User:Radha kant varma

The term Rock-art is used to denote paintings, petroglyphs and engravings made on rock-surface generally found in a rockshelter or a cave.

The Indian rock-art covers a very long span of time and each painted canvas has been produced by generations of painters belonging to different stages of subsistence economy.

Motive, subject matter, style of painting underwent changes with the passage of time. The motive during the prehistoric times when the man was completely dependent on nature and during the early historic period when he had learnt to tame and modify the natural agencies would not have been the same. During the long period of rock-art tradition we find that there was a gradual growth in the technique of depiction and composition of figures.

There are certain common features in the rock-art of different periods such as the canvas, the technique and the use of pigments. The canvas through out remained the natural rock surface. The technique of painting and the preparation of colour by and large remained the same.

The painters derived their motifs from the environment in which they lived. The animals are the same that were found during that period of time. They have been painted again and again, running, standing, grazing singly or in group. The same canvas has been used by the different generations of painters separated from each other in time. Thus sometimes the lines are so mixed and jumbled up together that it becomes difficult to separate one figure from the other both horizontally and vertically.

While appreciating rock-art one must understand that it is actually ‘conceptual’ art and not ‘perceptual’. The artist was neither preparing photocopies of the animals nor a particular ‘bison’ nor a ‘rhinoceros’. He was universalizing the animal.

There is considerable difference between the Indian rock art and its European counterpart in respect of canvas and mode of execution. In Europe deep underground dark caves and grottoes have been used exclusively for painting activity. They were never used for habitation, burial or as factory sites.

Whereas in India the painted rock shelters were used as living places also, where they painted, buried their dead and manufactured their tools.

The European rock-art is the product of the last Ice Age only -- the Upper Paleolithic Age and with the end of Upper Palaeolithic period it also vanishes. The subject matter revolves round animals only. Human figures are rare. In India the painting activity starts from the Upper Palaeolithic (?)/ Mesolithic and continues till the modern times. Human figures are depicted from the very beginning ( in Central Vindhyan region). It reaches its peak during the mesolithic.

Among some of the theories proposed in connection with the motive behind the rock-art creation mention may be made of the following:

1.     ‘art pour l’art’ or art for the sake of art. According to this pure aesthetic pleasure was responsible for the artistic activities.

2.     Utilization approach: It was part of ritual, sympathetic hunting and fertility magic to increase food production. According to this view prehistoric art had a utilitarian rather than an aesthetic origin.

3.     Means of information transition. This theory views the palaeolithic art from an ‘information storage and transfer’perspective.

4.  It views the prehistoric art as an attempt to record ‘major events and every day activities’.

Critical analyses of the different theories regarding the origin of artistic activities during the prehistoric period indicate that none of them can be accepted in Toto. Motive, subject matter, style of painting underwent changes with the passage of time on account of changes in the subsistence pattern.

The Canvas : Rock Shelters and their location

The decorated rock shelters have been reported from all over India barring a few places only. Normally paintings are found in the sand stone formations and the engravings / bruisings on the granite formations.

The largest numbers of painted shelters are located in the Vindhyan, Satpura and Aravalli ranges of sand stone formation.

Within the Vindhyan zone two separate regions can be demarcated – the Central Vindhyan zone and the Northern Vindhyan zone. The Central Vindhyan zone includes the sites located in Chambal valley in Rajasthan and the districts of Shivapuri, Narsinghgarh, Sagar, Vidisha and Raisen in the Betwa basin, Bhopal which includes the Bhimbeteka shelters, Hoshangabad, Pachmarhi in the Mahadeo Hills etc. in Madhya Pradesh. Besides, isolated painted shelters have been reported from many other districts.

The northern Vindhyan region includes the sites located in the undivided district of Mirzapur parts of Varanasi, south Allahabad and Banda in Uttar Pradesh and Rewa, Satna, Sidhi and Shahadol of Baghel Khand in Madhya Pradesh. In this entire area engraving has been reported on granite formation in Bundelkhand region only.

