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The history of cave paintings in India or rock art range from drawings and paintings from prehistoric times, beginning in the caves of Central India, typified by those at the Bhimbetka rock shelters from around 10,000 BP, to elaborate frescoes at sites such as the rock-cut artificial caves at Ajanta and Ellora, extending as late as 6th–10th century CE.
Archaeologists discovered cave paintings and tools in Mangar Bani hill forest in May 2021; the cave paintings are estimated to be 10,000 years old. These are believed to be the largest in the Indian subcontinent and possibly the world's oldest. [1] [2] It is likely the largest paleolithic site in the Indian subcontinent and this is the first time cave paintings have been found in Aravalli. According to the Haryana Archaeology and Museums Department, "On the basis of this exploration, it can be said that this may be one of the biggest Palaeolithic sites in the Indian sub-continent, where stone age tools were recovered from different open-air sites as well as from rock shelters. Though tools from the Palaeolithic Age have been identified earlier in parts of the Aravallis, it is for the first time that cave paintings and rock art of a large magnitude have been found in Haryana."[ citation needed ]
Cave painting is a type of rock art that includes petroglyphs, or engravings, found on the wall or ceilings of caves. Mangarbani hill forest is a Palaeolithic site with rock art as well as cave paintings. It is believed to be the largest in the Indian subcontinent and possibly the world's oldest. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
On the basis of tool topology, it can be said that the date of prehistoric habitation at the site may be from about 100,000 to about 15,000 years ago. But we have also found evidence of later habitation, even up to 8th–9th century AD
— Banani Bhattacharyya, Deputy Director of Haryana Archaeology & Museums Department., Prehistoric stone age site in Faridabad’s Mangar Bani could a lakh years old: Archaeologists, The Indian Express
Cave paintings are found in Hiregudda which is near Badami.
The Bhimbetka rock shelters are an archaeological site in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India that spans several prehistoric periods. [7] [8] It exhibits the earliest traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent and evidence of Stone Age habitation starting at the site in Acheulian times. [9] [10] [11] It is located in the Raisen District southeast of Bhopal. Bhimbetka is a UNESCO world heritage site that consists of seven hills and over 750 rock shelters distributed over 10 kilometres (6.2 mi). [8] [12] At least some of the shelters were inhabited more than 100,000 years ago. [8] [13]
Some of the Bhimbetka rock shelters feature prehistoric cave paintings of which the oldest date from 10,000 years BP, corresponding to the Indian Mesolithic. [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] The paintings show themes such as animals, and early evidence of dancing and hunting. [19] [20] The Bhimbetka site has the oldest known rock art in the Indian subcontinent, [21] and is one of the largest prehistoric complexes. [22] [23]
Odisha has the richest repository of rock art in Eastern India. The state has recorded more than a hundred rock shelters with rock paintings and engravings. Numerous geometric symbols, dots and lines are found along with animals, and human paintings and engravings dating from late Pleistocene onwards. Many of the geometric shape and patterns found in rock art of Odisha are enigmatic in nature. Painted figures have been found executed in monochrome, red and white or sometimes in combination with shades of yellow color. [24]
The rock shelter of Gudahandi is located on the summit of the hillock and situated about 20 km from Block headquarters Koksara in Kalahandi district. [25] The rock art shelter exhibits both monochrome and bi-chrome paintings of early historic period. It is the only reported rock art site of Kalahandi district. [26] The rock art panel preserves the specimen of paintings which include a stylized human figure in red, deer and a variety of geometric patterns of squares and rectangles either empty or in filled with straight and diagonal lines or with dots on the borders grid patterns, wheels with spokes, apsidal patterns, oval shapes with dots executed either in monochrome of red or in polychrome of red, blue and black. [27] [28] [29]
The rock painting of the Yogimatha (10th millennium BCE) [30] of Nuapada District of Odisha which was an older script in India. The script 'Ga', and 'o' (tha) was discovered from Yogimatha rock painting, this painting saw a person with four animals and write some alphabet. That painting created a word Like "Gaitha" (very popular Odia word at present 'Gotha' or 'group' in English). This art closely related to this alphabet. This alphabet has similarity to Dhauli and Jaugada Inscription's script of Ashok. It was the ancient form of Indian script, and it is the first glimpse of possible origin of the Odia language and script. [31] [32]
In Tamil Nadu, ancient Paleolithic cave paintings are found in Padiyendhal, Alampadi, Kombaikadu, Kilvalai, Settavarai and Nehanurpatti. The paintings have not been dated, but they could be around 30,000 to 10,000 years old, as they use similar art form of Bhimbetka rock shelters in Bhopal.[ citation needed ]
In the Nilagiri Hills, they are also found in Kumittipathi, Mavadaippu and Karikkiyur. In Theni District they are found in the Andipatti Hills.
There are known more than 10,000 locations around India containing murals from this period, mainly natural caves and rock-cut chambers. [33] The highest achievements of this time are the caves of Ajanta, Bagh, Sittanavasal, Armamalai Cave (Tamil Nadu), Ravan Chhaya rock shelter, Kailasanatha temple in Ellora Caves.
