Time is running out for the dolmens of Kodaikanal dating back to 5,000 years

In the early 1910s, the road to Kodaikanal was an ongoing work. The workers were expanding the reinstall road formed in 1878, Sir Vere Henry Levinge, the Madurai collector at that time, to reach the star -shaped lake formed in 1863. The workers were trying to complete a motorized path envisaged by the Major GC law. However, for the oldest record of Kodaikanal Dolmen, Father A. Anglade, this was a period of concern and tension. The road was completed in 1914 and opened in 1916. However, even before the road was thrown, the Cizvid priests went to the hills to find the Holy Heart College in Shembaganur in 1895, using a reinstall road, which is a dirt road used by the Paliyar tribes.

First survey

This seminar, which is a monastery for meditation and rejuvenation of the soul, allowed Jesuit monks to spoil their passions of biology and history. It was here – Single Sounds The Chirping of Birds, the soft whisper of the rain or on long nights, August Grace Moved with a cool breeze – Reverend A. Anglake SJ and Reverend Lv Newton SJ wrote Pulney Hills’s DolmensLater, a study compiled in the 1928 edition Memories of India Archaeological Research.

The study was seen as an urgent need by fathers. As said, “Demolition is still near the villages and along the roads. On a sharp turn of the Ghat road, Machur Dolmens, near the forest bungalow, was greatly damaged by the road producers a few years ago, a few years ago, and by the walls and Culverts, the use of Culvert and Culverts.

Together with Pali -Men, Father Anglake and Father Newton, a well -known botanist, can exceed the decreases and cavities of the hills by recording the Dolmens and the rich flora and fauns of this unique region. These cracks were shot by a large number of Dolmen, and a pattern began Dolmens’ first research on the hills.

Dolmens, megalitic structures, can go beyond 5,000 years. Father Anglade writes: “From the existing region and location of Dolmen and the coarse materials seen closely … It is relatively easy to create an idea about the construction process. There is no sign of cutting or dressing with any instrument in the stones used for the wall.”

Perhaps the tribe’s chief chose a certain place to build Dolmens, and the number of rooms is determined by the number of plates that are located close to the size depending on the real dimensions of the plates. The builders would be completely dependent on the nearby natural quarries. As a result, in Kodaikanal, most of the dolmen are always sewn on the rocky ridges or slopes or a large rock width. Even today, in some areas, according to the whims of nature, various sizes of plates separated from the rock surface can be seen.

Another interesting observation made by these early archaeologists was that the large cover stone placed on the four vertical plates had a soft slope. This caused rainwater to move away from Dolmens. Dolmen also had an openness at the bottom to prevent rainwater from accumulating in the rooms.

A research article written by RN Kumaran and M. Sarania, ‘(PRE) Iron Age Tombs, Thandıkudı, Tamil Nadu‘In 2015, Thandikudi says he was well linked to great traditional trade routes. “One of the trade routes connecting Musiri to the Western coast and Madurai in Hinter regions is one of the trading routes, Pollachi, Palani, Dindgul and Madurai. Villages – Palamalai, Machur, Pannaikadu, Thantikudi and Tandidi and Tandidi and Kadavumalai. And this route has the first records of Dolmen, Cists, Urns and Cairn-Sirces. This exhibits the intensity of the population living in these hills more centuries before the early period of Pandya, where trade routes were established.

In another study, Archaeological Research in ThandikudiK. Rajan, N. Athiyaman, VP Firees Kumar and M. Sarania in 2008, the land is said to play a major role for the first inhabitants of the region. “Approximately 90% of the archaeological areas of this region enters the average sea level over 4000-5000 feet. This height provides an innate environment for the growth of forest products such as pepper and cardamom,” he says. For the forest-gatherers of the past days, this may be one of the reasons for living on the roads at this altitude.

Occupation of pre -iron age

In 2004, the first stage of the excavation was made in the grave area covering about 40 hectares on the right bank of Marudanadhi. From the forest bungalow in the west to the right bank to the east, the right bank. From the works such as black and red goods and Carnelian beads excavated from some of these megalithic structures, archaeologists may be at the highest point of the grave complex that may be just opposite the Habitation mound in the other bank. And as the grave complex grew over the years, the tombs gradually moved away from the settlement. The following excavations in the discoveries of the Cizvit fathers and pepper and cardamom plantations on the lower Palani hills reveal the continuous profession from the pre -iron age to the present day.

In Pethuparai near Perumal Malai, Dolmens surrounded by fence can be seen by the Indian Archaeological Research (ASI) on a gently sloping back. Dolmens disappeared in Thandikudi and some slowly disappeared under thick vegetation. It may have been a premonition of Father Anglade Who Writes in His Work, “Out of the Three Groups Near Neutral Saddle, at The Foot of Perumal Malai, The Smallest One Was Completely Destroyed … TAKE PLACE IN THE DAYS AND UNDER OUR EYES, İT NEEDS NOBLIC ROAD AND THE REACH OF COOLIES WILL ESCAPE.

In Sacred Heart College, Lobbo Christian, which digitalizes a large number of old registrations, is afraid that only 50% of Dolmens, recorded by the prophecy of Jesuit Fathers, is afraid that the region can reveal the important role in the ancient history of Tamil Nadu.

Published – 26 September 2025 06:30 IST