Megalithic stone circles found on Male Mahadeshwara Hills

A megalithic stone circle dating back to about 800 B.C. found at Mari Kote in MM hill ranges in Chamarajanagar district

Over 20 megalithic stone circles dating back to about 800 BC were discovered at Male Mahadeshwara Hills in Chamarajanagar district, according to T. Murugeshi, Associate Professor in the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, MSRS College, Shirva.

In a press release issued here, Mr. Murugeshi said that Megalithic Culture or Iron Age has been considered as a formative period in the South Indian history.

He said that he had gone with R. Gopal, Director of State Archaeology, Mysore, on a survey of a deserted temple at Alambady on the right bank of River Cauvery on the Male Mahadeshwara (MM) Hills near Gopinathapuram in Kollegal taluk of Chamarajanagar district on February 27.

They had gone on a survey of the temple on a request by Pattada Immdi Mahadeva Swami of Saluru Bruhan Math.

On the right side of the Hogenkal Falls, they noticed a number of megalithic stone circles on the slopes of the MM Hills. Locals call the site ‘Mari Kote’.

A number of stone circles and cairns were found at the site. Usually, it is not possible to identify the kind of burial by looking at the surface.

But some burial sites had already been robbed by treasure hunters, so it helped them identify the type of burials.

“In one of the exposed site, four orthostats making a box-like square, without port hole was found. On the basis of this feature, we recognised them as stone circles consisting of Dolmenoid cists. More than 20 stone circles were spread over there”, Mr. Murugeshi said.