The Frescoes of Ajanta are paintings in the Ajanta Caves which are situated near Aurangabad in Maharashtra. The caves are carved out of large rocks. Inside many of the caves are frescoes.
Frescoes are paintings which are done on wet plaster in which colours become fixed as the plaster dries. The Ajanta Frescoes have a special importance of their own. They are found on the walls and ceilings at Ajanta. The paintings reflect different phases of Indian Culture from jain tirthankar mahaveer's birth to his nirvana [34] in the 8th century AD.
The frescoes have degraded slightly, due to the effect of flash photography. Photography here is not banned. They depict themes of court life, feasting, processions, men and women at work, festivals, various natural scenes including animals, birds and flowers. The artists used shading to give a three-dimensional effect.
1500m away to the north of Ajanta, beautiful frescoes have been found. Though the themes in these paintings are both secular and religious, they do depict some aspect of Buddhist life and rituals. One of the most famous paintings show a procession of elephants. Another depicts a dancer and women musicians. These have been influenced by Ajanta style of paintings. These frescoes show a strong resemblance to the frescoes of Sigiriya in Sri Lanka.
The Ellora Caves are located about 18 miles from the city of Aurangabad in the Chamadari Hills. Pre-historic paintings were engraved in five Ellora Caves. The Ellora paintings can be organized in two series. The first set of paintings depicts images of the goddess Lakshmi and Lord Vishnu and was developed while the caves were engraved. The second set of images focuses on images of Lord Shiva with his followers, Apsaras, etc. and was developed centuries after the formation of the caves.
The Bagh Caves are located in the Dhar District of Madhya Pradesh on the banks of the Baghani River. There were originally nine caves cut in the lofty hills, but four of them have been destroyed. The paintings in these caves were engraved in the time period of 500 to 700 CE.
The decorative cave paintings are located in Sittanavasal village in Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu. [35] [36] They are reported to provide a link between the Ajanta paintings (4th–6th century AD) and the Chola paintings of 11th century at Thanjavur. [35] The ceilings have depiction of a lotus tank with natural looking images of men, animals, flowers, birds and fishes representing the Samavasarana faith of Jainism. The pillars are also carved with dancing girl and the king and the queen. Frescoes that have been preserved on the top parts of columns and ceilings inside the temple are mostly typical of the 9th century Pandyan period. [37] [38]
Built by Vedic dynasty, Satavahana.
In archaeology, cave paintings are a type of parietal art, found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 years old and found in the caves in the district of Maros. The oldest are often constructed from hand stencils and simple geometric shapes. More recently, in 2021, cave art of a pig found in Sulawesi, Indonesia, and dated to over 45,500 years ago, has been reported.
The Bhimbetka rock shelters are an archaeological site in central India that spans the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, as well as the historic period. It exhibits the earliest traces of human life in India and evidence of the Stone Age starting at the site in Acheulian times. It is located in the Raisen District in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, about 45 kilometres (28 mi) south-east of Bhopal. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that consists of seven hills and over 750 rock shelters distributed over 10 km (6.2 mi). At least some of the shelters were inhabited more than 100,000 years ago. The rock shelters and caves provide evidence of human settlement and the cultural evolution from hunter-gatherers to agriculture, and expressions of prehistoric spirituality.
Indian art consists of a variety of art forms, including painting, sculpture, pottery, and textile arts such as woven silk. Geographically, it spans the entire Indian subcontinent, including what is now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and at times eastern Afghanistan. A strong sense of design is characteristic of Indian art and can be observed in its modern and traditional forms.
Rock-cut architecture is the creation of structures, buildings, and sculptures by excavating solid rock where it naturally occurs. Intensely laborious when using ancient tools and methods, rock-cut architecture was presumably combined with quarrying the rock for use elsewhere. Though, in India and China, the terms cave and cavern are often applied to this form of man-made architecture, caves and caverns that began in natural form are not considered to be rock-cut architecture even if extensively modified. Although rock-cut structures differ from traditionally built structures in many ways, many rock-cut structures are made to replicate the facade or interior of traditional architectural forms. Interiors were usually carved out by starting at the roof of the planned space and then working downward. This technique prevents stones falling on workers below. The three main uses of rock-cut architecture were temples, tombs, and cave dwellings.
Sittanavasal Cave is a 2nd-century Tamil Śramaṇa complex of caves in Sittanavasal village in Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu, India. Its name is a distorted form of Sit-tan-na-va-yil, a Tamil word which means "the abode of great saints".
The South Asian Stone Age covers the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods in the Indian subcontinent. Evidence for the most ancient Homo sapiens in South Asia has been found in the cave sites of Cudappah of India, Batadombalena and Belilena in Sri Lanka. In Mehrgarh, in what is today western Pakistan, the Neolithic began c. 7000 BCE and lasted until 3300 BCE and the first beginnings of the Bronze Age. In South India, the Mesolithic lasted until 3000 BCE, and the Neolithic until 1400 BCE, followed by a Megalithic transitional period mostly skipping the Bronze Age. The Iron Age in India began roughly simultaneously in North and South India, around c. 1200 to 1000 BCE.
