30 kilometers from the fascinating monuments of Hampi lies Hirebenakal, a
stone age site its past shrouded in mystery
Hirebenakal is home to hundreds of spectacular megalithic dolmens that were
built more than 3200 years ago. The history of Hirebenakal predates most
of the current monuments in hampi by at least 2,000 years. I visit Hirebenakal
to understand the symbolism behind these ancient stone age
structures.
our journey begins in hampi the erstwhile capital of the powerful
Vijayanagara Empire. In its heyday Hampi was a prosperous grand city
reaching its zenith at around the 13th century
Hampi however has a past that is much older than the Vijayanagara Empire.
According to the hindu epic ramayana hampi was kishkinta the spot where Rama
and Lakshmana meet a naman and his army
Though Hirebenakal is just ten kilometers from hampi as the crow flies
we need to take a longer route
we drive from Hampi to Gangavati the ricebowl city of karnataka and onwards
towards Hirebenakal our journey takes us through beautiful
vistas of rocky terrain we journey along the river thungabhadra which has
sustained life in this region since the dawn of time. As we arrived at Hirebenakal
there were not many people around. I asked a lone farmer for
directions and he pointed out to the hills in the distance calling it Moryar Gudda.
As I walked down the path that led to the dolmens the scene looked straight
out of a fairy tale. Lush green fields and chirping birds added to the scenic
beauty of this mysterious place. as I reached the base of the hills I see some
signs set up by the Archaeological Survey of India
Hirebenakal is a protected site
The Trail uphill is rocky and the midday Sun beats down with no respite. All
through the climb beautiful views of rocky terrain unfold. The hills however
were deserted. Once I got down from the hill I learned
that the villagers avoid the hills during this time because of fear of
bears which frequent the area. A fair warning to those planning to
visit. After an hour of walking we come down to a level area on which there are
a multitude of small Dolmens. We come face to face with these ancient stone
age structures that lie undisturbed for the last few thousand years
Hirebenakal was a megalithic site that was discovered and excavated by an
archeologist from the University of Dharwad
in 1975. Megaliths are large stones that have been put together to construct
structures. According to archaeologists, the construction of megaliths happened
in the Stone Age which is the period spanning 8,000 700 BC to 2,000 BC
although the purpose is not completely understood most archeologists considered
dolmens to be megalithic homes or tombs So according to them Hirebenakal is a
Stone Age burial site. But that's where a mystery begins
As we reach the top spectacular views unfold. Hundreds of large dolmens come
into sight. The rocks that we see are part of the ancient dharwad craton and
are more than 2 billion years old. You can see the craftsmanship of the ancient
people in some of these structures. Big boulders have been sliced into thin
slices of rocks. This is not easy and these rocks are pretty heavy. A mystery
begins. Though the dolmens are regarded as burial sites till date
there have been no human bones found here and in many other dolmens across
the world for that matter... the legends surrounding the dolmens also add to the
mystery... the locals called the area more arid part a they believed that the moryars
were an ancient people who built these dolmens and here the mystery
deepens
The locals believed that the moryars were a race of Dwarves - short people who
possessed superhuman strength. Strength that helped them arrange these stones
into these remarkable structures. This is similar to legends in the other parts of
the world. A Russian legend talks about how the dolmens found in Russia were
built by a race of giants for a race of dwarf people most archaeologists think
that dolmens their megalithic tombs places of burial. As I stand in front of
these dolmens to my untrained eye it's very hard to agree with that thesis
Consider the following points - no human remains have been found here. The dolmens
are open. It would have been common knowledge that animals roamed these
areas the chamber that is open is not an ideal fit for burial. Also there was no
need to go to the top of the hill slice these large rocks place them on top of
each other to create a burial site. They could have just buried the dead at the
bottom of the hill in regular graves. Some archeologists theorize that the
Dolmens might have been places for burying people who were deemed important
in society but the sheer number of dolmens here makes this claim very
questionable. There are hundreds hundreds of dolmens archaeologists have
conservatively dated the age of these dolmens to be around 3,200 years
But dating megalithic monuments is not without controversy. Dolmens are dated by
the artifacts found in or near them
These artifacts are either animal or human bones but it is still difficult to
prove that these remains were the reason for the dolmens to be constructed in the
first place. so what are these dolmens what are they a symbol of?
This is my hypothesis The dolmens were a symbol of the cycle
of birth and death the transmigration of the soul. They were most likely used as a
chamber for a meditative contemplation by the ancients to attain Samadhi it is
well known in the Indian subcontinent that Saints seeking liberation would sit
in meditation to go into the Samadhi state a state of oneness with the
supreme absolute that helps them attain liberation. The larger dolmens were open
and could accommodate people in the sitting position. On top of the hill
undisturbed would have been a commune of seekers who used these structures to
enhance their spirituality. The structure of the dolmens symbolized the Sacred
Feminine it symbolized birth but the intent of the dolmen was not to be
snared into rebirth but be liberated the craftsmanship of these ancient people is
remarkable in certain spots near perfect circular holes have been drilled into
these walls The holes I see are not drilled into all
these dolmens. Only a few of these dolmens have these holes drilled into
them. This symbolizes the liberation from the cycle the cycle of birth and death
In my mind, it probably implies that a practitioner has attained Samadhi in
that Dolmen.
Archaeologists have also mentioned urns that were found in the vicinity
plundered by treasure hunters. What these urns might have contained is anybody's
guess We consider these ancient societies to
be primitive often we judge if a society is advanced or primitive based on their
technological advancements. People often try to find signs of technological
advancements in these spiritual sites but spiritually advanced groups be it
vedantin Saints, Buddhist monks, gnostic Hermits all of these groups turned away
from the material. They did not gauge their progress by what they could build
in the material world
At the top of the hill a beautiful lake adds to the tranquility of the area. As I
sit in the peace and tranquility of Hirebenakal I again wonder why the
mysterious Moryars came up to the top of this hill. Maybe, as I hypothesized, it
was a place of spiritual significance for these people... maybe it was a place of
tremendous spiritual progress for the many who came here thousands of years
ago or maybe it was just because they wanted to spend eternity soaking in the
ethereal beauty of this area Whatever mysteries the dolmens of Hirebenakal
hold is far too deep for us to fathom let alone solve. The ruins are
deserted and not adequately protected
this is an ancient site and the site itself is a treasure that needs to be
preserved. As always that known is a drop and the unknown is an ocean thank
you