The Megalithic burial site was discovered on the slopes of MM hills in Kollegal Taluk. /  Deccan Chronicle

Mangalore:

 A team of historians recently chanced upon a Megalithic site used for burials at Mari Kote, on the slopes of the MM hills in Kollegal taluk of Chamarajnagar district, very near the Hogenakkal Falls.

Prof T. Murugeshi of MSRS College, Shirva and state archaeology department director, Dr R Gopal, were on their way back after doing a survey near the MM hills, along with Mahadeva Swamiji of Sri Saluru Bruhan Mutt when they spotted a number of Megalithic burial sites known as Stone Circles, and Cairns on the right side of the famous falls.

Stone Circle is a type of Megalithic burial in which the graves are covered and stones placed around them in circles. Cairns are another kind of burial common to those times.

“We accidentally stumbled upon these Stone Circles and Cairns last week. Usually these graves are covered. But here we could study some of them as they were already damaged and dug up by treasure hunters,” said Prof. Murugeshi.

“In one of the exposed graves we found four orthostats (arranged like a square box). Based on the preliminary study we feel they are Stone Circles consisting of Dolmenoid Cists. More than 20 graves were found at the spot,” he added.

source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / by Gururaj A. Paniyadi / March 05th, 2013