Fine Arts: Class 11 — Chapter 1: Prehistoric Rock Paintings

The distant past when there was no paper, language, or written word is defined as prehistory. Because written records do not exist, scholars reconstruct the lives of prehistoric people through archaeological excavations that bring to light physical remnants:

• Stone Tools: Used for hunting, butchering, and daily survival.
• Pottery & Habitats: Indicating settlement patterns and domestic activities.
• Bones: Providing evidence of ancient human and animal biology and diet.
• Cave Drawings: Serving as the oldest surviving visual expressions on natural rock canvases.

The earliest phase of human development is commonly known as the Old Stone Age or Palaeolithic Age, which is further divided into Lower, Middle, and Upper Palaeolithic periods.

India holds a pioneering place in the global history of rock art discovery:

• Archibold Carlleyle: Discovered the first rock paintings in India in 1867–68, twelve years before the famous discovery of Altamira in Spain.
• Early Archaeologists: Cockburn, Anderson, Mitra, and Ghosh were key pioneers who discovered numerous rock art sites across the Indian subcontinent.
• Geographical Distribution: Remnants of prehistoric paintings have been discovered across Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, and the Kumaon hills of Uttarakhand.

The rock shelters on the banks of the River Suyal at Lakhudiyar (located about twenty kilometers on the Almora–Barechina road in Uttarakhand) bear significant prehistoric paintings:

• Lakhudiyar literally translates to "one lakh caves."
• Three Categories of Paintings: Man, animal, and geometric patterns rendered in white, black, and red ochre.
• Motifs & Figures: Humans are represented in stick-like forms. Animal motifs include a long-snouted animal, a fox, and a multiple-legged lizard. Geometric designs feature wavy lines, rectangle-filled patterns, and groups of dots.
• Hand-linked Dancing Figures: One of the most famous scenes depicts human figures holding hands in a dancing composition.
• Superimposition Sequence: The earliest paintings are in black, over which red ochre paintings were executed, and the latest layer consists of white paintings.

The granite rocks of Southern India provided excellent natural canvases for Neolithic artists:

• Key Sites: Kupgallu, Piklihal, and Tekkalkota in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
• Three Types of Paintings: Paintings in white, paintings in red ochre over a white background, and paintings in red ochre.
• Subjects Depicted: Bulls, elephants, sambhars, gazelles, sheep, goats, horses, stylized humans, and tridents. Vegetal motifs are extremely rare.

The richest and most spectacular rock-shelter site in India is Bhimbetka:

• Location: Situated in the Vindhya hills of Madhya Pradesh, 45 kilometers south of Bhopal. The region is rich in natural resources, forests, wild plants, streams, and creeks.
• Scale: Spans an area of ten square kilometers, containing about eight hundred rock shelters, five hundred of which bear paintings.
• Discovery: Discovered in 1957–58 by the eminent archaeologist V.S. Wakankar, who spent years surveying these inaccessible hills and jungles.

The rock art of Bhimbetka is classified into seven historical periods based on style, technique, and superimposition. The first three periods represent the core prehistoric phases:

The prehistoric artists of Bhimbetka demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of natural chemistry and mineralogy:

• Color Sources: Red was obtained from haematite (locally known as geru). Green came from a green variety of stone called chalcedony. White was prepared from limestone.
• Preparation Method: The mineral rocks were first ground into a fine powder. This powder was then mixed with water and a thick, sticky binding substance such as animal fat, gum, or resin from trees.
• Brushes: Made from beaten plant fibres.
• Durability: The paintings have survived thousands of years of weathering because of the chemical reaction of the mineral oxides with the rock surface.

At many rock-art sites, including Bhimbetka, new paintings were frequently executed directly on top of older ones, sometimes creating up to twenty distinct layers:

• Reasons for Superimposition: Artists may have disliked previous creations, considered specific rock faces sacred or special, or different generations used the same shelters at different times.
• Socio-Religious Significance: The paintings served as visual records of daily life, hunting strategies, and community rituals. They provided early humans with a sense of power over wild beasts and served ritualistic functions.

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

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Analysis / Historical Value: This passage highlights the ethnographic continuity between prehistoric rock art and contemporary tribal/primitive rituals. It suggests that cave paintings were not merely decorative but served deep magico-religious, ritualistic, and instructional purposes to ensure survival and community cohesion.