An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s17.26

v1.c9.s17.26

*N. India and Pakistan.* What applies to megaliths of peninsular India does not necessarily apply to the megaliths of n. India and Pakistan, where they are not largely associated with a homogeneous group of pottery nor metallic objects, modes of the disposal of the dead and sepulchral monuments. Such types as port-holed cists and rude stone dolmens with opening to the e., etc., are usually absent. The sepulchral monuments generally included in the category of megaliths are cairn burials and cist burials, i.e., heaps of loose stones placed over a pit and comparatively small box-like structures raised over a pit, sometimes covered with cairn stones, respectively. At a few places such as BURZAHOM in the Kashmir valley [4.17.1] menhirs have been located. In the Vindhyan hills some pits are carved in the rocks. In the Mirzapur region some are associated with iron and a kind of dull red as well as grey ware and some are claimed to have been associated with copper and Chalcolithic pottery [4.17.3]. In Baluchistan and Sind and in rare examples in the hills of Rajasthan some dry rubble structures are also included in megaliths. In the Himalayas such as at Leh [4.17.1] and several places in Tibet and the hills of Dehra Dun simple slabbed cists, sometimes with collective burials, are located. These monuments too have been included in the category of megaliths. In Gujarat sometimes within a circle of stones a cairn burial is found such as at AMRELI. Similarly, near Karachi in Sind cists with a couple of suspected examples of port-holed type have been reported. However, except the simple Iron Age cists of KOTIA in Dt Mirzapur, which may be dated to the 3rd century B.C., none of the n. Indian and Pakistan megaliths has as yet been dated precisely, although some of the cairn burials of Baluchistan may belong to the broad time-bracket of the 1st and 8th centuries A.D. The picture that emerges from these details is that the megaliths of n. India are extremely varied both in structural details and associated culture complex. On the present showing they appear of somewhat later in date than the peninsular megaliths, except perhaps the Chalcolithic Vindhyan ones [4.17.3]. Does it show that the sources of inspiration for the two groups were different? We do not exactly know.