Map showing prehistoric sites(Outline map not to scale)

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PREHISTORIC ROCKPAINTINGS

T HE distant past when there was no paper or languageor the written word, and hence no books or writtendocuments, is called prehistory, or, as we often say,prehistoric times. How people lived in those times wasdifficult to surmise until scholars began to discover theplaces where prehistoric people lived. Excavation at theseplaces brought to light old tools, pottery, habitats, bonesof ancient human beings and animals, and drawings oncave walls. By piecing together the information deducedfrom these objects and the cave drawings, scholars haveconstructed fairly accurate knowledge about whathappened and how people lived in prehistoric times. Whenthe basic needs of food, water, clothing and shelter werefulfilled people felt the need to express themselves. Paintingand drawing were the oldest art forms practised by humanbeings to express themselves, using the cave walls as theircanvas.

Why did prehistoric people draw these pictures? Theymay have drawn and painted to make their homes morecolourful and beautiful or to keep a visual record of theirday-to-day life, like some of us who maintain a diary.

The prehistoric period in the early development ofhuman beings is commonly known as the Old StoneAge or the Palaeolithic Age.

Prehistoric paintings have been found in many parts ofthe world. We do not really know if Lower Palaeolithic peopleever produced any art objects. But by the Upper Palaeolithictimes we see a proliferation of artistic activities. Aroundthe world the walls of many caves of this time are full offinely carved and painted pictures of animals which thecave-dwellers hunted. The subjects of their drawings werehuman figures, human activities, geometric designs andsymbols. In India the earliest paintings have been reportedfrom the Upper Palaeolithic times.

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AN INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN ART

It is interesting to know that the first discovery of rockpaintings was made in India in 186768 by anarchaeologist, Archibold Carlleyle, twelve years before thediscovery of Altamira in Spain. Cockburn, Anderson, Mitraand Ghosh were the early archaeologists who discovered alarge number of sites in the Indian sub-continent.

Remnants of rock paintings have been found on the wallsof the caves situated in several districts of Madhya Pradesh,Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Bihar. Somepaintings have been reported from the Kumaon hills inUttarakhand also. The rock shelters on banks of the RiverSuyal at Lakhudiyar, about twenty kilometres on the AlmoraBarechina road, bear these prehistoric paintings.Lakhudiyar literally means one lakh caves.The paintingshere can be divided into three categories: man, animal andgeometric patterns in white, black and red ochre. Humansare represented in stick-like forms. A long-snouted animal,a fox and a multiple legged lizard are the main animal motifs.Wavy lines, rectangle-filled geometric designs, and groupsof dots can also be seen here. One of the interesting scenesdepicted here is of hand-linked dancing human figures.There is some superimposition of paintings. The earliest arein black; over these are red ochre paintings and the lastgroup comprises white paintings. From Kashmir two slabswith engravings have been reported. The granite rocks ofKarnataka and Andhra Pradesh provided suitable canvasesto the Neolithic man for his paintings. There are several suchsites but more famous among them are Kupgallu, Piklihaland Tekkalkota. Three types of paintings have been reportedfrom herepaintings in white, paintings in red ochre overa white background and paintings in red ochre. These

Hand-linked dancing figures, Lakhudiyar,Uttarakhand

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Wavy lines, Lakhudiyar, Uttarakhand

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PREHISTORIC ROCK PAINTINGS

paintings belong to late historical, earlyhistorical and Neolithic periods. The subjectsdepicted are bulls, elephants, sambhars,gazelles, sheep, goats, horses, stylisedhumans, tridents, but rarely, vegetal motifs.

But the richest paintings are reported fromthe Vindhya ranges of Madhya Pradesh andtheir Kaimurean extensions into UttarPradesh. These hill ranges are full ofPalaeolithic and Mesolithic remains, and theyare also full of forests, wild plants, fruits,streams and creeks, thus a perfect place forStone Age people to live. Among these thelargest and most spectacular rock-shelter islocated in the Vindhya hills at Bhimbetka inMadhya Pradesh. Bhimbetka is located forty-five kilometres south of Bhopal, in an area often square kilometres, having about eighthundred rock shelters, five hundred of whichbear paintings.

