Tuesday, 13 March 2012

THE GIGANTIC DOLMEN OF BAGODAR (Dhekia Pathar)

The Dhekia Dolmen (Left click for a full sized picture). 

The Bagodar dolmen is incredible with a gargantuan capstone over thirty feet in length and is about ten feet wide. It has been placed on equally huge orthostats. The eastern façade of the megalith which has been  whitewashed, clearly demonstrates the colossal capstone which has been placed on two separate large stones at a gap of a few feet. (The photograph illustrates the entire configuration of the dolmen with the large capstone on two large stones which have been indicated as Orthostat A and b respectively).



Inside the temple created in the space between two orthostats (Left click for a full sized picture).

As this space has assumed the shape of a small cave few idols and a small Shiva Linga have been placed inside it transforming the cavern in to the inner sanctum (garbhagriha) of a Hindu temple. A small grilled gate has been fixed at the opening of this newly formed shrine.


Approaching the southern side of the monument you can see how two relatively smaller yet large and correct-sized boulders have been used as wedges below the capstone and that of orthostat A and in the process refraining the both from tumbling over, keep the capstone levelled and even to acquire the required direction of alignments. (The two wedges as seen in the pic have been marked as Wedges 1 and 2 respectively).
Also note how the circled area in the pic below shows the stone below the orthostat A has been cut to fit it.





The dolmen from the South. Note the orthostat A and one of the two wedges which Prantik points (here at wedge 1). The both can be clearly seen to have been shoved below the capstone. The circled area shows how the stone below the orthostat A has been cut to fit it.(Left click for a full sized picture)



Prantik points towards another wedge (wedge 2) stuffed below orthostat A (Left click for a full sized picture).


The dolmen locally known as the “Dhekia Pathar” or the rice husking pedal is on a rocky outcrop which surprisingly is naturally positioned at the intersection of three hills of which one is Arar at about 20 deg North of East. 

Arar is an austric Santhali term which means the Orion constellation. Arar is also a beautiful landscape architecture depicting the reclining pregnant form of the ubiquitous Mother Goddess. The pregnant belly has two bulges on its either sides and a pointed peak in the middle...very unique in its design. The Dhekia capstone at the northern flank can be seen to have been sharpened and has been made to point towards this triangular tip of the hill.
To the right of the dolmen at about a 100 deg east is the  conical Khatia Hill and to the west at about 290 deg is another hill whose name I couldn’t get.


The recumbent pregnant figure of the Arar landscape to which the dolmen is aligned  in the North east (Left click for a full sized picture).
Note the unique "pregnant belly"of the hill with two bulges on its either side and a triangular tip in the middle. Perhaps it were for these three aspects of the hill that she was named Arar meaning Orion in the Austric Santhali language in compliance of the three co- linear stars of the constellation. It is towards this triangular peak in the center the pointed Northern tip of the capstone points (Left click for a full sized picture).

The effortlessness of the placement of this monstrous capstone undeniably fascinates the beholder.
What or which technology had enabled the early humankind to lift such colossal stones is unknown to us. The dolmen surely suggests that giants may have had treaded upon this earth in hoary antiquity or else what possible explanations could we furnish for such ultra human acts? Whatever be it, this is true that the sciences with which such enormous stones were once raised by the ancients has disappeared with them.

Thursday, 23 February 2012

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 

Friday, 17 February 2012

THE 15TH FEB/26TH OCT SUNRISE IN PUNKRI BURWADIH MEGALITHS

Subhahsis Das 


THE SUN RISES ON THESE DAYS STRAIGHT FROM THE LEFT EDGE OF THE  SMALL STONE MARKED 'A'.

Punkri Burwadih is a wonder…not only because it is a wonderful megalith but because it is a megalith which reveals the ancients’ precise understanding of horizon astronomy and also of the transits of the sun.

Each stone here is positioned in alignment to prime peaks or notches of the surrounding hills, mathematical ratios and even to major sunrises and sets.
A small stone ‘A’ which has been made to function as a pointer, is arranged in a North-South position to the west of a larger menhir. This stone is placed is such a manner that it is linear to the crevice between the two larger menhirs which faces the mid-winter sunrise. 

This is a deliberate placement as the left edge of “A” is aligned to the sunrises of 15th Feb/26th Oct (also known to scholars as Calendrcial Intervals 10.5 and 15.5 respectively according to the so called Megalithic Calendar)
The length of the stone ‘A’ too has been so accurately made that standing at the right rim of the stone ‘A’ one can see the sunrises on 26th Feb/15/16th Oct (known in the so called megalithic calendar as CI 10 and 16) through the gap between the two menhirs.

