The rock art in these caves has been classified into various groups on the basis of the style and subject.
Upper Palaeolithic
Mesolithic
The paintings in this period are comparatively smaller in size. The linear representation of drawings are more stylish. Apart from animals, there are human figures. The hunting scenes clearly show the weapons like barbed spears, pointed sticks, bows and arrows used during those times.
The depiction of communal dances, birds, mother and child, pregnant women, men carrying dead animal, drinking etc, are seen in this rock shelter range.
Chalcolithic
The paintings in this period show that the cave dwellers of this area were in contact with the agricultural communities. They exchanged goods with them.
Early Historic
The paintings in this period are painted mostlty in red and white. The drawings have a schematic and decorative style. They mainly depict riders, religious symbols, tunic-like dresses, and the scripts of different periods.
Medival
The paintings in this period are geometric, linear and more schematic. The artistic style was crude when compared to earlier periods.
The picture below is taken at the first cave that you see as soon as one enters the cave complex. There are paintings of animals drawn in white color on the roof of the cave.
Upper Palaeolithic
The paintings in this period were mostly drawn using green and dark red colors as liner representations. The figures drawn were animals like bisons, boar.
Mesolithic
The paintings in this period are comparatively smaller in size. The linear representation of drawings are more stylish. Apart from animals, there are human figures. The hunting scenes clearly show the weapons like barbed spears, pointed sticks, bows and arrows used during those times.
Hunting scene
The depiction of communal dances, birds, mother and child, pregnant women, men carrying dead animal, drinking etc, are seen in this rock shelter range.
people dancing holding hands at the top and they are going for hunting at the bottom
Chalcolithic
The paintings in this period show that the cave dwellers of this area were in contact with the agricultural communities. They exchanged goods with them.
Early Historic
The paintings in this period are painted mostlty in red and white. The drawings have a schematic and decorative style. They mainly depict riders, religious symbols, tunic-like dresses, and the scripts of different periods.
Medival
The paintings in this period are geometric, linear and more schematic. The artistic style was crude when compared to earlier periods.
The picture below is taken at the first cave that you see as soon as one enters the cave complex. There are paintings of animals drawn in white color on the roof of the cave.
This place can be reached directly from Bhopal or from Bhojpur as I had done.
44 comments:
Hi Rajesh! The shelter was already impressive, but the paintings are awesome!! Wonderful post!!
Blogtrotter, which is always one year late in posting ;), headed to London December 2008. Enjoy and have a great week!
Fascinating and informative.
So interesting to see these records of so long ago. It is great that they have survived so we can get a glimpse into their world!
This is extremely interesting. Reminds me of prehistoric paintings in France. I am very intrigued by the cave painters, the beuaty of human art is ancient. Beautiful pictures.
Zuzana
Great shots of the cave paintings and a very interesting post too.
What a fascinating post, Rajesh! I loved reading about the caves and the paintings! Thanks for sharing such a great part of your world! Thanks as always for your visit to my blog and for your comment. They're always appreciated!!
Enjoy!
Sylvia
Old will be always Gold.
I'm always impressed by your posts here - photos are lovely and so many interesting stories behind!
Greetings:)
Great posting!
Fascinating paintings, Rajesh, and interesting to learn a little about life in the past through the pictures they drew, as well as make a connection with the people all those thousands of years ago who did the paintings. Your first photo of the deep red bison is beautiful.
Janice.
It is pretty fascinating to see these writings and trying to decipher them. Great post, as usual.
My goodness! Anthropologists must have years and years of work to do here! The caves would make a great field trip if you were a teacher, too!
The beginning of history! These are amazing paintings.
Hello Rajesh:)
Greetings:)
Many many thanks for showing these lovely paintings with an excellent narration which made me understand the life of our ancestors. It is bewildering to note the conditions in which they lived and the indomitable spirit they had for survival and leave their foot prints for posterity.
Have a lovely day Rajesh:)
Joseph
amazing! thank you for sharing
These are splendid cave paintings!
Very interesting and informative post!
Wow, incredible art. The earlier drawings are much more free and inventive than the medieval ones - see, we don't always move forward, sometimes we go back.
So much history! I love the glowing orange colour of the cave painting in that first photo.
The paintings are awesome!
This is beautiful and fantastic !! Would love to see them in a person some day !!Unseen Rajasthan
If only those wall could talk, what a wonderful tale they could tell. Your shots are amazing. Thanks for sharing this historic place in your world.
Rajesh: Very neat and wonderful that they have been preserved.
Really enjoyed seeing these cave paintings. It is amazing how bold the red color still is. Great pictures!
Thanks for showing photos of the actual paintings. Good post
Lovely set of photos,the paintings are so clear!
Thanks for sharing these fascinating paintings with us. You got some wonderful pictures.
Hi Rajesh, What a fantastic tour of the caves and the pictographs! It's lucky that the drawings are so well preserved - so many times there has been vandalism of these ancient treasures. Thanks for showing us!
