TTT NEWS NETWORK
KOLKATA, 21 SEPTEMBER 2023:
The heart of incredible India, Madhya Pradesh possesses wealth of prehistoric art painted on the walls of rock shelters In November 2016, a report appeared in many news platforms that petroglyph rock art at Daraki- Chattan (hillock) near Bhanpura in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh is the “world’s oldest rock art” and is almost 2 to 5 lakh years’ old.
There are several such findings that have showed how wealthy Madhya Pradesh is when it comes to rock art.
While the World Heritage Site of Bhimbetka is well-known, Madhya Pradesh has many other equally glorious examples of ancient art. Indeed, rock art has a unique beauty – the stylised deer of Hathitola, the great bison of Adamgarh, the mythical beast of Bhimbetka, the vigorous and playful – but what makes these paintings truly valuable is the link they forge with a human past as distant as a half-forgotten dream.
In 1958, the archaeologist Vishnu Shridhar Wakankar happened to be travelling by train from Bhopal to Itarsi. As he gazed out of the window at the landscape of green fields and low hills, something caught his eyes. A series of rocky outcrops were jutting out in startlingly unusual shapes on a low hill in the near distance. The archaeologist got off the train at very next station and made his way up the hill. What he discovered were Bhimbetka rockshelters- today, a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the most eminent examples of pre-historic art in the world.
Bhimbetka is under 50 kms southeast of Bhopal on the National Highway 69, which makes it a comfortable day trip even for travellers with limited time. The town nearest Bhimbetka is Obaidullaganj, 6 kms from the Highway Treat Hotel and restaurant, which is located at the foot of Bhimbetka Hill.
Here the paintings show men, women, boys, girls, infants, dancers, hunters, cattle herders, charioteers, weapons and decorative motifs and offer insights into the way of life and the environment, of that era. There are various animals and hunting scenes depicting rhinos, bison, deer and even camels.
Scholars have also found rock shelters on the Betwa River’s banks decorated with several images, including the hunting images, hunting elephant and of bison.
The Vindhyas that rise and fall in bursts of dense green across Bhopal, Raisen, Sehore, Vidisha and Chanderi districts of Madhya Pradesh contain a vast network of rock-shelters- more than any other region in India. Apart from this, many places in Pachmarhi, Adamgarh, Mandsaur and Rewa are adorned with beautiful rock art paintings.
Over times these soft sandstone hills were carved into shelters so ideally suited to habitation- with floors and ceilings and dimensions of just the right size that you need only look at them to understand why these were the most popular habitation ‘complexes’ of prehistoric times.
Another example of this art can be found at Chaturbhujnath Nala. Situated in Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary near Bhanpura of Mandsaur district in Madhya Pradesh, Chaturbhujnath Nala Rock Art Shelters, named after Chaturbhujnath Temple, are considered the longest rock art gallery in the world. This site was discovered in 1977. It is now under care of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
This site is home to around 2,510 paintings on 800-metre-long site. These paintings offer a glimpse of the everyday life of the then native inhabitants of the area and how it progressed with time. This is a depository of rock art images in 12 different styles and time periods, starting from the Upper Palaeolithic period (50,000 – 12,000 years ago) to early historic period.
According to research, these paintings were done not at one go but over centuries and are representative of the evolving human ability to depict and document their lives through.
Advertisement:
Add Comment