People have gathered around the the stone 'A'...awaiting the sun to rise.

Punkri Burwadih, it seems that apart from being a burial was also created by primitive astronomer-priests to function as an observatory for the study of the course of the sun.
But why does Punkri Burwadih have viewing points made to watch the sunrises of 15th Feb/26 Oct and 26th Feb and 15th Oct? We have no idea. Certainly the dates must have been of great pertinence for the ancients. Therefore, Punkri Burwadih must have also been serving as a calendar for the ancients.

Visitors wait for the sunrise of 15th feb from between the two menhirs in the distance...

©Subhahsis Das 



Wednesday, 8 February 2012

MEGALITHS OF CHATRA

Subhashis Das

 (Click left to enlarge the images below):

                             
Stone Circle Giddhaur

Jitendras Tewary has discovered many megaliths in the region


More photographs of Megaliths of Chatra are at the end of the text:

The megaliths of Chatra like other megalithic burials of Jharkhand too reveal the pot burial mode of entombment into which ashes and bones of the dead are inserted and thereafter buried on the sacred ground and over which a megalith is raised. 

Megaliths of Chatra or more specifically speaking megaliths of Pathalgadda are typical to the region. The name of the village Pathalgadda is a Hindi word for megaliths. When the proto austroloid tribals with their austric speech had begun to move away from here leaving behind their megaliths the Hindi speaking folks who walked into the region were indeed surprised to find so many standing stones in the area.

They are in thousands...look any where...go any where; megaliths are everywhere. I have never seen a place quite like this...all this was conveyed to me by one young fellow in his late twenties, Jitendra Tewary. Jitendra who is a correspondent of a Hindi daily and who also owns a studio, has discovered many megaliths around the region. 

The area is ringed with some spectacular hills in the landscape as; Puraniya, Likhlahi, Dasi and Lamboiya et al.

The megaliths are solely burial and memorial stones. These can be found jumbled up at single places suggestive of the fact that they were the respective "Jangarhas", "Hargarhis", or "Sasandiris" of the adivasi villages where the adivasi themselves created these burials were once created in the deep past.
My prolonged study of the megaliths of Chatra has revealed to me that the positioning of the stones within a few megalithic sites in the district of Chatra as Katiya Murwey, Bayen and Obra displays stunning astronomy and geometry.
I have dealt the application of these sciences in the construction of the above mentioned ancient megalithic complexes in the following books authored by me:

1. UNKNOWN CIVILIZATION OF PREHISTORIC INDIA. Kaveri Books, New Delhi. 2014.

2. THE ARCHAEOASTRONOMY OF A FEW MEGALITHIC SITES OF JHARKHAND. Niyogi Books. New Delhi. 2018.


Most of the sites I saw were damaged by non tribal villagers scrounging for treasure from below the stones slabs, or the stones were towed away by them to serve as washing stones by the well or to function as drain covers (Fig 6).


The followings are a few photographs of megaliths of Chatra:
(Click left on the photographs to expand them)

Fig 1. A menhir in a ruined megalithic site in Rohmar.


Fig 2. Menhirs in Angarha

Fig 3. The opposite facing tilted stones are inclined towards East and West



 Fig 4. Tall menhirs placed resting inclined on  small menhirs

Fig 5. Trees such as Banyan, Peepal or Mahua are a common and a rare aspect specialty of Chatra megaliths.


Fig 6. Megalithic sites ruined in the process of digging the burials for buried treasure.
Fig 7. Singhani

Fig 8. Obra.


Fig 9. This ancient ruined menhir is worshipped as Bhainsasur by non  tribal dalits of a village. Photo credit: Jitendra Tewary

Fig 10. Megalithic burial inside a sacred grove of the  tribals


Fig 11. An ancient cairn or mound burial of soil and stones


Fig 12. Few modern day sasandiri megalithic burials


Fig 13. A cairn/mound burial created by grits of stones.


Fig 14. A stone circle with tree inside the burial site.


Fig 15. An attractive menhir.

Fig 16. Jitendra beside a large menhir.

Fig 17. Working at an astronomical megalithic site in Chatra district.

Fig 18. This astronomical megalithic site is aligned to the sunrises and sets of the Summer and Winter Solstices

Fig 19. Burial urns with human bones

Fig 20. One of the most stunning archaeoastronomical megalithic sites.


Fig 21. Jitendra and I stand in a ruined ancient megalithic site

Fig 22. This wonderful archaeoastronomical cum burial site is oriented towards the sunrises and sets of the Summer and Winter Solstices

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...