There is hardly any difference between the painted shelters of the Central Vindhyan and the Northern Vindhyan regions so far as the environmental and ecological setup, the canvas, location of shelters, use of natural colour, etc. are concerned. But still there is a lot of difference in the cultural milieu of the paintings, the range of cultural activity and in the styles of depictions.

The Painted Shelters

The Lekhahia Rockshelter(Rajpur)Sonbhadra, U.P.overlooking the Son Valley. It was the first painted shelter reported byCockburn.

The shelters are generally located on the steep side of hillocks, overlooking the deep valley, on one or both the banks of a river, nala, or rivulet flowing on the bed­-rock or in deep canyon or a gorge. Besides they are also found on top and slope of high hillocks overlooking the undulating land slowly merging with the low-lying valley. Only such rock-shelters are painted that are connected with some perennial source of water. The floors of the shelters are not always even. Sometimes they are rocky and with out any accumulation but some contain habitation-deposits of varying thickness and period.

Gaddi Rockshelter Rewa (M.P.) Most of the shelters of northern Vindhyan region were occupied during the epi-palaeolithic period and were deserted by the end of the Mesolithic. In the Central Vindhyan region some shelters were occupied during the Lower Palaeolithic period and continued to be occupied till the historical periods with breaks.

The shelters vary considerably in shape and size.

The shelters that are located in the steep side of a gorge in its section over looking a valley are generally box shaped with its opening towards the valley. Shelters found on top of hillocks are Umbrella shaped. Shelters formed out of huge block of sandstone are Hut like. Some Cave like shelters have also been located Within the shelters the paintings are usually executed on the walls and ceilings but at times in difficult locations. Some times paintings were made in the open on high rock face also near painted shelters.

Painted rock-shelter on Morahana Pahar excavated by the3 author in 1963-64.

No system seems to have been followed in the arrangement of paintings. On the walls they are placed in horizontal position. The paintings on the ceilings are found some times in different orientation because they were painted in lying down position with the face upwards.

The shelter is located on Morahanapahar.This shelter has some of the earliest paintings of northern Vindhyan Region.

In the paintings of the earliest phase, in Baghel khand and the South Uttar Pradesh region, only single animal figures are found. In the next stage more than one animal figure were painted together forming a group. Here for the first time  some effort      to compose the      figures is seen. It was   only  in    the third              stage      that hunting or trap  scenes  appear  and  the  figures  revolve round a theme and man first appears. He is depicted as a hunter singly or in-group or is shown dancing generally in a group.

The paintings are generally executed with haematite (geru) or other oxides of iron. It is found in a great range of yellows, browns, oranges and reds. They are available in plenty in the Vindhyan formations in the form of nodules or pallets.

For blacks and very dark browns an oxide of manganese were also used and whites were obtained from Kaolin a limestone. Some times white pigment was prepared from mineralized white chalcedony also. Copper compound were used to obtain a bright shade of green.

Bedia Rockshelter Morahanapahar.This shelter has the finest Boar figures in group

The rock art of Northern Vindhyas is mostly the product of a people who were primarily hunters and food gatherers. Hence, the subject matter of painting always revolves round animals. They have either been shown in their natural attitudes or form part of hunting scenes. The animals chosen for painting are mostly herbivorous or game animals.

Deers in a file in Lekhunia Rockshelter, Morahana Pahar

Rhino hunting scene in Ronp Rock shelter,Sonbhadra(U.P.) Among all the animals deer seem to be their most favourite animal. Rhinoceros is the second most popular animal. Its depiction is very life like and reflects the ferocity and strength of the animal. Bison was also a popular subject of depiction. Elephant figures have been painted in all its majesty with heavy and strong body generally in flat wash. Wild boar in herd has been realistically painted. Nilgai or Blue bull has also been recognized in a number of shelters. In one of the rock-shelters at Ronp a horse like figure in outline in X Ray style has been identified. In Sivapurva rock shelter a group of animals are identified as donkeys. <---Hunting Bison by spearing Hunting scenes are very crudely enerally the hunter looks life less and motionless holding a bow and arrow, spearing an animal or holding a harpoon. There are a few exceptions also in which both the hunter and the hunted are agile. It seems that most of the hunting scenes were depicted in order to perform some routine ritual. Trap scenes are also common. In some cases traps have been symboliswed by concentric circles while in others elaborate arrangements have been shown with minute details.

