An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s17.105

v1.c9.s17.105

The dolmen type has a small e. door-block shutting a gap and continuing its significance by a passage from the door slab towards the outer circle as a radial arm flanked by a line of upright medium-sized slabs. This feature corresponds to the true passages in the passage graves of n. Karnataka [4.17.8]. Inside the tomb, multiple terracotta legged sarcophagi [12.9] are placed, with or without secondary fractional burials, apart from other objects like iron implements. Pottery is generally stacked around, along with a rich collection of iron objects, stone objects and beads; the filling suggests a non-disturbance of the burial once completed. In s. Arcot is seen the slab-cist type sometimes with sarcophagi. In Dts Coimbatore, Tiruchchirappalli and Pudukkottai the slab cist with urn burial is the prevailing type. In the Pudukkottai region there is an elaborate cistmonument type of the transepted port-holed cist with antechamber and with single or multiple urns inside. No funerary vestiges have generally been noted in the urns here despite a large-scale spoliation of several graves in early times and recent systematic work at SITTANNA-VASAL (information from K.S. Ramachandran, the excavator). Usually double urns are put inside the cists where they are without transept and the mouths of the urns are slanted towards the port-hole opening of the tomb. In the transepted variety a single urn is placed in the chamber of the cist but a stack of pottery is sometimes found below the floor slab of the cist. Sarcophagi inside the cist, as in Dt s. Arcot and urns inside it, as in Dt Pudukkottai, clearly show that the sarcophagus and urn are indigenous elements of Tamil Nadu and the cist is an extraneous feature.