Hero stone

A hero stone (Vīragallu in Kannada, Naṭukal in Tamil)^[1] is a memorial commemorating the honorable death of a hero in battle. Erected between the second half of the first millennium BCE^[2][3] and the 18th century CE, hero stones are found all over India. They often carry inscriptions and a variety of ornaments, including bas relief panels, frieze, and figures in carved stone.^[4] Usually they are in the form of a stone monument and may have an inscription at the bottom with a narrative of the battle. The earliest and oldest of such memorial hero stones is found in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu is more than 2400 years old that is 4th century BCE.^[5] According to the historian Upinder Singh, the largest concentration of such memorial stones is found in the Indian state of Karnataka. About two thousand six hundred and fifty hero stones, the earliest in Karnataka is dated to the 5th century CE.^[6] The custom of erecting memorial stones dates back to the Iron Age (400 BCE) though a vast majority were erected between the 4th century BCE to 13th centuries CE.^[7]