The caves of Bhimbetka were discoveredin 195758 by eminent archaeologist V.S.Wakankar and later on many more werediscovered. Wakankar spent several years insurveying these inaccessible hills and junglesto study these paintings.

The themes of paintings found here are of great variety,ranging from mundane events of daily life in those times tosacred and royal images. These include hunting, dancing,music, horse and elephant riders, animal fighting, honeycollection, decoration of bodies, and other household scenes.

The rock art of Bhimbetka has been classified intovarious groups on the bases of style, technique andsuperimposition. The drawings and paintings can becatagorised into seven historical periods. Period I, UpperPalaeolithic; Period II, Mesolithic; and Period III,Chalcolithic. After Period III there are foursuccessive periods. But we will confineourselves here only to the first three phases.

Upper Palaeolithic Period

The paintings of the Upper Palaeolithic phaseare linear representations, in green and darkred, of huge animal figures, such as bisons,elephants, tigers, rhinos and boars besidesstick-like human figures. A few are washpaintings but mostly they are filled with

Can you figure out what theartist is trying to depict in

this painting?

Cave entrance, Bhimbetka,Madhya Pradesh

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AN INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN ART

geometric patterns. The green paintings are of dancersand the red ones of hunters.

Mesolithic Period

The largest number of paintings belong to Period II thatcovers the Mesolithic paintings. During this period thethemes multiply but the paintings are smaller in size.Hunting scenes predominate. The hunting scenes depictpeople hunting in groups, armed with barbed spears,pointed sticks, arrows and bows. In some paintings theseprimitive men are shown with traps and snares probablyto catch animals. The hunters are shown wearing simpleclothes and ornaments. Sometimes, men have beenadorned with elaborate head-dresses, and sometimespainted with masks also. Elephant, bison, tiger, boar, deer,antelope, leopard, panther, rhinoceros, fish, frog, lizard,squirrel and at times birds are also depicted. TheMesolithic artists loved to paint animals. In some pictures,animals are chasing men. In others they are being chasedand hunted by men. Some of the animal paintings,especially in the hunting scenes, show a fear of animals,but many others show a feeling of tenderness and lovefor them. There are also a few engravings representingmainly animals.

Though animals were painted in a naturalistic style,humans were depicted only in a stylistic manner. Womenare painted both in the nude and clothed. The young andthe old equally find place in these paintings. Children arepainted running, jumping and playing. Community dancesprovide a common theme. There are paintings of peoplegathering fruit or honey from trees, and of women grindingand preparing food. Some of the pictures of men, womenand children seem to depict a sort of family life. In many

of the rock-shelters we find hand prints,fist prints, and dots made by thefingertips.

Chalcolithic Period

Period III covers the Chalcolithic period.The paintings of this period reveal theassociation, contact, and mutualexchange of requirements of the cavedwellers of this area with settledagricultural communities of the Malwaplains. Many a time Chalcolithic ceramicsand rock paintings bear common motifs,e.g., cross-hatched squares, lattices.

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One of the few images showingonly one animal, Bhimbetka

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PREHISTORIC ROCK PAINTINGS

Pottery and metal tools are also shown. Butthe vividness and vitality of the earlierperiods disappear from these paintings.

The artists of Bhimbetka used manycolours, including various shades of white,yellow, orange, red ochre, purple, brown,green and black. But white and red weretheir favourite colours. The paints weremade by grinding various rocks andminerals. They got red from haematite(known as geru in India). The green camefrom a green variety of a stone calledchalcedony. White might have been made out of limestone.The rock of mineral was first ground into a powder. Thismay then have been mixed with water and also with somethick or sticky substance such as animal fat or gum orresin from trees. Brushes were made of plant fibre. Whatis amazing is that these colours have survived thousandsof years of adverse weather conditions. It is believed thatthe colours have remained intact because of the chemicalreaction of the oxide present on the surface of the rocks.

