Indian Culture and Heritage:Introduction and Pre-historic Rock paintings

"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only." -Mark Twain

"We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made." -Albert Einstein

"If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India."
-Max Mueller

I could quote a million people, write a thousand blogs and still be scratching at the surface of the grandeur that is India. Where in the History of mankind can I start writing about a culture, which transcended through spatial and temporal boundaries. A culture which went onto become the mother of all modern civilization. To understand the origin of such a phenomenon we need to look back in time,maybe as back as prehistoric time.

Map of prehistoric sites in India

The earliest discovery of prehistoric rock art was made in India, twelve years before the discovery of Alta Mira in Spain. Father of Indian Rock Art’ Dr V S Wakankar and others have done extensive studies on rock art in India, there are over thousand caves in 150 different sites all over India.Central India is the richest zone of prehistoric rock art in India. The highest concentration of rock art sites is situated in the Satpura, Vindhya and Kaimur Hills.

As there is no language or script in prehistoric time, it has to be studied based on tools, pottery, habitats and drawing on cave walls of this time. Prehistoric paintings have been found in many parts of the world, there is very little evidence suggesting any drawings related to lower paleolithic period, but in upper paleolithic period there is a proliferation of artistic activities. The subjects of the drawings are human figures, human activities, geometric designs and symbols.

Remnants of rock paintings have been found in several districts of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and Uttarakhand.

• Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka: Kupagallu, Pikhlihal and Tekkalkota (Neolithic, three types White, Red ochre over white and Red Ochre) 
• Madhya Pradesh: Karabad in the Raisen district, Shamla Hills next to Bhopal, Numerous painted shelters of Bhimbetka, Magazine Shelter and Chaturbhujnath Nala in Chambal valley and its tributaries.(Richest of all rock paintings in India, Paleolithic and Neolithic) 
• UP: They are Kumerun extensions of Vindhyas, Sohagihat in the Mirzapur district
• Uttarakhand: Kumaon hills on the banks of river Suyal called lakhudiyar(land of lakh caves) (Superimposition of paintings, 3 types, Man, Animals and geometric patterns in White, Black and Red  Ochre) 

Bhimbetka:

It is the richest source of Rock art in India, it is in Madhya Pradesh, 40 km south of Bhopal. Paintings here vary from mundane to ritual as well as royal images. They are categorised into seven historical periods. We are going to look into first three periods. 

• Period I: Upper Paleolithic ( linear, huge animal figures, stick like human. Colour schemes, green as dancers and red as hunters)
• Period II: Mesolithic ( Multiple themes, small paintings, hunting scenes predominate. Animals are naturalistic though people are depicted figuratively. All sections of society like women, man old and young are found. Traces of family life. Hand prints, finger prints and fist prints.)
• Period III: Chalcolithic ( interaction of cave dwellers and agricultural communities of malwa plains, metal tools, pottery etc. Many colours but white and red are main from geru and limestone. There is a distinction in paintings of living and non-living spaces. Paintings are vibrant, might of given them power.  tonal effect is realistically maintained)

There are 20 layers of paintings in some of the areas, it leads to an obvious question of why do some have so many layers at same place again and again? did it have any religious or social importance?

In conclusion, we can learn a great deal about prehistoric man in India, by observing cave art and other archaeological evidence. The themes of art have varied over time, with evolution of new ways of life. Development of different social, religious and other technology enabled them to speak and write languages, which is the beginning of history in modern sense. In next blog we will study about one of the earliest civilizations in the world "Indus valley civilization", why it is considered advanced urban civilization? why its classiified as proto historic period? and many more.