3,500-year-old relics in Kandur village of Mahbubnagar cry for attention
MAHBUBNAGAR: Nearly 3,500-year-old burial mounds which reflect the funerary practices of the megalithic period also called as the Iron Age in Kandur village in Addakal mandal of Mahbubnagar district are facing serious threat from active agricultural operations by the local farmers.
Dr E. Siva Nagireddy, an archaeologist and Buddhist expert consultant, Buddhavanam project, TSTDC and CEO, Cultural Centre, rushed to Kanduru on Tuesday and thoroughly surveyed the burial mounds that are near extinct due to ignorance of the farming community.
“Once known as Rakasigulla Chalka with more than 100 megalithic burials, it is sad to know that only four structures are seen now and tomorrow it may be too late to protect them,”
Dr Reddy said adding that the uniqueness of the burials at Kanduru lay in its two circles, a rare phenomenon against the usual practice of erecting such burials in single circles of huge boulders currently seen in the fields of Sankararaja, a farmer of the same village.
He said the burial mounds in its circular form with a radius of 5.0 metres consists of 20 to 25 natural boulders. Considerable quantities of polished black ware, red ware and black and red ware (pottery) surfaced during the removal of the structures by the farmers in the past. These burials, along with funerary goods belonging to 1000 BC, are in danger and preserving them for posterity is the need of the hour,” Dr Sagireddy lamented.
He explained to Srikanth, sarpanch of the village, on the historical and archaeological significance of these Iron Age remains and urged him to take necessary care before they were extinct.
Dr Nagireddy, in his extensive survey, noticed that remains of potsherds of the Satavahana period, hero stones, Ganesha, Garuda and Mahishamardhini sculptures found scattered in and around Kanduru village, which once served as the capital of the Kanduru Cholas ruled between 1025-1248 AD as the subordinates of the Chalukyas of Kalyana and the Kakatiyas.
Dr Nagireddy later inspected a sculpture of Chennakesava idol of the Kalyani Chalukyan period (12th century AD) unearthed recently but kept uncared for on the roadside and appealed to the sarpanch to preserve it for posterity. He convinced the villagers to collect all scattered sculptures and keep them at one place and to develop a sculpture garden near the Ramalingeswara temple in Kanduru to safeguard them for future generations.