Elaborate trap scene in Morahana Pahar Rock shelter

In some of the rock –shelters a number or human figures have been shown dancing. Most of the human figures are simply symbolic. They are generally static, motionless or in other words lifeless. No differentiation has generally been made in a male or female figure.

In the north Vindhyan region there are no paintings depicting day-to-day family activity.

Chart showing evolutionary sequence in the rock art of the Northern Vindhyan Region

An evolutionary sequence can be observed in the paintings. It may be summed up as follows:

1.Naturalistic

The paintings of the first stage are nearer to their natural figure. The body form, shape and body contours are nearer to the actual animal. But they are not perceptual. They have been painted in flat wash; in out line; in out line with filled in vacant body spaces; in out line and part of the body filled in colour and in X’ray style.

2.Stylistic

In the second stage the body contours vanish and the body form are based on geometrical angles. The figures are drawn in flat wash or in thick outline and the vacant space of the figures are filled by criss-cross lines only. Later the length of the figure increases and the width decreases.

<---Naturalistic Deers from Chaprahia Shelter

3.Symbolic

In this stage the rectangle figure is reduced to double or single line and gradually the figures become irregular and distorted some times beyond recognition.

Finally, the figures become completely cubist and they are represented by dots, loops, dot within a circle etc.

Antiquity of Painting activity

The beginning of Rock art (painting) in India is still an enigma because there is still no direct method of dating them. Carllyle correlated the paintings with the ‘ancient stone chippers’. He adds ‘ that I never found even a single ground or polished implement, not a single ground ring stone or hammer stone in the soils of the floor of any of the many caves or rock shelters I examined’ (Smith, A. 1906:185-95). In the thirties of the last century D.H.Gordon, opined that “ the earliest of all these paintings cannot be taken back earlier than c.700 B.C. and this may well prove to be more early”. Liohardt Adam opined that some of them may even be older than the Chalcolithic period.

Soon a number of young energetic Indian Scholars took up rock art studies seriously.As a result chronological frame work was worked out. Wakankar divided the entire painting activity in five periods and twenty styles (Wakankar and Brooks, 1976 p.31).

He placed the styles 1-6 in Mesolithic or earlier and has provided a time bracket 8000(?)—2500 B.C. He places some green paintings at Bhimbetka in the Upper Palaeolithic. Thus according to Wakankar the green paintings (‘S’ type) are the earliest (Wakankar & Brooks, 1976: 31, 81; Wakankar 1984 : 50; Kumar 1981: 279; 1984:123 ).

V.N.Misra and Mathpal have divided the entire painting activity into “ nine chronological phases. The first five phases (ABCD and E) belong to the prehistoric or Mesolithic period, the sixth (Phase F) to the Transitional or chalcolithic period and the last three (GH and I) to the Historic period (Misra,V.N.,Mathpal,Y 1979 Bhimbetka-Prehistoric Man and his Art in Central India, Poona : p.27-33)

Subsequent work of Tyagi (1988) added a new dimension. According to him the intricate designs precede the green figures. Thus according to Tyagi the painting activity in the Central Vindhyan Region commences with non-figurative intricate designs.

Dr. S.K.Pandey has classified the paintings under five categories (a) Naturalistic, (b) Stylised, (c) Schematic, (d) Conventionalised, (e) Eclectic. It actually is based on the same pattern as devised by R.K.Varma, (1964). According to Pandey the painting activity starts during the pper Palaeolithic. The basis of assigning them an Upper Palaeolithic association has not been stated.

