An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s17.17

v1.c9.s17.17

(3) Chambered tomb and long barrow: In recent years in n. Karnataka megaliths of a particular group have been called 'chambered tombs' although basically they belong to the major category of dolmenoid cists. The rationale behind this term, and also another term 'long barrows' used for a kind of cairn circles, is that they have some distant resemblance with similar monuments on the European continent, France and England in particular. Although this stand of Sundara, 1975, who, after Burgess, 1874, has been using the former term extensively may not be shared by all, still it cannot be doubted that the dolmenoid cist developed a vast variety of subtypes in n. Karnataka. Although collectively called 'chambered tombs' they contain cists in forms like Greek and Latin cross: first burial pits are dug in the fashion of a cross and then they are lined with stone slabs; quite often a long passage or shallow pit is also dug from the periphery of the circle (or rectangle) of stones enclosing this monument to the central cist or chamber, which may sometimes be trapezoidal also, and is then lined with stone slabs. The whole monument is then generally covered with slabs, and then again by cairn stones. In a number of examples slabs are replaced by crude stones. The term 'long barrow' is applied for a long cairn of heaped up stones concealing below it two to four cists sometimes found collectively demarcated by a circle or rectangle of stones; when the cist is single the cairn or barrow is somewhat rectangular. The term 'barrow' has been used again and again (Banerjee, 1965) but not accepted by others (Krishnaswami, 1949) because terms like 'round barrow' and 'long barrow' are applied to an extremely elaborate and imposing class of monuments in England which stand quite apart from their supposed Indian counterparts.