Interpreting the ritual complex of Nasrãnikunn

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the Iron Age / megalithic burial sites of central Kerala, south India. The thesis organizes the scattered information we have on the Iron Age burials of central Kerala alongside the theoretical studies on the same, so as to identify the general trends and the major gaps. Specifically it takes up the problematic of spatial organization, a largely ignored theme in the studies on the Iron Age of Kerala. The base assumption of the work is that space is a dynamic concept that is experientially constituted and can be restructured. Spaces, especially symbolic architectural spaces like megalithic monuments, may represent power in terms of visual dimensions of domination, through visibility, by the division of space, by the privilege of inclusion, or by exclusion from the knowledge repre W N K are examined in order to see how space was organized by the builders of the monuments at inter regional, inter-site and intra site levels. The thesis is a pilot study that initiates an effort to bring the concepts of spatial organisation and landscape relations to the centre of the discussion on the Iron Age of Kerala, and offers certain practical guidelines to generate data that facilitates such a discussion