Burial Practices

Burial practices - inhumation in pits, cist burials, megalithic burials, urn burials, chariot burials, and hero-stone memorials - are documented across multiple papers in the IJA, covering the period from Chalcolithic through medieval India. The corpus is geographically diverse, with burials reported from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha, Sri Lanka, Kerala, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Key Sites

• Sinauli (District Baghpat, U.P.) - chariot burials; Vijay Kumar’s note situates these within the Late Harappan / OCP horizon of the Doab region and connects them to Vedic references to chariot-using warriors
• Vidarbha, Maharashtra - Iron Age megalithic burials; horse head-gear and facial ornaments recovered from burial pits
• Murhu Block, Khunti, Jharkhand - megalithic burial monuments associated with living Munda community traditions
• Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka - cist burial; petrological study of stone slabs
• Sakas site, Kaimur Range, Rohtas, Bihar - burial site with multiple grave goods
• Sulthan Bathery Taluk, Wayanad, Kerala - dolmens, cist circles, and urn burials mapped
• Adhaura Region, Kaimur, Bihar - 14 megalithic burial sites located
• Lolab Valley, District Kupwara, J&K - memorial stelae typology and iconography
• Kalahandi, Odisha - Hero Stones (vīragals) studied typologically

Key Findings

1. Sinauli chariot burials (Vol 3, No. 2): Vijay Kumar’s note is the journal’s treatment of what became one of the most debated discoveries in recent Indian archaeology. The chariot burials at Sinauli place wheeled vehicle burial in the Late Harappan / OCP cultural horizon of the Upper Doab, which has significant implications for debates about Vedic–Harappan cultural continuity.
2. Horse in Vidarbha megalithic burials (Vol 2, No. 1): The presence of horse head-gear and ornaments in Iron Age megalithic burial pits in Maharashtra provides direct evidence for horse use in the Deccan during the first millennium B.C.
3. Sri Lanka cist burials (Vol 3, No. 3): Petrological sourcing shows cist-slab granite is locally quarried; the burial tradition is technologically independent and regionally organised.
4. Living megalithic traditions (Vols. 2 and 4): The Munda community of Sundergarh and the Mizo people of Vangchhia both maintain living traditions of erecting memorial stones that provide ethnographic parallels for understanding ancient burial behaviour.
5. Hero stones (Vols. 8 and 9): The Kerala, Odisha, and Lolab Valley studies document the pan-Indian vīragal (hero stone) tradition, tracing it from the Sangam Age through the 17th century A.D. as a memorial practice associated with warfare and cattle-raiding.
6. Cist burial petroglyphs (Vol 3, No. 3 and Vol 4, No. 4): The connection between megalithic burial structures and rock art - confirmed at the Tirumala cap-stone megalith - suggests that pictorial communication was part of Iron Age funerary practice.

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