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prehistoric rock paintings

Rock Arts are archaic, man-made markings/paintings/sculptures produced on natural stone.

prehistoric rock paintings

Context - 

Rock Arts are archaic, man-made markings/paintings/sculptures produced on natural stone.

India is home to one of the world's largest, richest, and most diversified collections of rock art.

Prehistoric rock paintings, the rock-cut architecture of caves and temples, and rock sculptures are some examples of rock art in India.

It is frequently classified into three types:

1. Petroglyphs are carvings on the rock surface.
2. Pictographs are images that are painted on the surface.
3. Earth figures are constructed on the ground.

The Importance of Rock Art

• Spiritual and cultural legacy: Rock art represents humanity's rich spiritual and cultural heritage and is extremely important to its founders and successors.
• It is also essential to mankind as a whole. Because of its beauty, symbolism, and complex narrative, it is greatly admired and valued worldwide, regionally, and locally.
• Varied cultural traditions: Its continuous presence is critical in assisting global societies in recognising and learning about the diverse cultural traditions, their ancient roots, and their links to the landscapes they have inhabited.
• Tribal tribes rely on the rock arts to maintain cultural links by adhering to the customs inscribed in the rock art.
• Source of history: The rock artworks serve as a "historical record," chronicling the local communities' hunting habits and ways of life.

Prehistoric Rock Art -

Prehistoric: 

It refers to events before written records emerged in a particular culture or community.

Prehistoric paintings were typically created on rocks, and these rock carvings are known as Petroglyphs.

Discovery in India: 

Archibold Carlyle, an archaeologist, discovered the first discovery of rock art in India in 1867-68.

Remnants of rock art have been discovered on the walls of caves in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, and Bihar.

Prehistoric paintings are divided into three key stages:

1. Upper Paleolithic Paintings.
2. Mesolithic painting.
3. Chalcolithic Paintings

Petroglyphs -

• The principal subjects of Jammu and Kashmir's rock art include hunting scenes, animal procession scenes, and dancing human figures.
• Rows of anthropomorphic figures are a popular theme in Uttarakhand.
• South India is home to both pictographs and petroglyphs.
• Petroglyphs may also be discovered in Karnataka, where engravings of humped cattle, deer, and hunting scenes can be found on stones.

Upper Palaeolithic Paintings -

Upper Paleolithic Era: The Upper Paleolithic Age began around 40,000 years ago.

Primitive man achieved the most cultural advancement during this period. It was distinguished by establishing regional stone tool industries, which produced implements made of bone, teeth, and horns.

Its locations in India include Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Central Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, southern Uttar Pradesh, and the South Bihar Plateau.

Techniques for painting: Upper Palaeolithic paintings are linear depictions in green and dark red.

Because the walls of the rock shelter caves were formed of quartzite, minerals were employed as paints.

Ochre or geru (Haematite) combined with lime and water was one of the most frequent minerals.

They employed various minerals to create colours such as red, white, yellow, and green.

Large creatures were shown in white, dark red, and green.

Red was reserved for hunters, while green was reserved for dancers.

Animal depiction: The paintings mainly include large animal characters like bison, elephants, tigers, rhinos, and boars, as well as stick-like human figures.

Mesolithic Painting - 

Mesolithic Era: The stage corresponds to the cultures between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods.

• Whereas the start and end dates of the Mesolithic Period vary by geographical location, they range between 10,000 and 8,000 BCE.
• The colour red was commonly used throughout this period.
• It contains a broader range of topics, although the paintings are smaller.

Painting themes: The hunting scenes that were popular at the time. The paintings show:

• People hunt together in groups.
• Armed with barbed spears, sharp sticks, arrows, and bows, they go hunting.
• Primitive folks used traps and snares to catch animals.

Animal representation: Mesolithic artisans adored painting animals.

• Elephants, bison, tiger, boar, deer, antelope, leopards, panthers, rhinoceros, fish, frogs, lizards, squirrels, and birds are among the creatures depicted.

Social life: These paintings include people of different ages, including children and women.

• Handprints, fist prints, and dots produced by the fingers may be seen in several rock shelters.

Rock Paintings in Bhimbetka:

• It is located south of Bhopal in the Vidhyan mountains of Madhya Pradesh, with rock shelters containing around 500 rock paintings.
• V. S. Wakankar founded the Bhimbetka caves in 1957-58.
• In 2003, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Timeline: The oldest paintings are considered 30,000 years old and have survived because of their placement deep within the caverns.
• The caverns have been occupied continuously from 100,000 BC to 1000 AD, with various artworks drawn on top of one another.
• There are up to 20 layers of paintings in certain spots, one on top of the other.
• Bhimbetka's paintings date from the Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Chalcolithic, early historical, and medieval periods.
• The majority of the paintings date from the Mesolithic period.
• Painting methods: Natural materials are utilised to create colours such as red ochre, purple, brown, white, yellow, and green.
• For the red colour, haematite ores were employed, while the white colour was most likely derived from limestone.
• Green made from Chalcedony, a green-coloured rock.
• Plant fibre was used to make the brushes.

Themes of the paintings: Prehistoric men's daily lives, frequently shown in stick-like human figures.

• Elephants, bison, deer, peacocks, and snakes are among the creatures shown.
• Hunting and conflict scenarios with armed men
• Geometric shapes and symbols that are simple.

Chalcolithic Painting -

Chalcolithic era: 

• The Chalcolithic era is between the late Neolithic and the early Bronze Age, when human communities began experimenting with metal implements and gradually reconstructing their societies.
• The number of paintings in green and yellow increased during the Chalcolithic period.
• This period's artwork may be seen in Narsinghgarh, Maharashtra.
• These cave paintings depict spotted deer skins that have been let to dry.
• Paintings and sketches that emerged on Harappan culture seal thousands of years ago.

Themes that predominate -

• The majority of the paintings show war situations.
• Many paintings depict men riding horses and elephants with bows and arrows, signalling readiness for conflicts.
• Other paintings from this period portray musical instruments, such as the harp.
• Some paintings feature intricate mathematical designs such as the spiral, rhomboid, and circle.

Chattisgarh paintings:

• Chhattisgarh also has several caves in the district of Kanker, such as the shelters of Udkuda, Garagodi, Khaperkheda, Gotitola, Kulgaon, and others that portray human figurines, animals, palms, prints, bullock carts, and so on.
• Some later paintings may be found at the Jogimara caves in the Ramgarh hills of Chhattisgarh's Surguja district.
• Jogimara cave paintings predate the Ajanta and Bagh Caves and are considered Pre-Buddha caves.
• These are said to have been painted circa 1000 BCE.
• Similar paintings may be seen at the Koriya district's Ghodasar and Kohabaur rock art sites.
• Another intriguing site is in Chitwa Dongri (Durg district), where a Chinese figure rides a donkey and depicts dragons and agricultural scenes.