Udupi: Urn Denoting Iron Age Unearthed at Hebri Site

News & Pics: Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (RD/VA)

Udupi, Mar 17: Unbaked and sun dried pot about 3 feet in height, placed in a pit and covered by a granite cap-stone with thick rim of 6 inch diameters and a globular body about 63 inches in diameter with a flat round base, locally known as ‘Gurke’ in Tulu dialect has been found at the Hebri site here. The pot was placed below 2 feet into the subsurface.

The Hebri site accidentally came to light while constructing a new bypass road to Hebri town, near Ardhanarishwara temple at Tana. But before spot inspection to know its significance it was disturbed and supposedly robbed. Then, Dr Gururaj conducted a small scraping as a rescue operation to recover available antiquities and their cultural mode with the help of Hebri police station and local people.

By scraping, Dr Gururaj observed that the pot was firmly placed in a pit with accurate water level. The pot has turned highly weak by absorbing the water since thousands of years. The pot had finger press ornamentation on the surface. The pot had symbolic female identity by two bulbous marks. The belief of life after the death confirmed by using hand made unbaked and sun dried pot for burial purpose. The pot was made by rings instead of wheel made, which we call constructive method. In all seven rings are used with rim and base totalling the same to nine which has special significance in Indian culture. The urn symbolically represents that the death is not an end of life but beginning of new life which is the essence of Upanishad thought.

Habitation sites of megalithic people are very less known but their burials are known by thousands. This clearly indicates their very strong belief in life after death.

The Southern West Coast of South India comprises the Malabar and Konkan, in between these two a small tract of coastal belt known as West Coast of Karnataka, consisted three districts South Canara, Udupi and North Canara respectively. Pre-historically this region is very less known till recently. However, Megalithic culture or Iron Age culture was a dominant culture of South India and in Karnataka too it was wide spread. Dr P Gururaj Bhat brought to light megalithic Dolmens and Rock-cut-caves of Coastal Karnataka and was the first to include Coastal Karnataka in the study of megalithic sites in India.

Subsequently an Urn burial site at Birmale near Puttur, was discovered by Dr A Sundara at Baggeyarkar, near Shirva, here by T Murugeshi. Besides, the Dolmens, Rock-Cut-Caves and Urn burials another new type of Megalithic burial, Menhirs was discovered and included by T Murugeshi.