While lazing around at Ecoland Farms Berigai, a rustic and serene farm stay in Bengaluru on our 2 day break with some friends , we looked at Google and found that we weren’t too far from the Mallachandram dolmens site. Now, having seen some of these prehistoric sites near Hampi earlier, our interest was piqued and we decided to drive down and take a look. Google showed the distance as 26 kms and the time under an hour. The roads weren’t too bad and even the short stint on the highway wasn’t too crowded.
We set out on reasonably well maintained roads crossing villages and farms and reached the spot that Google indicated. We turned off from the road and saw what looked like a cattle shed with the accompanying smells and a somewhat dilapidated dwelling. There was a lot of debris lying all around and a couple of cows tied up in the shade of some trees. This didn’t look anything like a tourist site. We got out of the car and looked for someone we could talk to. A school boy suddenly appeared and when we explained what we were looking for, he nodded his head wisely and pointed us to a walking path through the bushes and trees. Take the left fork ahead he said. That sounded somewhat reassuring. We walked up the slight incline through bushes, wild custard apple trees and other trees that we couldn’t recognize till we met a cowherd. He asked us to follow the path till the rocks and then he said the slope was difficult. After about 15 minutes we reached a clearing beyond which was a bare rock face sloping up some fifty metres. This place would have been difficult to climb if there had been rain. But luckily the dry spell enabled us to somehow huff and puff up that hill.
The view at the top was magnificent. We could see all around, the villages, the farms, the industrial sheds towards the highway and of course the dolmens which we had come all the way to see. Dolmens are small square rooms constructed with thin granite slabs with a flat stone slab on top. Many of them have a round hole on the side. Why and how someone eons ago had constructed these monuments on top of these hills is a mystery to us. The accepted story is that these are commemorative structures or burial sites from many centuries ago. There are numerous such structures in varying stages of decay. The stones are scattered in heaps like building material. These structures are not just limited to this particular hillock. We could spot some more similar structures on an adjacent hill too.
The rocks were primarily granite, which means it is not too easy to shape or to move around. Wonder what tools they used to cut these stones, how they transported it and how they built them. What stories would have driven people so many centuries ago to create these structures. The people who built these structures are forgotten, the reasons are forgotten, but the stones still stand here mute testimony to a commendable human effort from our ancient past. These are the kind of monuments that we need to preserve as it tells us the story of India, Climbing down from the rock face was slightly more difficult than the climb up and we headed back to the Ecoland Farms for a well earned lunch.
A nice outing with some adventure and mystery thrown in during our farmstay break.
As narrated by Gopal and Uma who stayed at Ecoland Farmstay and made a day trip to Mallachandram Dolmens and stay at Linger properties frequently.