All Around the World with the Most Travelled Indian
By Nitin Gairola
We were in Hampi yet another time last month, after beginning our trips to this ancient temple town back in 2014. Over the years a lot had changed and now it is clearly not India’s best kept secret. But it essentially still remains a village and retains is charm. Even now just a kilometer out of the main center, you can have Hampi to yourself. If you choose to avoid the weekends or the holidays, then it is even better. But this time we were not in it for Hampi but wanted to visit a very strange place which so far is not on the tourist radar but it will be for sure in the years to come. We had read about archeologists debating over the unsolved mystery of the dolmens (flat stones resting on two flat stone pillars) that locals had found in a place being referred to as Hire Benekal (or Heera Benekal). Hire Benekal is located in the Koppal district of northern Karnataka and here ‘Hire’ or ‘Heera’ means ‘diamond’ (in Hindi) and it has got nothing to do with taking something on ‘hire’. However we did need to take a vehicle on ‘hire’ to reach this somewhat vague location as we didn’t know its precise coordinates. Google maps helped, but only upto a point.
We found a ‘gem’ of an auto rickshaw driver named Malli Karajun with whom we struck a deal for him to take us to the site and after spending half a day there to drop us to the Hospet train station. From Hospet we would ride out of this magic landscape of green rice fields and big volcanic boulders. But we didn’t quite know just how off the beaten track the site would be. Luckily we found the ‘right’ left-cut on the main road and were on a dirt track just big enough for a three-wheeled auto rickshaw (a tuk-tuk for all those outside India). So Malli kept on driving but asked us where exactly this ‘temple’ that we were searching for was located. He found it hard to understand that we had taken all this trouble to see a pile of stones. Apparently ‘Benekal’ roughly translates to a ‘place of stones’ in the local language. After many subsequent left and right (and wrong) turns we reached a rice field and a narrow strip of land in between. This is where the rickshaw had to be parked and we had to trek, but were not sure where to.
Malli looked around and found a villager walking by and asked him about a historic site. The villager, named Pamparna, seemed to immediately know the location and told us it was an hours trek one way and an hour down. We were up for it and offered him some dough and Pamparna became our guide. Malli, still very intrigued about the ‘rock temple’, said he would also like to join us, and so the four of us went in search of our ancient town of megaliths. Now this is a bit of a warning for all those who are not sure of their footing or don’t have the stamina to climb and trek upwards for an hour under a scorching merciless sun. The trek is both easy and hard – easy for those who trek and hard for those who don’t.
What we didn’t expect en route to the dolmens and megaliths are some prehistoric rock paintings in rock shelters, quite similar to the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh. Having said that, these paintings were just 5,000 years old compared to the 40,000 year old ones at Bhimbetka. (Google my Garhwal Post feature from last week titled ‘Being Human-The Search for our Ancient Ancestors in India’). These paintings at Benekal have yet not been radiocarbon dated, so who knows what mysteries from which past they hold.
However it is established that most of the paintings are from the late Neolithic age of agriculture (starting 10,000 BC) and also from the early iron and megalithic periods (starting 1200 BC). The ‘megalithic period’ bit comes through the star attraction of the place – the dolmens. We were quite dumbstruck when we first cast eyes on these dolmens. Imagine you somehow reach the top, puffing and panting, and are treated to a view of at least a 100 hobbit like houses. This is a view which only you have at that moment and it is quite a special feeling of having ‘found’ a diamond in the rough. It is definitely not a polished and advertised attraction for tourists to gawk at. The site of Hire Benekal is still quite crude and with an approach as difficult as it is, you can be rest assured it would be sought only by those who have been out too long in the sun – as we have.
And it is here at the dolmens where the real mystery of Hire Benekal starts. The locals believe that dwarfs once used to occupy Hire Benekal in the distant past since the dolmens have the appearance of a home without a door. To add to it they have circular window like holes on the flat stone pillars on the tow sides. We can see why they would think so as to our untrained eye, we also thought the same. But apparently archeologists are coming to an agreement that this is actually a burial site as they have found charred animal bones here too, along with pottery. However to the naïve me, I just wonder why they have only found animal bones at this burial site and let alone why pottery as well. Pottery to me is the sign of home. Basically I need to do some more Googling here I suppose since all the answers are ‘out there.’(In Google of course)
For me the only answer that should be out there is the answer to the question ‘why this is not a UNESCO World Heritage site yet?’. Having said that, I must admit I am glad it isn’t a UNESCO site. After having visited over 250 of them around the world, I can safely say that some such mysteries far outscore the experience of the most celebrated, decorated and documented places on Earth. This is my priceless gem that is not valuable in the eyes of the world, just yet. Hire Benekal or let us say ‘Heera’ Benekal is truly a diamond in the rough.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention Malli’s view on Hire Benekal. After cribbing about where he was being taken to (er, he was driving us), he later got so excited looking at the dolmens that he started recording videos and narrating what he saw like a pro-YouTuber. He even video-called his home (yes he had a smart phone as millions of Indians do) and they also thought he had been in the Sun too long. Malli was finally touched by the madness that comes from seeking such secret places.
Nitin Gairola is from Dehradun and has travelled the natural world more than almost any Indian ever. He has set world travel records certified by India Book of Records, has written for Lonely Planet, and holds National Geographic conservation certifications. He is also a senior corporate executive in an MNC and in his early days, used to be a published poet as well. More than anything else, he loves his Himalayan home.
