A note on MEGALITHS and MEGALITHIC CULTURE of south India
by ramchandra rao

Prehistoric Megaliths or large stone constructions dating from before written history are found in huge numbers in South India. The monuments are usually found in granitic areas.

We still do not know exactly who the megalithic people were, whether they represent an immigrant group, or a local development. Since similar monuments are found in many places around the world, right from Ireland, malta, west asia, baluchistan to south east asia it is possible they represent a single group which spread all over the world. Among the possible groups are The Celts originating from central asia, who later became great seafarers: some group from West Asia like the ancient Elamites of mesopotamia: the Central Asian "Scythians", who roamed all over the world : a group of early Aryan tribes: and more fanciful, the Atlanteans washed off far and wide.
The facts are known from archeology : the detailed explanations are yet to come.

Structure:
Most of the megaliths found appear to be graves or similar constructions. Very common are rectangular chambers made of large stone slabs. For instance near Hyderabad city the slabs are about 2 metres by one metre, about 6 cm thick.

A box like structure is formed with the slabs resting on each other without any mortar. Sometimes there is an opening cut into one of the sides. Similar megaliths are found all the way from india, malta to Ireland but the usual dating of the indian megaliths is much more recent than the ones of britain/malta.

Pottery:
Invariably large well made, well fired wheel turned pottery is found. Usually it is black and red. Some pots still retain a shiny polish.
In some areas notably Tamilnadu are urn fields, where large numbers of funeral urns filled with ashes and charred bones are seen. Sometimes terracotta sarcophagus also are found. One was of the size of a modern bathroom tub. It had a large lid and was decorated with a terracotta ram's head. Maybe some important person was buried in it.

Metals:
In all the south indian megaliths iron tools are found. It was an iron age culture. In sandstone area to the north copper tools were found, and they appear older. The iron tools are well made, massive, usually plough type and long crowbar -- celts or javelins. While the " javelins" might have been used for hunting, the local people even today use long steel rods for excavating soil and breaking granite boulders.

Axes, arrowheads and large flat swords are seen. Horse stirrups, ladles, vessels(?), also are commonly found. In some areas bells are common, like the ones tied to necks of cows. In southern areas emblems of roosters ( the cockerel, or male 'jungle hen', gallus are reported.--- This has interesting implications.

Economy
It seems to be based on agriculture, with efficient -- in fact expert use of water and irrigation. Rice seems to be introduced by the megalithic people into s. India. Various other grains also are traced.
Of particular significance is the making of granite stone dams across small seasonal rivulets. Becasue of the impervious dense and hard granitic bedrock, these dams form little lakes after the rains and keep the land moist for a long time until the height of the following summer. Two crops can be raised in otherwise arid areas. ( one of the few examples of beneficial meddling by our species).

Ethnic aspects
Most of the opinions about the megalithic peoples are unfortunately based on pet notions , imaginary scenarios and the like. Today's politics too colour the opinions. But based on the meager facts everyone is welcome to speculate, providing it is clearly understood to be speculation.

Some of the varied and conflicting opinions with some responses :

• " The megalithic peoples are developed from indigenous inhabitants. They spoke old Dravidian language. The early sangam literature of tamil reflects this culture. They were literate. They independently discovered iron and steel making.

  comments and reponses
  -----there is no direct proof what language they spoke. Only inferences and speculations. No rosetta stone has ben found, even though it appears they were literate. The inscriptions if at all they are inscriptions are too small and scrawled on pots.

  ---where is the proof they were literate at all?

  ---a guess could be--maybe they wrote on palm leaf , which has decayed.
  ----the distribution of the dravidian languages TODAY matches that of the megaliths, as Haimendorf observed.

• " The megalithic peoples are invaders from SouthEAST asia. Maybe what is now Vietnam or Thailand. They supplanted the fairly dense neolithic population who were the original inhabitants. The megalithic people introduced rice from southeast asia. The skulls in the graves are " australoid". Megalithic culture is still practiced in tribal areas of eastern and central India by mundari tribes.

• " The megalithic peoples are invaders from West asia. Their culture closely resembles that of megalithic peoples right up to ireland. They came by the sea-coast route. The route is marked by similar megaliths. The emblems of rooster are similar in France and other places. It is possible they had to flee their ancestral area due to some catacylsm like earthquake or volcano. ( a variant is, their saharan home became a desert). They resembled the so called "mediterranean" people. They conquered the earlier inhabitants who resembled the australian aborigines and imposed the dravida language upon them.( this has political implications of relevance today.)

• " The megalithic people are the people of ancient Elam ( a rival of sumeria..babylon. They migrated from northern Iraq hills in all directions. The language they spoke was proto dravida.( i.e. developed into dravidian language) Consequent on entering India they settled in south India and flourished. The megalithic peoples developed a high culture, and gave rise to the Satavahana culture which is seen immediately after the megalithic culture in archeology. There was no break in between anywhere, so the ancestors of the Maratha - Kannada- Telugu and Tamils are the megalithic peoples."

• A variant of the above-- "yes, but the megalithic people were a ruling caste /group over the ancient inhabitants of south India.

• "The megalithic people of India are a purely local development and have no connection with similar stone using people elsewhere.

• "The megalithic people were a branch of the great Aryan migrations from steppelands of Asia. They were an early branch. This is suggested by the "scythian" and thick boned nature of the remains found. They used the horse for riding, as can be seen by stirrups. The earlier inhabitants used polished stone axes. The megalithics used iron swords. Horses and swords-- immediately 'aryan'is suggested. The old indian books speak of Asuras who bury their dead in stone lined graves in the south of India. The Asuras are famous in old aryan myth. The megalithics spoke prakrit, a common man's language. There is good reason to believe they were the Yadu tribes who migrated south, as mentioned in the old books. One of the tribes was the Andhakas. Interestingly the historic Satavahanas, the archeological successors to the megalithics, are called Andhra bhrtiyas or servants of the Andhras.

• "They are Jewish, one of the "lost tribes of Israel".
  --this is a joke, right?

• " They are Africans from Zimbabwe. Similar huge stone ruins are seen there.
  ---why africa. Why they could not be from etruscan south italy or malta or ancient anatolia (turkey). They could have gone from india to africa and later died out. Where is the successor great african megalithic civilisations if the came from africa. Africa never had any civilisation.
  --Egyptians are black africans. There may be a connection of megalithic to egyptians also.

• "They are Polynesians from oceania ..or even South America .
  --the Polynesians themselves may be from Indian megalithic. In another site you said there's some maori connection to India also.

• " They are Indonesians/ papua new guineans.

  ---both of these above is connected to circumpacific culture.
  ---the dates don't match the circumpacific is stone age and five thousand years older.

If you have any opinion (backed by some fact at least!) please send them to v r rao. Diverse and contrary opinions welcome.

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Manu, ancient Indian lawgiver's opinions. He was one of the founders of racism. "Followers of manu" is a term used in India for bigots and social dinosaurs.

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