Prehistoric Rock Paintings
Chapter – 1
Table of Contents
- The period before paper, language, and written documents is known as prehistory or prehistoric times.
- Scholars discovered prehistoric lifestyles through excavations that revealed tools, pottery, habitats, bones, and cave drawings.
- Information from these objects and drawings has provided accurate knowledge about prehistoric life.
- Prehistoric people expressed themselves through painting and drawing on cave walls.
- Prehistoric paintings served to decorate shelters or keep a visual record of daily life.
- Prehistoric paintings have been found worldwide; Upper Palaeolithic times show a proliferation of artistic activities.
- In India, the earliest paintings are from the Upper Palaeolithic period.
- The first discovery of rock paintings in India was by Archibold Carlleyle in 1867–68, predating the discovery of Altamira in Spain.
- Early archaeologists in India included Cockburn, Anderson, Mitra, and Ghosh, who discovered numerous sites.
- Rock paintings have been found in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, and the Kumaon hills in Uttarakhand.
- At Lakhudiyar, paintings include man, animal, and geometric patterns in white, black, and red ochre.
- Human figures are depicted in stick-like forms; animals include a long-snouted creature, a fox, and a multi-legged lizard.
- Geometric designs and hand-linked dancing human figures are also featured, with superimposition of black, red ochre, and white paintings.
- Kashmir has reported two slabs with engravings.
- Granite rocks in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh provided canvases for Neolithic paintings, including Kupgallu, Piklihal, and Tekkalkota.
- Paintings in these regions are in white, red ochre over white, and red ochre, depicting bulls, elephants, sambhars, gazelles, sheep, goats, horses, stylized humans, tridents, and rarely vegetal motifs.
- The richest paintings are from the Vindhya ranges of Madhya Pradesh and Kaimurean extensions into Uttar Pradesh.
- Bhimbetka, located in the Vindhya hills, is the largest and most spectacular rock-shelter, with about eight hundred rock shelters and five hundred bearing paintings.
- Bhimbetka was discovered in 1957–58 by V.S. Wakankar, who spent years surveying the area.
- Paintings at Bhimbetka depict various themes, including hunting, dancing, music, riders, animal fighting, honey collection, body decoration, and household scenes.
- Bhimbetka rock art is classified into seven historical periods: Period I (Upper Palaeolithic), Period II (Mesolithic), and Period III (Chalcolithic), with four subsequent periods.
Upper Palaeolithic Period
- Upper Palaeolithic paintings feature linear representations of large animals like bisons, elephants, tigers, rhinos, and boars.
- Stick-like human figures are also depicted in these paintings.
- Paintings are primarily in green and dark red.
- Some paintings are wash paintings, but most are filled with geometric patterns.
- Green paintings depict dancers, while red paintings depict hunters.
Mesolithic Period
- The largest number of paintings belong to Period II, covering the Mesolithic phase.
- Mesolithic paintings are smaller in size with multiple themes.
- Hunting scenes are predominant, showing people hunting in groups with barbed spears, pointed sticks, arrows, and bows.
- Some paintings depict primitive men using traps and snares to catch animals.
- Hunters are shown wearing simple clothes and ornaments, with some adorned with elaborate head-dresses and masks.
- Animals depicted include elephant, bison, tiger, boar, deer, antelope, leopard, panther, rhinoceros, fish, frog, lizard, squirrel, and birds.
- Some paintings show animals chasing men, while others depict men hunting animals.
- Paintings reflect both fear and tenderness towards animals.
- Humans are depicted in a stylistic manner, with women shown both nude and clothed.
- Paintings include children running, jumping, playing, and community dances.
- Themes also include gathering fruit or honey, women preparing food, and family life.
- Hand prints, fist prints, and fingertip dots are found in many rock-shelters.
- Artists used various colors like white, yellow, orange, red ochre, purple, brown, green, and black, with white and red being favorites.
- Paints were made from grinding rocks and minerals, mixed with water and sticky substances like animal fat, gum, or resin.
- Brushes were made from plant fiber.
- The colors have survived due to chemical reactions of oxides on rock surfaces.
- Paintings were made on walls and ceilings of rock shelters, some in living spaces and others possibly with religious significance.
- Some beautiful paintings are high up on rock shelters, likely to be noticed from a distance.
- Paintings exhibit a charm with simple rendering, depicting adventurous and joyful scenes of men and animals.
- Some scenes show dramatic events like a group hunting a bison, with injured men and animals in agony.
- The depiction of animals as larger than men reflects a common primitive practice seen in rituals and storytelling.
- New paintings were often made over older ones, possibly due to dissatisfaction with previous work or the sacred nature of the sites.
- Rock art helps understand early human lifestyle, food habits, daily activities, and their thoughts.
- Prehistoric remains, including rock paintings, are valuable for understanding the evolution of human civilization.