Write about the burial system of the Megalithic culture.
Answers
"As for the burial system in megalithic culture the people believed in afterlife i.e., life after death and following this line of thought always kept burial goods along with the ceremonial disposal of the dead bodies that would help in making their after-life comfortable, so that they have everything needful there.
The megalithic structures had basically eight types of burials,
1. Rock cut caves are made out of soft laterite stone and majorly found in the west coast of India and the state of Kerala and some parts of eastern coast of south India. These caves had different structures and built up, say rectangular or square i.e., four side enclosed in shape, with a pillar in centre, no central pillar, downward rail of stairs and caves having deep opening inside.
2. Hood Stones also known as cap stones in the shape of a dome covering, covering a circular pit or hole carved in a rock itself, underneath and was accompanied by a flow of staircase. It was a simpler model in its format. It has no chamber and rather has a pit having burial urn, with remains and ashes covered with the dome shaped structure. Such structures are found in Malabar region, Cochin, Western Ghats, and Tamil Nadu.
3. Alignments, Menhirs and Avenues found in Kerala, Bellary, Karnataka, and some other Southern Areas. These are shaped as strongly built small or large stone pillars constructed or hooked near burials. Alignments are carved and cut in the same format but structures as a series of standing pillar like stones. Avenues were parallel trails of avenue structure.
4. Dolmenoid were roughly box like burial graves built with stone or stone slabs so arranged on ground generally found in few areas of Tamil Nadu at times and found with table top cap stones and such enclosed structure.
5. Cairn circles is other well-known form of burial structure found in Southern India given a built with heap of stones enclosed within circular boundaries. Deeply dug pits with a rough circular, square or rectangular shape well placed with skeletons, remains, and burial furniture which was then covered by the regular soil and enclosed with stones.
6. Stone circles are most common form of structure found in India from the tip of Peninsula to the Nagpur region and many areas of Northern India. These are similar to Cairn Circles but differ on account of cairn heaps of stone being not present in this structure.
7. Pit burials are another form of megalithic structures where the funerary deposits are kept in jar like structures in the shape of a pot and which is further buried into the pits dug for its burial in the soil or rocks and covered and filled by soil. These are different from other structures as these are outward and completely covered by earth with no external mark of exhibition of such burial.
8. Barrow burials are not so known in India, but are found in some parts of Karnataka these are horizontally long-deep, circular, and oval or roughly round barrows covered by soil as for underground burials. These type or format of burials may not necessarily be enclosed by stones."