscape. The stones in the site were positioned perfectly aligned to the hills in the landscape.

The site I found was oriented towards the sunrises and sets of both the Summer and Winter Solstices. Black and Red Wares (BRW); a rarity in Jharkhand have found by the plough adjacent to the site. Stone tools as scrapers, point, blades an iron implements as tattoo maker, nail pairer and fragment of a bone flute has been found in situ from the site and these are all in my personal museum.
There were more basic mathematics and horizon astronomy in the site which I have mentioned in two of my books: SACRED STONES IN INDIAN CIVILIZATION and THE ARCHAEOASTRONOMY OF A FEW MEGALITHIC SITE OF JHARKHAND.

People gather along with me to view the Winter Solstice sunrise in the site

The triangular pointer is positioned perfectly to point towards the sunrise of the Winter Solstice

Archaeologists, scholars, archaeoastronomers from all over the world as England, France, Germany and Russia apart from various megalith lovers from other parts of the nation thronged to the site. Several documentaries were made on the site.
Archaeologists of ASI, State Secretary, DCs, Commissioner all visited the site and suggested immediate protection of the site.
They all lied as these people had no interest in protecting a tribal megalithic site hence nothing was done and today the site has been completely vandalized by uprooting the astronomically planted stones. The triangular pointers towards the sunrises are grounded to dust and burial stones have been towed away.
In the process the a major source of India’s prehistory is lost along with the evidence that mathematics and astronomy was known to the ancient tribals thousands of years prior to the Brahmanical astronomers.

NAZCA AND WILTSHIRE CHALK FIGURE TYPE ROCK ART FORM FOUND IN THE FIELDS OF MAHARASTRA

https://www.facebook.com/BBCnewsMarathi/videos/257242531798254/

My latest book THE ARCHAEOASTRONOMY OF A FEW MEGALITHIC SITES IN JHARKHAND

The cover of my latest book THE ARCHAEOASTRONOMY OF A FEW MEGALITHIC SITES IN JHARKHAND.

My latest book THE ARCHAEOASTRONOMY OF A FEW MEGALITHIC SITES IN JHARKHAND published by Niyogi Books New Delhi has been released in the International Book Fair in New Delhi in the month of January of 2018. 

The book as such is not specifically on archaeology of the megalithic sites but on their archaeoastronomy. Although archaeology of the sites is indeed dealt in it, the book cites 6 amazing megalithic sites (of which four having discovered by me) constructed by the ancient adivasis with basic mathematics and observational astronomy. 

The book mentions the finds of various pottery, stone tools and other grave yields from the sites. But the book prominently deals with the stunning mathematics and astronomy which the ancients used to create these amazing megalithic sites some time in prehistory.
This being the first ever book on megalithic archaeoastronomy it is cogently written and comprises of stunning photographs and sketches of the positioning of the stones within the megalithic complexes.
       
Two of India's leading newspapers THE HINDU and the BUSINESS STANDARD has reviewed the book and have found it to be amazing. The links to the reviews are as under:

https://www.thehindu.com/books/books-reviews/the-archaeoastronomy-of-a-few-megalithic-sites-of-jharkhand-review-fragments-of-memory/article22918219.ece
                                                                   &
https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/unspoken-wisdom-that-only-megaliths-can-impart-book-review-118050500196_1.html

The book is available in lot many bookstores and also on-line as in Amazon etc.

Cupules depicting acoustic properties in a menhir

https://www.facebook.com/pawansayam.gond/videos/895313527341994/

A NEW MEGALITHIC SITE NEAR GIDDHAUR

Lat: 24 deg. 12'9" N Long 84 54' 46" E

The new megalithic site is found a few kilometers East of the District town of Chatra in Jharkhand, East India on the road to Hazaribagh.

This is a burial site of the erstwhile tribes of which exactly is difficult to vouch with certainty. This site though is badly ruined yet has about 13 menhirs most of them are inclined. They may  have been planted inclined or may have become slanted by the passing time. 

The site

.

The author stands between a few menhirs

The site is similar to the other megalithic sites of Chatra as this site too consists of a tree which is a mahua (madhuca longifolia)  tree. Like in other megalithic sites of Chatra here too few menhirs though placed side by side open up in North-South directions as below:

Few menhirs here like in other megalithic sites of Chatra though are placed close to one another open up towards the North-South directions. Credit:Ujjal Ghosh

Few menhirs like other megalithic sites of Chatra lean on one another as in the photograph below:

The two menhirs in the above like other menhirs in the megalithic sites of Chatra lean on one another.

Most of the menhirs in this ancient megalithic site have been broken and pieces of pottery lie scattered all around confirming the mode of entombment to be that of pot/pitcher burial. However the raised mound on which the megalithc site stands needs to be excavated to confirm the type of burial the site comprises. All around the site are stones and hills which could be the quarry from which the stones were quarried. 

Vijay Singh shares the frame with the author and the megaliths

The raised mound where the burials are below the menhirs are clearly visible

The author stands amidst few tall menhirs

Vikram admires the old stones

My latest book, "THE ARCHAEOASTRONOMY OF A FEW MEGALITHIC SITES OF JHARKHAND"

My latest book published on the first week of January 2018

(LEFT CLICK ON THE PHOTOGRAPH TO EXPAND IT)

This book is precisely on a few archaeoastronomical megalithic sites of my home state of Jharkhand in East India. 

Megaliths in India are solely considered to be sepulchral or commemorative monuments. That a few are also associated with astronomy is not known and even not recognised by main stream archaeologists of the nation.

This book furnishes evidence how a set of megalithic proto-austroloid Kolarian Mundari tribes who still pursue megalithic burial practices built such megalithic complexes with precise astronomical alignments.

The book deals with 6 megalithic complexes of Furuka, Chano, Katia Murbey etc in both Hazaribagh and Chatra districts  which reveals positioning of the entire site and the stones within them with precise alignments to the notches and peaks of the encircling hills, towards significant sunrises and sets of solstices and equinoxes and even towards the cardinal points. The placements also reveal basic mathematics as ratios, hex-sectionings  et al. 

The book also deals with the general information on megaliths and even other purposes of these ancient monuments.

Thereafter the book sets an inquiry whether it were indeed the proto-austroloid Kolarian tribes who built these archaeoastronomical complexes. If so then why their present day megaliths are devoid of such sciences ? 

Could the makers of the temples be some unknown set of people?

The book questions what may have been the need of such astronomical megalithic temples and at the the same time attempts to provide a reasonable answer to this query.

Lavishly photographed and though written in a scholarly manner the book will induce interest even in the common people who would really want to know the left out unknown chapter of India's past.

The book is available in all the leading book stores of the country and even on-line. The book could also be bought from my publisher:

niyogibooks@gmail.com

Tel: 01126816301, 26818960