Megalithic burial practices of peninsular India & archaeological methods – with a focus on recent skeletal finds from coastal Karnataka

Megaliths are among the clearest fingerprints the Iron-Age peoples of peninsular India left on the landscape. This essay unpacks their chronology, geography, architecture, grave goods, economy, beliefs and the scientific tool-kit that is now rewriting their story—before zooming in on the newly documented rock-cut burials and skeletal material from coastal Karnataka. Along the way it shows how modern methods such as AMS-¹⁴C, isotopes, aDNA and drone-LiDAR are turning what used to be a culture-historical puzzle into a laboratory for hard science and holistic social history.

Chronological & Cultural Frame

South-Indian megalithic activity spans roughly 1200 BCE – 200 CE, bridging the Late Neolithic and Early Historic phases. Radiocarbon assays from Vidarbha tooth-enamel anchor some burials between AD 250-874, reminding us that the practice lingered into early medieval times. Typologically and technologically, the horizon coincides with the first mass use of iron implements in peninsular India, documented in metallographic studies of smelting slags from megalithic levels in the Deccan.

Spatial Distribution & Key Necropoleis

Megaliths concentrate in four belts:

• Northern Karnataka – Andhra eastern Deccan: Iron-rich lateritic plateaus around Brahmagiri and Maski.

• Central Karnataka – Koppal district: the vast dolmen necropolis of Hire Benkal with c 1 000 monuments, now on UNESCO’s Tentative List.

• Tamil Nadu littoral: Urn-fields of Adichanallur, where 3 000-year-old skeletons lie exhibited in situ.

• Coastal Karnataka & Kerala: Rock-cut cave burials at Ramakunja, Mudu Konaje and Udupi-Dakshina Kannada, including the 2022 “zero-circle” sepulchre and 2023 terracotta-figurine dolmens.

These sites hug ore belts, river valleys and ancient littoral trade routes—explaining both the spread of iron technology and the visibility of exotic grave goods.

Architecture of Death: Forms & Construction

Peninsular India showcases the world’s richest array of megalithic architectures—
dolmens, dolmenoid cists, cairn-circles, menhirs, pit-urns and laterite-cave chambers.
Hire Benkal’s “dwarf chambers”—dolmens scarcely a metre high—are built of local granitic gneiss and arranged along a notional street, giving the necropolis the eerie look of a deserted stone village.
In the wetter coastal belt, masons sliced burial cells horizontally into laterite scarps; the Ramakunja tomb displays a 7-ft engraved circle on the roof slab, directly above a hemispherical chamber—the first such ‘zero-marker’ recorded in India.

Grave Goods & Social Signals

Classic assemblages mix Black-and-Red Ware, Russet-Coated Painted Ware, iron weapons, copper or bronze ornaments and semi-precious bead strings.
Carnelian and glass beads link the tombs to wider Indian-Ocean commerce; etched carnelian blanks identical to those in Harappan workshops surface even today in Kerala excavation pits, while a recent bead-study from Pattanam demonstrates continuous lapidary traditions into the Early Historic era.
Terracotta figurines—mother-goddess, bovines, peacocks—found inside the Mudu Konaje dolmens reveal an ideological repertoire tied to the Bhoota/Daiva cults of coastal Karnataka.

Subsistence & Economy Behind the Monuments

Isotopic signatures (δ¹³C, δ¹⁸O) in equine tooth enamel from Vidarbha burials point to a C-4 dominated diet and semi-arid hydro-climates, corroborating archaeobotanical finds of millets and pulses. Combined with iron sickles, plough-shares and pastoral bone spectra, the data argue for mixed farming-pastoral economies with specialized iron-production niches.

Belief, Ritual and Community Structure

Circular cairns and menhirs often align to cardinal points, hinting at cosmological ordering, while secondary burials and collective ossuaries suggest ancestor veneration. The terracotta mother-goddess figurines align with folk fertility cults, bridging prehistoric and living ritual systems on the western coast. Parallels in Sri Lankan jar burials and Southeast-Asian cave urns reinforce theories of Indian-Ocean interaction spheres.

Scientific Tool-Kit: From Spades to Spectrometers