The Etched Granite of Edulabad: Prehistoric Signs on the Musi River

High above the alluvial flats of the Musi River, on a quiet granite dome called Bhairavagutta in Medchal district, sits an unsolved puzzle carved directly into the rock. The stone surface at Edulabad, situated 482 metres above sea level, is marked by a single pictograph carved into the granite with hard stone tools (Times of India). What makes the site unusual is not just the execution, but the repetition: the exact same motif is repeated 66 times (Deccan Chronicle).

Local historians first documented the site on Bhairavagutta hillock near Ghatkesar (Deccan Chronicle). Yet, despite its proximity to the expanding urban sprawl of Hyderabad, the precisely ordered array remains completely undeciphered (Times of India). Scholars debate the exact period of the carvings, with proposed dates ranging from the Mesolithic phase—a period between 12,000 and 6,000 years ago—to the Megalithic age (Deccan Chronicle) (Times of India). The site sits at a geographic intersection where multiple eras meet: twelve nearby hillocks hold prehistoric stone structures, rock grooves, and burial sites alongside later Kakatiya-era inscriptions (Deccan Chronicle).

Petroglyphs—images produced by pecking, chipping, or incising a rock's weathered surface—are notoriously difficult to date. Unlike organic material like charcoal or bone, rock surface removal leaves no direct material for radiocarbon dating. Instead, archaeologists rely on contextual clues, such as nearby stone tools, weathering patterns, or stylistic comparisons with other regional rock art.

Traces along the Musi Basin

The Musi River basin has long served as a corridor for human movement and settlement in the Deccan plateau. The presence of water and exposed granite bluffs provided ideal conditions for early communities who utilized natural rock shelters and hard river stones for toolmaking.

Evidence shows that early human activity in the immediate vicinity of Hyderabad stretches back thousands of years. In the urban forest park at Manchirevula, researchers discovered Mesolithic-era rock paintings featuring aquatic life—including three tortoises and a fish—rendered in red ochre, alongside quartzite fragments used to manufacture microliths (small, sharp stone blades) (The New Indian Express). Elsewhere in the same area, researchers from the Kotha Telangana Charitra Brundam recorded petroglyphs carved on flat rock inside a shelter (Deccan Chronicle).

Ground stone tools confirm that early agriculturalists settled these granite outcrops during the Neolithic period. Underneath a massive natural rock formation known as Tabelu Gundu ("Tortoise Rock") at BNR Hills in Raidurg, archaeologists E. Sivanagi Reddy and Sriramoju Haragopal discovered two polished basalt stone axes, known as celts (Telangana Today). The axes—measuring 12.0 by 7.2 centimetres and 9.2 by 3.9 centimetres—demonstrate the transition toward ground-stone technology used for forest clearance or wood working between 4000 and 2000 BCE (The Hindu).

Stone-Tool Evolution in the Deccan
│
├── Mesolithic (c. 10,000–4000 BCE)
│   └── Microliths, Ochre Paintings (e.g., Manchirevula)
│
├── Neolithic (c. 4000–2000 BCE)
│   └── Polished Stone Celts, Early Petroglyphs (e.g., BNR Hills)
│
└── Megalithic / Iron Age (c. 1000 BCE–300 BCE)
    └── Rock Grooves, Stone Alignments, Complex Signs (e.g., Edulabad)

The Puzzle of Repetition

What sets the Edulabad petroglyphs apart from standard prehistoric animal figures or handprints is their rhythmic uniformity. The repeated motif is not a random collection of scribbles, but a structured sequence of identical signs (Times of India).

When a symbol is reproduced 66 times across a granite face, it suggests a system of communication rather than casual mark-making (Times of India). Whether the grid served as a tally system, a territorial marker, a ritual record, or a early prototype of symbolic notation remains an open question among regional specialists.

Granite is a notoriously hard canvas. Creating a single deep line into crystalline quartz and feldspar required persistent impact with hard hammerstones like quartzite or basalt. The sheer physical effort needed to carve dozens of uniform marks indicates that the location held enduring significance for the creators.

Pressures on Prehistoric Canvases

Unlike artifacts preserved in deep cave systems or buried under layers of silt, open-air rock art sites on the Deccan plateau face severe environmental and human pressures. Granite hillocks across Medchal district are actively mined for construction material.

At Edulabad, quarrying activity previously removed sections of the rear side of Bhairavagutta hillock before local residents intervened to stop the stone cutting (Times of India). Similar challenges affect prehistoric rock art elsewhere in the outskirts of Hyderabad, where suburban development and real estate expansion frequently encroaches on granite hills (Deccan Chronicle).

Without formal archaeological protection or detailed 3D photogrammetric mapping, fragile carvings on weathered granite risk disappearing before their place in the chronology of early human communication can be fully understood. For now, the 66 repeated marks on Bhairavagutta continue to watch over the Musi River, keeping their long-kept secret.