An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c28.28

v2.c28.28

**Adichanallur, Adichchanallur, Adittanallur** (80°50′; 76°40′), Dt Tirunelveli, an urn-burial site of the s. Indian Megalithic complex [4.17.10], haphazardly excavated in 1876 by Jager (mentioned in Rea, 1915) and more extensively by Rea between 1889 and 1905, with a short spell of exploration by Louis Lapique in 1903-4. The urn-burials of the site are a part of the typical pure urn-fields that are found in a large part of the s.most Tamil Nadu Dts—Madurai, Ramnad and Tirunelveli—with a spillover all around, including the neighbouring coastal parts of Kerala. They are singularly free of any lithic appendage, except that at Adichanallur itself there are low heaps of quartzitic chips which are largely found in the bed rock in this locality. Those chips are believed to mark the tops of the pits where the urn-burials were interred. It is not clear from surface explorations in the areas outside this primary urn-burial zone, especially in Pudukkottai and Coimbatore, whether urn-burials of these areas, which are a significant part of the interment in the spectacularly quarried and dressed slab-cist tombs—typical megalithic monuments—have a cognate kinship with those of the extreme s. of Tamil Nadu. There are certainly some differences in the associated elements at Adichanallur in the types and fabric of the pottery and in the large variety of bronze objects, the like of which is not forthcoming from any of these other areas, in the characteristic forms and sizes of the iron objects which include impressive quantities of hoe-spades, triple-forked spears, horse-bits [15.19] different in form from those, for example, of Dt Chingleput as indicated in the types excavated at SANUR, and in the occurrence of a serrated carnelian blade from one of the burials. The bronze objects which include vegetal, animal, bird and other naturalistic forms, apart from perforated sieve-basins, and an unusual and outstanding example of a bronze statuette of the mother goddess (Aditi?) [12.6] which bears resemblance to the typical repoussé gold-leaf figures of the mother goddesses found in the Ganga valley at LAURIYA-NANDANGARH and PIPRAHWA, all of possibly pre-Aśokan affiliation. In pottery not only are the types generally less than medium in size with several diminutive examples of the bowl, dish, carinated pot, *loṭā*, knobbed lid, etc., but some of the pots have white-painted Black-and-red Ware [11.15] designs also on them. Such paintings have been noticed elsewhere at T. KALLUPATTI and Madurai (Annupanadi) in Dt Madurai and in the Megalithic levels of SANGANAKALLU and HALLUR. It is not clear if these ceramic traits are earlier or later than the standard stage of the pre-Christian period to which the urn-burials of Adichanallur themselves can be assigned.