Rock Shelters of Bhimbhetka India

Rock Carvings. By cruisingindia.com on Oct 26, 2006.

Rock Shelters History

The story of discovery of Bhimbhetka begins with the train journey of V. Wakankar to Bhopal when he spotted caves at a distance, similar to prehistoric rock formation he had seen in France and Spain. He returned there with several archaeologists and discovered several prehistoric rock shelters. Thus was discovered the oldest human settlement in India and one of the oldest sites in the world where petroglyphs were found. Petroglyphs are images etched in rocks by prehistoric, particularly Neolithic, people. With more than seven-hundred rock shelters, Bhimbetka is the largest repository of prehistoric art in India.

Bhimbetka is situated at the southern tip of the Vindhyachal mountains, named after Bhim Vatika or garden of Bhima, the Pandava prince in Mahabharata. It is about forty kilometers south of the central Indian city of Bhopal.

Rock Shelters Paintings

The paintings are mainly executed in red and black with occasional traces of green and yellow. The themes are of great variety, ranging from the mundane daily events of the life in those times to sacred and royal images. These include hunting, dancing, music, horse and elephant riders, animal fighting, honey collection, decoration of bodies, disguises, masking and household scenes.

A rock called popularly as “zoo rock” depicts pictures of sambhars, elephants, bisons and deer. Another rock has paintings of a peacock, a snake, a deer and the sun. Yet another one has elephants with tusks. Hunting scenes are vividly depicted with men carrying bows, arrows, swords and shields. In one scene a bison is seen pursuing a hunter while his companions stand by helplessly and in another horsemen are accompanied by archers.

The walls of these caves are also adorned with religious symbols that were popular with prehistoric artists. Most of the paintings are super imposed, sometimes with twenty layers, revealing that the area may have been used by different generations of people at different times. The cave paintings date from different 30,000 years ago to as recent as the medieval period.

The drawings are generally classified under the following periods: Period One: Upper Paleolithic Era These consist of pictures of herds of huge animals, which are now extinct, etched in green and red. Examples are rhinos, wild buffaloes, bison, and mammoths that existed in the Paleolithic era. Some of these paintings also depict mythical figures and events. These vibrant pictures have been etched as early as 30,000 years ago. Some of the rituals and animals are totally alien to the present times. Though these paintings have been found near the tribal areas, the tribals also are as divorced from the paintings as others.

Period Two: Mesolithic Era The figures are smaller in size and the stylized figures of this group depict the linear decoration of the body. It contains pictures of humans and animals. Pictures of hunters armed with bows, spears, and arrows barbed and tipped with microliths are abundant on some walls. Mesolithic artists were fond of hunting scenes. But the drawings also had other themes such as communal dances, birds, musical instruments, and even women engaged in household chores. The Mesolithic paintings depict an exciting phase of human history when the hunter-gatherer was settling down into communities and civilization was taking its first step in the craggy hills of Bhimbetka.

Period Three: Chalcolithic Era These paintings share an affinity with pottery of the Chalcolithic period, and hence are classified as such. The paintings reveal that Bhimbetka’s cave dwellers had established contact with agricultural communities of the Malwa plains and had started barter trade with them. Chalcolithic pottery was exchanged for jungle commodities. Chalcolithic pottery is decorated in red and white, a feature common to all such pottery found in Malwa, Iran, Iraq, Italy and Scandinavia. The cave dwellers were influenced by pottery design and filled empty spaces in their pictures with geometric patterns. Some historians doubt that these caves were inhabited in the Chalcolithic age. But later excavations found as many as 30 burial sites in the caves, which by carbon dating were attributed to the Chalcolithic era.

Period Four and Five: Early Historic Era The geometric patterns were continued in the early Historic period but these artists also added certain symbols, which were to be utilized by early Historic coins of India. These images are painted mainly in red, white, and yellow and are mostly of riders, religious symbols and a highly stylized script. Some religious elements include tree gods, tree spirits, or yakshas and sky chariots.

Period Six and Seven: Medieval Era The figures are painted mostly in green with traces of pale yellow, dark purple, and red. The figures of this era are different from that of previous periods. The figures are drawn crudely, leading to the speculation that Bhimbetka had passed the zenith of its artistic glory of the previous periods. There is a lack of intricacy in the work and the figures are fairly simplistic.

The colors used by the cave dwellers were by combining manganese, red stone, and wooden coal. The paints were made of colored earth, vegetable dyes, roots, and animal fat. Brushes were made of plant fiber. What is amazing is that these colors have survived thousands of years of wear and tear. It is believed that the colors have remained intact because of the chemical reaction of the oxide present on the surface of the rocks.

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