Decades ago, a pile of five large rectangular-sized granite stones near Sathanur dam in Tiruvannamalai were used as slabs to wash clothes by women in the village before the Tamil Nadu State Archaeology Department overturned them and found they were hero stones dating back to Pallava period of 7th century.
That was in 1972. They studied the engravings on the structures and documented them. They also built a wall behind the memorial pillars on the open Vediyappan temple, a temple meant for the worship of heroes who lost their lives fighting for territory or livestock.
