STONE SPELL

Kodumanal: beautiful but neglected, says SOMA BASU



A BURIAL site for an RLT trip? Everybody thought I was crazy. Maybe I was, but this "ghostland" was no ordinary one. As I discovered, my destination was a place of tremendous archaeological value, historicity and antiquity. And so here is the story of this surprise of surprises by the banks of the river Noyyal.

Once known as Kodumanam and today as Kodumanal, it is a neglected area with remains of a megalithic settlement dating back to the 2nd Century B.C. Apparently, this was the centre the Romans used to visit to obtain beryls in the beginning of the Christian era! Excavations carried out three decades ago unearthed the importance of this place, but yet it remains like a forgotten chapter in history.

Kodumanal village is so unknown that I draw a blank whenever I ask for directions on my way from Dindigul to Dharmapuram to Kangeyam village. Everybody thinks I am confusing my destination with Kodumudi, famous for its three-in-one temple of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. This sleepy hamlet lies between Coimbatore and Erode and exceptionally well-maintained tar-topped roads lead you to the site. The only people who were able to help with directions were the really elderly ones.

The credit of discovering the site, which extends over 50 hectares, goes to the State Archaeological Department. It acted on a tip off from a local person — Ramaswamy, manager of Thangaman temple in the village, near whose house stands one of the megalithic stones. It wasn't an easy task for Ramaswamy to convince people of the importance of the stones. He had spent years trying to tell people — even those in history, literature and other research departments of universities — that his village was no ordinary village.

Megalithic tombs

Finally, help came in the late Seventies. Excavations revealed layers of a megalithic-cum-early historic period. Two females and one male human skeleton were recovered from a pit burial, 300 megalithic tombs of different types and sizes were observed and recorded, Roman artefacts, iron melting furnaces, beads, shell bangles and pottery with the Brahmi script were recovered from the habitation deposits and burials.

It was believed that the megalithic communities flourished from 2nd Century B.C. to 2nd Century A.D. The inhabitants were highly skilled craftsmen specialising in making beads and high quality iron. The place is referred to in Sangam literature as an important industrial centre that had links with the Chola port city of Kaveripoompattinam.

But sadly, this place that traded in precious stones such as garnet and quartz and produced the finest iron (legend, probably apocryphal, has it that the rustless wonder called the Iron Pillar in Qutub Minar was produced here!) is uncared for today.

The neglect is so obvious that one finds several of the megalithic stones — a number that has dwindled to 100 for unknown reasons — hidden behind tall and wild plants and weeds.

The stones are scattered all over and children, ignorant of the site's importance, play and cause further damage to what survives. Ramaswamy and his son try to keep some spots with megalithic stones clean to preserve them for posterity.

Located by the north bank of river Noyyal, a tributary of the Cauvery, Kodumanal holds out plenty of charm. What did I do? I walked and walked around in the area with an eerie feeling of stepping into an ancestral past. Even gazing at the stones filled me with amazement.

I crossed the river on a makeshift wood plank to reach the village temple on the other side.

With coconut groves in the background and many water birds flying low over the river, I wondered why such a beautiful place that boasts of so much history should be allowed to decay. Would writing an RLT help in some way to restore its diminishing glory?