Tirupur: A team of archaeology enthusiasts has estimated three hero stones found buried on the premises of a temple a few years ago to be more than 600 years old.The hero stones are believed to have been carved to honour warriors who sacrificed their lives as part of vows made for victory in wars or recovery from natural disasters.The Thalaipali hero stones were found buried on the premises of a temple in a village near Nambiyur in Erode district a few years ago. The villagers have now made a small temple and are offering worship to the stones.S Ravikumar, K Ponnusamy, SM Ramesh and S Veluchamy of Virarajendran Archaeological and Historical Research Centre conducted a search at Alukkuli near Nambiyur to find more information about the stones.“In the ancient times, people, who worked as security guards to the villages, would make vows to Goddess Kali that if the country wins a war, they will sacrifice their lives. Similar vows would also be made, as a part of prayer for recovery of their village from natural disasters like flood or drought, and recovery of ill kings or army chiefs,” said Ravikumar, director of the organisation.“If their prayers were met, they would kill themselves in front of the people in a function. The people would carve hero stones for those heroes to remember their sacrifice and worship them. Thalaipali culture has got mentions in Tamil literature including Silappathikaram, Manimegalai, and Kalingathubarani,” he told TOI. “We have discovered three hero stones in Alukkuli village. One of them is about 120cm heigh and 60cm wide. One stone depicts a man slitting his throat with a knife. He holds a sword on his right hand. He is wearing ornaments like kandigai, sanna veeram, and kadagavalai. The other two hero stones were 90cm high and 50cm wide. Those heroes were also found slitting their throats with knives on their left hands.”“We believe that the three hero stones were part of Chellandiamman temple. The deity Chellandiamman, who has 10 hands, is in a fierce pose. It could be an earlier Kali statue. The deity is holding a long plough on one of her hands, like a God, who would be worshipped for good yield. As all the sculptures were in Hoysala architecture style, we assessed that they could be six centuries old,” Ravikumar added.

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