MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS IN DHARMAPURI DISTRICT

Geographically speaking Tamilnadu can be divided in two parts, the Tamilnadu uplands and South Sahyadri region and the Eastern Coastal Plains. Dharmapuri district fall in the Sahyadhri region. The northwestern part in Tamilnadu may be considered to be a continuation of the Mysore plateau and falls into two distinct terraces; they are the Balaghat and Baramahal. Dharmapuri district is in the Baramahal plateau along with Harur, Uthangarai, Pappireddipatti, Krishnagiri, Pochampalli and Thirupathur taluks, whose height varies from 310m to 620 m. Whereas the Balaghat plateau is over 930m in height above the sea level. The Baramahal is characterized by hills and hillocks. Notable among them are the Javadis, the shervoroys, the Kalrayans and the Pachaimalai, which are collectively known as Tamilnadu Hills.1 The major river system in Dharmapuri is Ponniyar and Kaveri, and the important tributaries are the Chinnar, Nagavathi and Thoppaiyar for Kaveri and the Vaniyar, Pambar, Kallar for Poniyar.2 Megalithic culture in Dharmapuri district has its own characteristic features which show some definite variation from rest of Tamilnadu. New finding and excavation in Mayiladumparai (in Krishnagiri district) pushed up the date of the beginning of megalithic culture in the region; the anterior date maybe fixed about 1500BC