Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c9.7

c9.7

The main bulk of the south Indian megaliths lies to the south of latitude 18, which runs a little north of Hyderabad (Deccan); in other words, it begins south of the Godāvari system, and is characteristic of peninsular India. Much of that region is marked by outcrops of granite or gneiss, of which a large proportion of the megaliths are constructed; fires lit upon the surface of the rock buckle it along lines of cleavage, and iron wedges do the rest—a practice in vogue today as in ancient times. Along the fringes of the granite are derivative deposits of laterite (p. 47), which cuts like cheese when fresh but hardens on exposure. It is in the nature of things that the granite monuments are rough-hewn, if hewn at all, and that the laterite monuments are relatively trim and shapely.