Erwin Neumayer has divided the entire painting activity into two very broad divisions:1. The Rock Pictures of Early Hunters and Gatherers and, 2.The Rock art of the Agriculturists and Animal Keepers. The first division has been put under the cultural division known as Mesolithic. According to Neumayer ‘the microlith technology shown in these paintings, could be as old as 25,000 years or only 5,000 years. … some of the earliest paintings might have been done during the Upper Palaeolithic period.’

The painted shelters of the northern Vindhyan region, on the basis of the present evidence from excavatios were first occupied in the epi-palaeolithic period---a period of transition from Upper Palaeolithic to Mesolithic. The Mesolithic folk lived in the shelters, made their tools and buried their dead. This makes the position of the rock-shelters of the northern Vindhyan region unique. Since the shelters remained under the occupation of the Mesolithic people only. It is reasonable to suppose that these were the people who were responsible for paintings also.

There are a number of C14 dates now to arrive at certain conclusions regarding the antiquity of the Mesolithic of the Northern Vindhyan region. By implication that would be the time bracket for the painting activity also.

From the Lekhahia Rock-shelter (Bhainsore group) we have four Carbon dates belonging to the Phase III of the Vindhyan Mesolithic. The dates are:

TF-417:3560 ± 110 BP (1710±110 BC)

TF-419: 4240± 115 BP (2410±115BC)

Two more C 14 dates, by accelerator mass spectrometry from human bone apatite were obtained. These dates are based upon thorough pre- treatment and sample preparation methods suggest that the skeletons from Lekhahia may have an antiquity two times greater than previously believed:

Geochron 8,370±75 BP (Skl.IV)

Geochron 8,000± 75 BP (Skl.XIII, XV)

These are not isolated dates. There are confirmatory dates from the Belan,Son and Ganga Valley sites.

The Upper Palaeolithic horizon (Gravel III) in the Belan Valley has given two C14 dates reading 23840 BC (PRL 86) and 17765 BC (TF 1245). Another date reading 18000 BP has been obtained from the Upper- palaeolithic horizon (Clark and Williams : 1990 : Prehistoric Ecology etc. Man and Environment XV (i);13-24).

The Epi-palaeolithic horizon (Gravel IV) in the Belan section has yielded five dates (Varma 1981-83; Possehl and Rissman 1992) reading 13740+400/-380 BP (PRL 603); 11550±180 BP (BS 130); 10980±190 BP(PRL602); 9830±160 BP (BS 131) and 9740 ± 115 BP(SVA 1421).

Baghor II a mesolithic settlement (Geometric microliths unassociated with pottery) in the Son Valley has yielded one C14 date reading 6380±220 BC (PRL 715) Clark and Williams 1990).

Similar early dates have been obtained from the Mesolithic settlements of the Ganga Valley(Mesolithic Phase II of the Vindhyan region). There is one date from Sarai Nahar Rai TF 1104; 8365± 110 BC and one TL date 5000-7000 BC and two AMS C14 dates reading 6670± 65 BC and 6915± 69 BC.

On the basis of the above discussion the Epipalaeolithic may be placed within a time bracket of 14,000-13,000 BC to 10,000-9,000 BC and the Mesolithic between 12,000-11,000 BC to 2,000-1500 BC. The dates for the beginning of the Mesolithic is still flexible because we do not have any date from the Ist phase of the Vindhyan Mesolithic. All the dates are from Phase II and III only.

On the basis of the above discussion the Prehistoric Rock- Paintings of the Bhainsore region,Mirzapur(U.P.) can also be assigned the date of the Mesolithic of the region (14,000-13,000 BC.to 2,000-1500 BC) because, in my considered opinion, Mesolithic folk were the authors of the prehistoric paintings.

Radha Kant Varma

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