Anywhere the word Pandava appears in a place name, it often hints at a story far older than the landscape around it. So we did what we always do,we went looking.

As we explored Pandavara Hole near Sirsi, we slowed our pace and began paying closer attention to the rocky surfaces around us. That’s when we noticed them: bull petroglyphs carved into stone, quietly enduring in a vast and ancient landscape.

The figures felt familiar. They bore a resemblance to petroglyphs previously documented by Dr. Raghunath Bhat and Dr. A. Sundara at sites such as Sonda and Holaluru. They were not identical, but similar enough to suggest a shared visual tradition that may have connected communities across these regions thousands of years ago.

There were no signboards, no markers, and no indication that anything significant was hidden here. Just stone, weathered by time, waiting for someone to stop and look closely.