The menhir is a part of a megalithic burial ground and the place is only protected on paper
HYDERABAD: Amidst all the controversy around the University of Hyderabad (UoH), a stone roughly 12-feet tall lies in the northern fringes of its campus. However, very few students pass it, and fewer know what it means. Protected by shabby rusted and burnt plaques, one of which has fallen apart, the site has traces of life lived 4,500 years ago including intact pots from the same era. While most haven’t heard of it, it is one of the oldest sites in the city along with many other such cairns which have now either vanished, encroached upon or built upon and we shall never know of it.
This menhir is a part of a megalithic burial ground and the place is only protected on paper. A concrete structure that once preserved the excavated site where the earthen pots lie now stands with its windows shattered, the purpose it once served barely visible. Mudumal in Narayanpet district has recently entered the country’s Unesco tentative list. The irony lies barely a few hundred kilometres away, where this site remains mostly unknown.
Prof. K.P. Rao, the archaeologist who excavated the burial site in 2001, confirms its dating to around 2500 BC. Black-and-red ware pottery, iron implements, and ash pits were unearthed during the dig. “Yes, it is about 4,500 years old,” he says.
Over the years, megalithic sites across Hyderabad have either disappeared or exist only in official records. Stone cairns and burial circles once stood across the western part of the city. According to reports, over a thousand cairns were documented decades ago. Only a few dozen can be located today.
The reasons vary — encroachment, private construction, loopholes in heritage legislation among others. The Telangana Heritage Act 2017 fails to demarcate clear boundaries for protected zones. Even INTACH’s Hyderabad convenor, Anuradha Reddy admits that despite awareness among conservationists the lack of funds, security, and procedural safeguards means most of these sites are forgotten faster than they are found. “There is a site at Hasmathpet still facing encroachment. Moula Ali got denotified. There is so much history and so little system to hold it,” she says. She believes there should be proper planning and heritage inspection before changing lands.
On campus, students seem unaware. Lenin, a student, had no idea the menhir existed until recently. “There should be more awareness. We would want to be a part of its preservation process,” he says. Another student, Nihad Sulaiman, draws attention to the wider heritage within the university’s boundaries. “There are animals like star tortoises, boars, peacocks, and so much more. Biodiversity and ecological memory matter too. Even the lakes need protection. That is the government’s responsibility,” he says.
Outside the campus, the story becomes harder to trace. Archaeologists have long suspected that western Hyderabad sits atop several undocumented megalithic and Neolithic sites. Some areas were never even surveyed. Others were flattened before anyone could investigate.
