Krishnagiri govt school students stumble upon 3,000-yr-old Karthittai

CHENNAI: As they were exploring the neighbourhood as part of the Heritage Club activity, two Class 10 students of a government school in Krishnagiri came across some stones stacked in a peculiar formation at two places. They informed their teacher, an archaeological researcher herself, who instantly recognised how valuable that accidental findings were.

For, what M Arun and C Chandru of the government high school in Kamandoddi village in Shoolagiri taluk stumbled upon were 3,000-year-old ‘Karthittai’ (dolmen cysts or stone-slabs) belonging to the megalithic period, the teacher, M Jeyalakshmi, told DT Next.

 "These ‘Karthikkaikal’ are made in a square or rectangular shape and the top is covered with a stone slab. The Karthittai at the Dinnur site is worshipped in the name of Gangamma,” she said.

Explaining the dimensions and other details of the structure in Dinnur, she said it measures two feet in height and 4.5 feet in length, with a two-foot high pillar. Two of the stones are leaning down. Near the pillar is a one-foot-high headstone. “It has a hollow structure on top and rocky outcrops on the sides," she added.

 The one at Gopasandiram is square shaped measuring four feet in height and length. "The stone in the east has fallen. Palaeolithic and neolithic tools are placed inside and is surrounded by a mutilated stone circle," she added.

According to the Department of Archaeology, the dolmen cysts near the Krishnagiri-Hosur highway are of two different formations, which may have been built by different ethnic groups around 3,000 years ago in the megalithic period.

 They found the dolmen cysts in Dinnur and Gopasandiram during school Heritage Club activity. “Heritage clubs are meant to make the students aware of the art, culture, history and archaeology of Tamil Nadu, and to inculcate a sense of conservation of the monuments," Jeyalakshmi added.