What the Megaliths Tell us about Tribal Communities • Subhashis Das

About Subhashis Das

Independent Researcher
Author, The Archaeoastronomy
of Megalithic Sites of Jharkhand
Hazaribagh, Jharkhand

Subhashis Das apart from being an educationist is also an Author and an internationally acclaimed Independent Researcher of the Megaliths of Jharkhand. He has discovered several prehistoric and contemporary tribal megaliths and has been researching on these monuments for over two and a half decades.

He is also among the pioneer researchers to associate astronomy and mathematics with ancient megaliths. He is also credited in discovering the sunrises and sets of the Equinox and Solstice in the various archaeoastronomical megaliths as those of Punkri Burwadih, Birbir and Katia Murwey etc.

Subhashis Das is also invited to lecture on his research on his discoveries of megaliths of Jharkhand in several World Conferences of Prehistory and Archaeology around the world, in Universities, Colleges and other venues in India and in several countries across the world. His sites have been visited by scholars, archaeologists and tourists from all over the nation and even abroad.

His research and discoveries of the megaliths of Jharkhand are now featured in the history books of Jharkhand Government schools.

His authored books on the study and research of megaliths are the first in the state of Jharkhand. They are:

• IN QUEST OF THE MEGALITH: INTACH
• Hazaribagh. 2003.
• SACRED STONES IN INDIAN CIVILIZATION (With special reference to Megaliths).
• Kaveri Books. New Delhi. 2009.
• UNKNOWN CIVILIZATION OIF PREHISTORIC INDIA
• (co-authored with Dr.Terence Meaden of Oxford University). Kaveri Books. New Delhi. 2014
• THE ARCHAEOASTRONOMY OF A FEW MEGALITHIC SITES OF JHARKHAND
• Niyogi Books. New Delhi.  2018.
• THE VENGEANCE
• Niyogi Books. New Delhi.  2019. (This is his first story book).
• LOST HERITAGES OF JHARKHAND INCLUDING MEGALITHS
• (COLOURS OF JHARKHAND). Outlook Traveller Getaways. New Delhi. 2020.

Several documentaries have been made on his discoveries by reputed channels as DOORDARSHAN and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. His next books on Jharkhand’s megaliths and on short stories are slated to be published by next year.  Apart from being a researcher and writer he is also a voracious reader, poet, singer, guitarist, painter and traveller. His website and blog on the megaliths of Jharkhand are the only of its kind in the country.

About The Archaeoastronomy of a Few Megalithic Sites of Jharkhand

The Archaeoastronomy of a Few Megalithic Sites of Jharkhand discards the belief that megaliths are only sepulchral monuments and illustrates that they also served as temples of the ubiquitous Mother Goddesses of the fertility cult. It reveals that a few of the megalithic sites in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand stand in compliance with fundamental mathematics and observational astronomy. Apart from establishing complex burials inside these complexes as also revering them as temples, the prehistoric astronomer-priests intended these megaliths as calendars for the community, used to determine the specific dates on which their fertility rites were to be conducted. Lavishly illustrated and cogently written, the book elucidates megaliths and contends that their presence across the country, from Kashmir to Kerala and from Manipur to Gujarat, is a testimony to India’s tribal prehistory. It showcases the archaeoastronomical megalithic temples of Jharkhand, indicating that the tribes were cognisant of mathematics and horizon astronomy.This much-needed volume hopes to initiate a lively debate as also persuade people to know more about megaliths and their makers and makes essential reading for those seeking to explore aspects of prehistoric India.