The megalithic site at Aihole is on a flat bare sandstone hillock in between the well-known Jaina Meguti temple with Ravikirti’s inscription (642 CE) and the rock-cut Jaina cave temple. There are around 40 port-holed dolmens. There are also three round barrows. The megaliths in this site are erected close to one another and are now in various stages of destruction. There are chiefly four types: (a) Passage chambers, (b) Chambers with or without port-hole, (C) stone circles and (d) Round barrows.

a] Passage chambers: These tombs about 35 in number are scattered in an area of about 10 to 15 acres. In plan, elevation and method of construction the passage chambers are similar to those of Sindhogi of the Saundatti group. The chamber almost completely concealed in the rubble packing. The approximately south-orinted passage is, in many of them. The enclosing cairn wherever undisturbed, is bound by either a rectangle or a circle but rarely by both.

b] Chambers with or without port-hole: They are about 45 to 50 in number, all in ruins. Five of them have each a port–hole in one of the orthostats, the port-holed orthostat being fallen or in the original position. In most of them at least one of their orthostats is missing while any of the other extant orthostats is without port–hole. The port–holed chambers are scattered over the area of about 10 to 12 acres of the flat rock. The chamber, as obvious from a few, has externally a thin wall of rubble packing which in turn is enclosed by slabs in vertical positions inclining slightly inwards that rest at the top against the capstone. There is no circle or a rectangle enclosing the cairn packing of any of them. However, there is one rectangle of two courses and contain at least three chambers.

c] Stone circles: Single stone circles in this place are from 1.90m to 4.75m externally in dia; a double stone circle would be, generally, 4m and 7m and a triple circle measures 2.50m:4m:5m and 7m in dia. Within the circles is the packing of stone rubbles giving low hemi- spherical elevation varying from 20cm to 40cm height at the centre.

d] Barrows : There are seven round barrows all disturbed, close to one another near the chambers with or without port-hole on the rocky outcrop and nearer the Jaina rock cut cave. They are from 7m to 10m in dia and about 15cm to 25cm h at the centre. The middle portions of these have depression suggesting disturbances to them.

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Dharwad Circle

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