Chikkamagaluru: Two rare boundary stones were found on farmland in Kalkere in Chikkamagaluru’s Koppa taluk on Sunday. The ancient stones were found on the farmland of Shantha Srinivasa Gowda and Keremane Suresh in the Kalkere area of Tuluvinakoppa village. Shantha unearthed a boundary stone while working on her land and informed history and archaeology researcher Na Suresh Kalkere.Following this, the researcher conducted fieldwork and found another memorial sculpture covered with plants and branches on Keremane Suresh’s land as well. Upon examination, it was found that they have similar characteristics. These boundary stones are about two-feet-high and one-foot-wide, and they are located approximately 300 metres apart. The main feature of these monuments is the trident (trishula) in the centre, with the sun and moon on either side. According to Suresh, these are rare trident-stamped boundary stones found for the first time in the entire Koppa taluk.A 15th-century donation inscription with a similar sculptural feature is located in the inner courtyard of the Sri Durga Temple in the Balpa area of Kadaba taluk. However, instead of the sun and moon, a conch and wheel carving can be seen on that inscription. An ancient stone foundation was unearthed in the forested area of Kalkere, and it is still believed by the locals to be the foundation of a temple related to the goddess. The researcher opines that these boundary stones date back to the 14th-15th century.Mahesh, an employee of the Tuluvinakoppa village panchayat, along with Kalkere Sundar Raj, Raghavendra, and Sannidhi and Vikrit, students of the Kalkere School, participated in the fieldwork.
