Overview
- Telangana’s Department of Heritage documented a dense spread of megalithic dolmen burials over nearly 100 acres at Kappalayi Gutta near Motlagudem in Mulugu district.
- Each burial uses four upright sandstone slabs topped by a single heavy capstone, with a stone trough inside and a circular boundary wall about 10 feet in radius.
- Capstones weigh about 10 to 20 tons, individual plots span 4 to 25 meters, and the burials sit 5 to 100 feet apart in a planned layout.
- Residents alerted officials, who sent a technical team led by Prof. K. Arjun Rao with Dr. P. Nagaraju and A. Raju under directions from Special Chief Secretary Jayesh Ranjan.
- Officials report many sites in the wider Eturnagaram area were damaged or repurposed for building and livestock, sharpening the need for formal study of remains that fit South Indian megalithic traditions and point to early settlement in the Godavari basin.