Oh Rajesh.. Hats off to you for this fantastic post...!!! Loving the pics.. Loving your post.. Completely... So much.. Very much.. :)
Looking into the eyes at Savoir-Faire
Mallikarjunar Koil at My Travelogue
Wonderful post! Thanks!
cave art is wonderful. it pulls me back in time, instantly trying to imagine who and when and what this means. was it meaningful or a bit of fun. thank you for sharing these.
Amazing paintings! Would love to visit these caves!
Cave paintings are one of my favourites! It is truly amazing they have lasted over the years so we can view them and imagine how their lives were. Thank you for this.
Very nice trip to the ancient times. Very much enjoyed :)
Indian Myna [मैना]
It's amazing that they are still so well conserved after such a long time !
The top picture reminds me of cave paintings of Altamira
i wanna sleep under the shelter =p
rajesh
these are awesome! thanks for sharing
~laura
Thanks a lot for showing us this lovely snaps.
Protege, Kirigalpoththa: Thanks, it is amazing how similar art can be found in various parts of the world.
GMG, Sucharita, Carver, Sylvia, Hobo, Joo, John, Pam: Thanks for the appreciation.
Sarah, Diane, coffeedoff, Barb: Thanks, they have been preserved well.
Janice, Photo Cache, Jacob, Joseph: Thanks. Yes this paintings tell us about the lives of people in the past.
Deepak, SandyCarlson, magiceye, Pietro, LadyFi, Pinto, Bharath, JM: Thanks for the appreciation.
Wolynski: Thanks, I agree with you.
fufu: Thank you, it is noit for us.
Bhushavali, fishing guy, Joe, George, amatamari, Bhavesh, Laura: Thanks for the appreciation.
Tammie, Barbara, Gattina: Thanks. Yes this paintings tell us about the lives of people in the past.
ACTUALLY THE ROCK ART SITE WAS KNOWN TO THE LOCAL TRIBAL PEOPLE AND OTHER VILLAGERS FOR GENERATIONS. SINCE THE YEAR 1972 I VISIT THE SITE AT LEAST TWICE A YEAR. DR. YASHODHAR MATHPAL IS THE FIRST SCHOLAR WHO SYSTEMATICALLY STUDIED THE ROCK ART OF THE WHOLE AREA AND SUBMITTED HIS RESEARCH WORK AS A PH.D. DISSERTATION UNDER PROFESSOR V.N. MISRA OF THE DECCAN COLLEGE, PUNE. DR. MATHPAL IS KNOWN TO ME FOR LAST FEW DECADES AND HE IS A MOST DEVOTED PERSON IN THIS FIELD. THE MYSTERY OF BHIMBETKA IS IN THE PRESENCE OF SUCCESSIVE LAYERS OF STONE TOOL- BEARING DEPOSITS EXPOSED DURING EXCAVATIONS. ROCK ART IN BHIMBETKA HAD ORIGINATED DURING THE UPPER PALAEOLITHIC TO MESOLITHIC TRANSITORY PERIOD AND THE ART TRADITION HAD CONTINUED IN SUCCESSIVE PERIODS. EVEN THE ART TRADITION CONTINUED DURING EARLY HISTORIC PHASE AND THEREAFTER. THE BURIALS IN BHIMBETKA ROCK SHELTERS, THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MATERIALS FOUND FROM ROCK SHELTERS - ALL ARE ASSOCIATED TO THE VISUAL TRADITION OF ROCK ART WHICH ULTIMATELY INCORPORATED OR ASSIMILATED TO THE LOCAL TRIBAL TRADITION PARTICULARLY OF GOND - SPEAKING TRIBAL COMMUINITIES. BUT TO MY OWN ASSESSMENT, THE ROCK ART OF BHIMBETKA REGION EXHIBITS LIMITED VISUAL NARRATIVES ON COMMUNITY LIFE OF THE PERIODS. WHEREAS, SUCH ILLUSTRATIONS EXHIBITED LIFE- OPPORTUNITIES EXHAUSTIVELY AND MORE IN DETAIL IN ROCK PAINTINGS OF PACHMARHI REGION IN HOSHANGABAD DISTRICT OF MADHYA PRADESH. FOR FURTHER READING YOU MAY CONSULT THE FOLLOWING BOOK :
ROCK ART STUDIES IN INDIA : A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE. BY SOMNATH CHAKRAVERTY. PUBLISHED BY : THE ASIATIC SOCIETY . KOLKATA. IF NECESSARY, YOU MAY CONTACT THE FOLLOWING E-MAIL ADDRESS : somraja2008@gmail.com
DR. SOMNATH CHAKRAVERTY
KOLKATA
Informative
Wowo.. lots of info and nice clicks ..
Thanks for sharing
Bikram's
Loved the paintings.
Amazing. I have seen cave paintings before, but these are so bright and pure. Thanks for sharing.
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