The petroglyphs at Devache Gothane were the second set we visited during the weekend, a short hike up a trackway from the village took us once again to a laterite plateau.
The site is marked by wide ring of stones, the laterite exposed by the clearing of scrub. Unlike Barsu Sada, there has thus far only been one main petroglyph found here.
The image is of a human, slightly longer than life-size (approx 8 ft) and with a enlarged head. Interestingly with the setting sun we found that standing at the foot of the human casts an exact shadow over the carving, here’s Vishnu demonstrating just that.
The laterite here seems to have weathered quite significantly, I suspect at one time there was possibly more detail to the head, certainly it would have been more clearly defined.
Discovered only four years ago in April 2015, this is one of the new petroglyph sites in the Konkan and one that also has a bit of a mystery attached to it.
If you place compasses on various points around the torso of the human, polarity goes completely haywire. You can click on the above images to view them full screen to appreciate just how offset they are, sometimes they are completely reversed !
There is no obvious explanation for this, I’m not aware of any other instance where laterite rock exhibits this magnetic anomaly, although I’m no expert.
Aside from the human figure but still within the rock enclosure are a handful of other petroglyphs, just simple circular shapes with no obvious depiction of specific animals.
It’s a very atmospheric location, with the sun setting and this lone figure lying there etched into the rock.
This was one of seven petroglyph sites I visited in the Konkan during the course of a weekend. Here’s some quick links to the other sites :
- Introduction to the Konkan Petroglyphs
- Barsu Sada
- Devache Gothane
- Rundhe Tali
- Chave Dewood
- Ukshi
- Niwali
- Kasheli
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Categories: Devache Gothane, India, Konkan Petroglyphs, Maharashtra
Kevin Standage 
Is it the only pretoglyph to have that kind of magnetic behavior ?
It would be interesting to check the magnetic anomaly-ies for traces of intense fire or recreate a bonfire on a blank surface of laterite and compare the resulting magnetic lines.
It might also be interesting to sprinkle iron fillings on a sheet of paper covering the caring, just to detect any pattern.
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Yes, this is the only petroglyph where we can observe this magnetic anomaly, it doesn’t occur anywhere else on the laterite plateaux in the Konkan either as far as I’m aware.
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Iron filings idea is interesting. I might as well try it out the next time I visit (which should be in a while because am not in India at the moment). But will surely keep in my “To Do”.
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Visited this site on 13th May 19 and place magnetic compass at various locations. Within the marked circle weird deflections were observed as expected. Outside circle there were no unexpected deflections of the compass. I also tried with strong magnet. Will share the snaps soon.
Kevin, thanks for the wonderful compilation on Petroglyph. Myself, wife and son visited 4 sites – Nivali, Barsu, Devihasol, Devache Gothane.
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Thanks Ravi, all the compass experiments we did were both bizarre and amazing in equal measure. I’m hoping to return next year to see more of the sites. Thank you so much for the comment and stopping by my blog!
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Here is the small video clip I made.
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Good job Ravi !
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Hey Kevin! This is fantastic. I didn’t have compasses on me when I visited but tried to use my phone compass and did experience this (in rather different way). I have written about it on my blog as well (http://bhingri.in/2016/10/17/the-marvels-of-ancient-times-petroglyphs/#comment-159). I believe I must have been one of the first few visitors who blog.
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