The Muniyaras of Marayoor

By Thomas Thottungal

Hemmed in by high hills that act as a rampart as it were

Protecting the dead from destruction by the living,

The Muniyaras of Marayoor sprawl across acres of rocky terrain,

Most with cap stones gone and stripped to bare bones,

Earth cover eroded by eons of exposure to the wind and the weather,

Vertical slats of stone standing in stoic stubbornness,

Silent skeletal sentinels of the Neolithic era

That once guarded the remains of sanyasins and saints of yore.

The remains are gone a long time now, returned to the bosom of the earth.

The sentinels alone remain in mute testimony to a hoary past.

By Thomas Thottungal