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METAGEUM '07
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Mudumal: An Astronomical Observatory from South India
Book now for whole or part of the Metageum event. |
About K P Rao
Dr Kudupudi Pulla Rao is Professor in the Department of History, University of Hyderabad, India. He was awarded his PhD on the topic Megalithic Culture in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra by the Nagpur University (1984), and has an MA in Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology also from Nagpur University. His publications include the book Deccan Megaliths (published by Sundeep Prakashan, New Delhi, 1988, ISBN-81-85067-07-4). He has given papers on Indian archaeology at international conferences in France, Malaysia, Holland, Japan, the USA, and the UK.
Personal web site: www.geocities.com/kpraohomepage
University web site: www.uohyd.ernet.in
Mudumal: An Astronomical Observatory from South India
Mudumal (16°23’N 77°26’E), located in the Mahbubnagar district in the State of Andhra Pradesh, is a remarkable megalithic site with more than 800 menhirs arranged in different formations and rows. The central area of the complex has a concentration of about 80 tall (up to 14 feet) menhirs which are arranged in rows forming alignments and avenues. The rows are oriented in different directions.
A study of the complex on the days of solar significance like the days of summer and winter solstice revealed that one particular row aligns with the Sun in the morning and another row in the evening. Thus on the days of solstice a total number of four rows are aligned to the Sun. The area with the bigger menhirs also has a formation of stones arranged in concentric circles with standing menhirs interspersed with horizontal blocks. It has been observed that two of the taller menhirs of this circle align with the Sun in both morning and evening. The complex also has several stone circles distributed in three clusters.
On the south western area of this complex, we notice a vertically planted squarish stone. The top of this stone which is flat but slightly slanting has 30 cup-marks. Thorough study of these cup marks revealed that it is a depiction of Ursa Mjor constellation. One of the well known feature of this constellation is that an imaginary line drawn through the two of the stars, i.e., Merak and Dubhe always point towards the pole star. At Mudumal also, the two dots (cup-marks) representing these two stars point to north, which also confirms the identification of this depiction as that of ‘Ursa Major’.
See report in The Hindu newspaper: www.hindu.com.
On the whole it appears that this megalithic complex served as an astronomical observatory, both in the day time as well as in the night. The paper also discusses the chronological aspects of the megalithic sites, ethnographic data and the observations made at the site.
At Metageum '07
Professor will give an illustrated presentation on this ancient stone circle, including a short movie (four minutes) made on the site.