The artists here made their paintings on the walls andceilings of the rock shelters. Some of the paintings arereported from the shelters where people lived. But someothers were made in places which do not seem to have beenliving spaces at all. Perhaps these places had some religiousimportance. Some of the most beautiful paintings are veryhigh up on rock shelters or close to the ceilings of rock-shelters. One may wonder why early human beings choseto paint on a rock in such an uncomfortable position. Thepaintings made at these places were perhaps for people tobe able to notice them from a distance.

The paintings, though from the remote past, do not lackpictorial quality. Despite various limitations such as acuteworking conditions, inadequate tools, materials, etc., thereis a charm of simple rendering of scenes of theenvironment in which the artists lived. The men shown inthem appear adventurous and rejoicing in their lives. Theanimals are shown more youthful and majestic thanperhaps they actually were. The primitive artists seem topossess an intrinsic passion for storytelling. These picturesdepict, in a dramatic way, both men and animals engagedin the struggle for survival. In one of the scenes, a groupof people have been shown hunting a bison. In the process,some injured men are depicted lying scattered on theground. In another scene, an animal is shown in the agonyof death and the men are depicted dancing. These kinds

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Why has the animal beenshown so big and man

so small?

Painting showing a manbeing hunted by a beast,

Bhimbetka

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DANCING SCENE

Hunting scenes predominate in Mesolithic paintings. This is one such scenewhere a group of people are shown hunting a bison. Some injured men aredepicted lying scattered on the ground. These paintings show mastery in theskill of drawing these forms.

In this picture hand-linked figures in dancing mode are shown. In fact, this is arecurrent theme. It also recalls the dancing scene from the Lakhudiyar rockpainting found in Uttarakhand.

AN INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN ART6

HUNTING SCENE

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EXERCISE1. According to your observation how did the people of

prehistoric times select themes for their paintings?

2. What could have been the reasons for depicting more animalfigures than human figures in cave paintings?

3. Many visuals of prehistoric cave paintings have been givenin this chapter. Among these which one do you like themost and why? Give a critical appreciation of the visual.

4. Other than Bhimbetka, which are the other major siteswhere these prehistoric paintings have been found? Preparea report on different aspects of these paintings with picturesor line drawings.

5. In modern times, how have walls been used as a surface tomake paintings, graphics, etc?

7PREHISTORIC ROCK PAINTINGS

of paintings might have given man a sense of power overthe animals he would meet in the open.

This practice is common among primitive people oftoday also. They engrave or paint on rocks as part ofthe rituals they perform at birth, at death, at comingof age and at the time of marriage. They dance,masked, during hunting rites to help them killanimals difficult to find or kill.

The paintings of individual animals show the masteryof skill of the primitive artist in drawing these forms. Both,proportion and tonal effect, have been realisticallymaintained in them.

It is interesting to note that at many rock-art sitesoften a new painting is painted on top of an older painting.At Bhimbetka, in some places, there are as many as 20layers of paintings, one on top of another. Why did theartists paint in the same place again and again? Maybe,this was because the artist did not like his creation andpainted another painting on the previous one, or some ofthe paintings and places were considered sacred or specialor this was because the area may have been used bydifferent generations of people at different times.

These prehistoric paintings help us to understand aboutearly human beings, their lifestyle, their food habits, theirdaily activities and, above all, they help us understandtheir mindthe way they thought. Prehistoric periodremains are a great witness to the evolution of humancivilisation, through the numerous rock weapons, tools,ceramics and bones. More than anything else, the rockpaintings are the greatest wealth the primitive humanbeings of this period left behind.

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Map of Indus Valley sites (Outline map not to scale)

Mohenjo-daro Kot diji

PAKISTAN

AmriSokhtakhohChanhu-daro

Karachi

Surkotada

LothalRangpur

Rojdi

RehmandheriHarappa

Gumla

Peshawar Srinagar

Manda

KathpalonNagarDadheri Ropar

BhagwanpuraHulasBanawali

Balu

SiswalKalibangon

Delhi

AFGHA

NISTAN

NEPAL

INDIA

Bhagatrav

Daimabad

Mumbai

Chennai

BAY

OF

BENGAL

Kolkata

AR

AB

IA

N

SE

A

Kagen-dor

Ancient citiesModern towns

Alamgirpur

SriLanka

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