Exploring the secret lives of ancient monuments

A love for astronomy drew Srikumar M. Menon to megaliths, stone structures erected by ancient people in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, continuing through the Iron Age and Early Historic period. “I was fascinated by stories of Stonehenge and its claims of astronomical connections,” says Menon in an interview following a recent event titled The Secret Life of Monuments held at the Bangalore International Center. 

He did not know there were similar structures in India until he discovered a research paper about Indian megaliths and their connection to astronomy, recalls the architect associated with Bengaluru’s National Institute of Advanced Studies. So he began visiting some of these megalithic sites, even going on to do his PhD on the astronomical significance of megalithic monuments in India.

“I have been walking around in many of these sites for the last 20 years,” he tells Vinay Parameswarappa, the founder of experiential tour company Gully Tours, with whom he was in conversation with at the event. 

Inspiration for book

These two decades spent exploring these various places inspired his book, God on the Hill & Other Stories, published earlier this year. The collection of 10 short stories draws from the locales, monuments and myths associated with many of the ancient monuments he studied, including megaliths in Kerala and Karnataka, a Buddhist stupa in Karnataka, and an exquisite little rock-cut temple in the Kumaon Himalaya. “Wherever I go to any historical site, there are usually stories there that do not have a direct impact on academic research. But they are important because people nearby believe it or that sort of thing,” says Menon.

He says the book, an atonement of sorts for all the legends and myths he has ignored or busted, took nearly 15 years to write. “The oldest story in this is probably started in 2005 or something like that, so it has been a while in the making,” he says. “I didn’t conceive of it as a book when I started. I was just writing a story whenever I felt like it.”

Megalithic monuments

“I’ve been incredibly lucky that I get to see some out-of-the-way spots, and I’ll have tried to capture the essence of some of these places,” says Menon before taking his audience at the event to the settings of some of these stories, using a series of stunning photographs.

Three stories in the book are set in megalithic sites, which can range from menhirs (upright stones), dolmens (burial chambers), cairn circles (circular stone arrangements) and burial cists (underground stone enclosures), among others. “They have something to do with death,” says Menon, pointing out that they are often burial sites or structures set up to commemorate a person or spot of some importance. He adds that the origins and significance of some, such as the various stone alignments, are still a mystery. 

A menhir at Nileaskal.
| Photo Credit:
Srikumar Menon

Sites in Karnataka

A few of the sites in India that Menon refers to include the dolmens of Mallachandram, 75-odd km from Bengaluru near Krishnagiri; Hire Benakal near Hampi, one of the largest and most diverse megalithic sites of South India; and the menhirs of Heragal and Nilaskal in the Hosanagara taluk.

He delves into the stories and local legends around these historical sites, many of which have shaped his short stories. For instance, Hire Benakal is locally known as ‘Moriyara Mane’ or house of the Moriyas, a mythical race of “small people who lived long ago that were endowed with superhuman strength,” he says. “They could split the stones with their bare hands, and they (are believed to have) made these structures.” 

He also ventures into the function of a hero stone or veeragallu, stone monuments commemorating the valorous death of a hero, be it in battle or while defending people and cattle from predators like tigers. Sharing a photograph of a veeragallu on the Indian Institute of Science campus that portrays a hunter shooting a tiger, he says it celebrates a person who possibly lost his life battling the animal. “There are stone slabs nearby which suggest that it was enclosed in a small kind of shrine made of other stones,” he believes. 

These ancient sites are also important from an architectural and social perspective, in his opinion. “They look so crude and primitive, but the thing is that the seeds of much of later architecture are sown in these,” he says. “This is when they learned stone working… using stone slabs from the bedrock… learning how to shape and erect them.” 

Additionally, ancient megaliths offer valuable insights into the people and societies who have built these structures. “You can imagine these being put up, the kind of ceremonies which had happened, the person who had been commemorated, how important they were to the populace around, and what led to them being commemorated in such a grand way,” says Menon.

Beyond the prehistoric

Menon also takes his audience to a relatively more recent past: Kanaganahalli, situated about 3 km from Sannati in Kalaburagi district on the banks of the Bhima River, where two of his other stories are set. “I think it is the archaeological discovery of the second half of the 20th century in India,” he says.

For millennia, this site was best known for the Chandralamba Parameshwari temple, where pilgrims coalesced to worship Chandralamba Devi, an incarnation of the Goddess Lakshmi. In 1986, the roof of the shrine within the temple collapsed, breaking the idol, so a new one had to be installed; when they removed the idol from the Panipeetha or base slab, inscriptions were found on it, which turned out to be Ashokan edicts.  “All of a sudden, Kanaganahallii and all that came into the southern limits of the Mauryan Empire,” he says, adding that the entire area is rich in Buddhist heritage.

According to him, many other marvellous monuments and inscriptions were discovered here, including a Maha Stupa, stone slabs rendered with Jataka stories and even a sculpture of Emperor Ashoka with his name etched on it. During the interaction, he also discusses the universality and power of narrative and the intricacy of these carvings and monuments that have often been created using very basic tools. So spectacular are some of these ancient marvels that sceptics often assume that many marvels, including the Kailasa Temple in Ellora, were created by aliens, says Menon. But, “I think we underestimate the power of the mind.” 

Cultural continuity

The idea of the continuity of commemorative traditions crops up repeatedly during the talk. Menon says new meanings are often attributed to ancient artefacts, using a photo taken at Avathi in the Devanahalli Taluk near the airport to drive this point. Pointing to a collection of vermillion and turmeric-smeared stones, he explains that these are stone axes from the Neolithic period, which have been repurposed into deities and are now being worshipped, says Menon.

A similar transformation of meaning can be found in other megalithic sites. “Even if there’s cultural discontinuity happening, people of one culture find what was sacred or special to certain earlier cultures special as well, and they often build their monuments the same place,” he says, pointing out that in many regions, temples are found close to rock art or megalithic sites. 

This transformation of meaning also plays a vital role in conservation. “I’ve seen a dolmen in a school in Kerala being used as a dustbin,” he says. But in the same region, where they are worshipped as shrines, people have looked after these sites better. “There’s a sense of ownership in that case.”

Ownership is necessary because many of these prehistoric sites are frequently at risk of being cleared for development, vandalised or neglected, leading to an erasure of our heritage. Menon makes his point using the tragic example of the destruction of Hanamasagar in Kalaburagi, one of India’s largest stone alignments, cleared to make room for agriculture. “What people must have laboured on for long periods can be removed in a matter of minutes by your bulldozers,” says Menon, who believes that creating awareness about our ancient monuments is critical to preserving them. “I think awareness is a first step towards protection,” he says. “When you know what a thing is and start visiting its site, you will feel its value. And what we like, we protect.”