Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c20.s3.t4.2

v1.c20.s3.t4.2

In 1823, Babington discovered a rock-cut burial chamber in Malabar. Since then, 1400 megalithic sites have been brought to light — 1116 in the region of Peninsular India. (Deo, 1985) The largest number of megalith monuments have been found in Tamil Nadu (388), followed by Karnataka (300), Kerala (188), Andhra Pradesh (147), Maharashtra (90) and Pondicherry (3). There are some megalithic sites north of Vindhya range such as in the Mirzapur district. Apart from the megalithic tombs and graves, we have the neighbouring habitation sites. The contemporaneity of iron age habitation and the burials have been proved at least in some cases, as in Brahmagiri and Maski. (Nagaraja Rao, 1971 and 1981) .