The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c43: Rude Stone Monuments
The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c43
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Rude Stone Monuments
c43.1
THERE are not many rude stone monuments within the area covered by the Chālukyan temples, but just without it, upon its eastern confines, in the territories of His Highness the Nizām, there are considerable numbers. The more important remains of this class that are found within the limits of the Chālukyan dominions are some small groups at Aihole and Koṇṇūr, and at Rāṇebennūr and Mōtebennūr in the south of the Dhārwār District. There are also a few isolated dolmens scattered about.
c43.2
At Aihole, where the fine old temples are which are described in the beginning of this volume, there were, a few years ago, upon the top of the hill, upwards of twenty dolmens scattered about over the rocky plateau on the east side of the temple of Mēguṭi (Plate CLII). These generally consist of three great slabs set up on edge, forming three sides of a square, with a much larger flat slab laid over these to form a roof. In some cases, and, perhaps, originally in all, there was another upright slab closing up the front, wholly or partly. Where it completely closed the front, it had a circular hole cut through it large enough for a person to crawl through. Since they stand upon the rock it is not likely they were put up as sepulchral cells: it is more likely they were erected as huts to live in, and, perhaps, by the stone workers engaged upon the building of Mēguṭi. As the sandstone rocks here are stratified, it was easy enough for them, with a wedge or two, to detach the necessary slabs from the hill top just where they wished to put them up; and it would have been less trouble to them, as stone workers, to do this than to hunt about for other material and fetch it up the hill. On the side of one of the largest, and nearest to the temple, are three or four letters, traced in the old character found on some of the older temples—possibly the door-plate of the owner or a “Beware of the dog” warning. They face all directions.
c43.3
A few years ago, the writer saw at Bādāmi, but a few miles away to the west, just such a dolmen, on a smaller scale, set up in the middle of a temporary encampment of *vadārs*, or stone workers, engaged by the railway company, where it was being used as a little shrine for their worship. On the plateau, between Bādāmi and Mahākūṭēśvara, are to be found hundreds of miniature dolmens, which are daily put up by the women pilgrims to the latter shrine to register their vows. These are composed of a few flat stones, and, as they fall apart, their stones are used over again to build others.
c43.4
A single dolmen stands close beside the temple of Galagnātha at Aihole, but in this case, it is not a closed-in cell, for the great top slab rests upon rough upright pillar-like stones.
c43.5
which leave the sides open all round. It stands upon rocky soil, and has no particular frontage. It could hardly have been intended for burial purposes, else more of them would have been found.
c43.6
Another dolmen, like those on the hill at Aihole, enclosed with slab stones, stands beside the pathway about half a mile to the west of the village of Paṭṭadakal. This too was, no doubt, used to live in.
c43.7
But the largest dolmen met with in these districts is one which stands in the village of Moṭebennūr. It is of the same type as that near the temple of Galaṅātha at Aihole. Four roughly-hewn uprights, standing about eight feet out of the ground, support a great flat horizontal slab, seventeen and a half feet long by four feet broad. There are two other uprights, whose tops have fallen away from the support of the slab (Plate CLII).
c43.8
At Koṇṇūr, near the Gokāk Falls, are extensive groups of dolmens which are scattered about in the fields. Like the Aihole ones on the hill, these have been enclosed with side slabs, but, unlike them, they all face one direction, the south—the region of Yama, the god of death. From this fact and the discovery of sherds of pottery and ash, buried in the earth beneath them, it is safe to conclude that they are old burial places. A curious thing about these is that, in front of their southern entrances are set up, in each case, two flat slabs on edge leaving a narrow lane of approach between them. The cells vary in size, but average about four feet square inside, and are proportionately high. Tradition ascribes these to the Jains as burial places (Plate CLII).
c43.9
A stone “circle” at Rānebennūr consists of seven upright stones enclosing an irregular space about thirteen feet by eight. The stones are irregularly placed and at varying distances apart. On the west side two are quite close together, while on the east they are as far apart as eight feet nine inches. They stand about four feet out of the ground. Between the upright stones, and on the lines joining them, are seen, in some places, embedded stones on edge. On digging into the middle of the low mound upon which these stones stand, all that was found was a couple of bits of ordinary pottery and a small quantity of white ash.