Musical Rocks the rocks cry out in India/The Dove Award Program

Ancient Indians made 'rock music' Rocks carved from Granite into percussion insturments. Archaeologists have rediscovered a huge rock art site in southern India where ancient people used boulders to make musical sounds in rituals. Archaelogist has rediscover a huge rock art site in southern India where ancient people used boulders to make musical sounds in rituals. When the rocks are struck, the impression emit deep, "gong-like notes. The Kupgal Hill site includes rocks with unusual depressions that were designed to be struck with the purpose of making loud, musical ringing tones. It was lost after its discovery in 1892, so this is the first fresh effort to describe the site in over a century. Details of the research are outlined in the archaelogical journal Antiguity.

The site is situated in the Bellary district of mid-eastern Karnataka, approximately 5 km north-east of the town of Bellary. Archaeological sites in this area appear in the literature under different names, but the names of Sanganakallu and Kupgal, two local villages, occur commonly. Here, neolithic remains are found concentrated on the tops and slopes of an outcrop of granitic hills while remains of the megalithic (Iron Age) and Early Historic, and subsequent periods are found predominantly in surrounding peneplain.

Of the many sites here, the largest is located on the biggest and northernmost of the granitic hills. It was called Peacock Hill by the British during the colonial period and was sometimes referred to as such in early literature. Locals, generally call the hill Hiregudda, which simply means ‘Big Hill’ in the local Kannada language. Most archaeological literature, however, refers to the hill as Kupgal hill, after a neighbouring village (though it must be noted that the nearest village is Sirivaram).

Kupgal hill is a fairly large granitic hill with several peaks, with a large dolerite trap dyke running along its axis. Petroglyphs belonging to different periods, from the neolithic to the modern day, can be found bruised or engraved on the black rocks all along the dyke. A heavy concentration of rock art is seen where the dyke emerges across the upper northern peak of the hill. A dyke on Kupgal Hill contains hundreds and perhaps thousands of rock art engravings, or petroglyphs, a large quantity of which date to the Neolithic, or late Stone Age [several thousand years BC.] Researchers think shamans or young males came to the site to carry out rituals and to "tap into' the power of the site. However, some of it is now at threat from quarrying activities. Even though they were used long before the coming of Jesus Christ it seems creation crys out. The boulders which have small, broove-like impressions are called "musical stones" by locals. When they are struck with small granite rocks, these impressions emit deep, " gong like notes". These boulders may have been an important part of formalised rituals by the people who came there. In some cultures, percussion plays a role in rituals that are intended for shamem to communicate with the supernatiural world. The Antiquity work's author, Dr. Nicole Boibin, of the University of Cambridge, UK, thinks this could be the purpose of the Kupgal Stones.

Even as we may never know the reasons why these rock's were used in this way as a percussive instrument used for a type of worship or spiritual rite, one thing is certain God created all things including these rocks. Just for thought. Rocks crying out....to the creator of all things.