Indian rock-cut architecture is more various and found in greater abundance in that country than any other form of rock-cut architecture around the world. Rock-cut architecture is the practice of creating a structure by carving it out of solid natural rock. Rock that is not part of the structure is removed until the only rock left makes up the architectural elements of the excavated interior. Indian rock-cut architecture is mostly religious in nature.
The Kalinga script or Southern Nagari is a Brahmic script used in the region of what is now modern-day Odisha, India and was primarily used to write Odia language in the inscriptions of the kingdom of Kalinga which was under the reign of early Eastern Ganga dynasty. By the 12th century, with the defeat of the Somavamshi dynasty by the Eastern Ganga monarch Anantavarman Chodaganga and the subsequent reunification of the Trikalinga(the three regions of ancient Odra- Kalinga, Utkala and Dakshina Koshala) region, the Kalinga script got replaced by the Siddhaṃ script-derived Proto-Oriya script which became the ancestor of the modern Odia script.
Surajkund is an ancient reservoir of the 10th century located on Southern Delhi Ridge of Aravalli range in Faridabad city of Haryana state about 8 km from South Delhi. Surajkund is an artificial Kund built in the backdrop of the Aravalli hills with an amphitheatre shaped embankment constructed in semicircular form. It is said to have been built by the king Surajpal of the Tomara dynasty in the 10th century. Tomar, a younger son of Anangpal Tomar – the ruler of Delhi, was a sun worshipper and he had therefore built a Sun temple on its western bank. Surajkund is known for its annual fair "Surajkund International Craft Mela", 2015 edition of this fair was visited by 1.2 million visitors including 160,000 foreigners with more than 20 countries participating in it.
Subrat Kumar Prusty is an Indian Odia-language scholar, activist, social entrepreneur, literary critic and author. He is Member Secretary of the Institute of Odia Studies and Research, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He was instrumental in preparing the research documents, advocating the awarding of Classical Language status to Odia, forming Central Institute of Classical Odia, Odia University and implementation of the Odisha Official Language Act, 1954. He was awarded the Presidential Certificate of Honour and Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman – 2019 for Classical Odia.
The Pahargarh caves are a cave complex containing prehistoric paintings in Madhya Pradesh, India, near the village of Pahargarh, 58 km southwest of Morena. The most prominent of the caves is known locally as Likhichhaj.
The Ambadevi rock shelters are part of an extensive cave site, where the oldest yet known traces of human life in the central province of the Indian subcontinent were discovered. The site is located in the Satpura Range of the Gawilgarh Hills in Betul District of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, north of Dharul village in Amravati district of Maharashtra. Studies of various rock paintings and petroglyphs present in the caves suggest, that the Ambadevi rock shelters were inhabited by prehistoric human settlers since around 25,000 years ago. First discoveries of clusters of numerous rock shelters and caves were made by Vijay Ingole and his team beginning on 27 January 2007. Named after the nearby ancient Ambadevi Cave Temple, the site has also been referred to as the Satpura-Tapti valley caves and the Gavilgarh-Betul rock shelters. The Ambadevi rock shelters rank among the most important archaeological discoveries of the early 21st Century in India, on par with the 20th Century discovery of the Bhimbetka rock shelters.
The Buddhist caves in India. Maharashtra state Aurangabad Dist. Ellora caves form an important part of Indian rock-cut architecture, and are among the most prolific examples of rock-cut architecture around the world. There are more than 1,500 known rock cut structures in India, out of which about 1000 were made by Buddhists, 300 by Hindus, and 200 by Jains. Many of these structures contain works of art of global importance, and many later caves from the Mahayana period are adorned with exquisite stone carvings. These ancient and medieval structures represent significant achievements of structural engineering and craftsmanship.
Mangar Bani, a paleolithic archaeological site and sacred grove hill forest next to the Mangar village on Delhi-Haryana border,which is dominated by Gurjar community;is in the South Delhi Ridge of Aravalli mountain range in Faridabad tehsil of Faridabad district in the Indian state of Haryana. It lies, immediate south of India's national capital Delhi, within NCR.This whole area is dominated by Gurjar Community.
Gudahandi also known as 'Gudahandi Hills' and 'Gudahandi Caves' is a pre-historic site in Odisha, India. It is located in the Ampani sanctuary of Kalahandi district of Odisha. It is close to the Nabarangpur district Border and about 17 km and 88 km away from Ampani and District Headquarters Bhawanipatna respectively.
Yogimath is situated in Nuapada district at a distance of about 9 km from Khariar western Odisha border area and 67 km from Bhawanipatna of Kalahandi District. This place is famous for its neolithic cave paintings. In Yogimath caves the paintings are drawn by red paint over rock surfaces. The most significant pictures are of a bull followed by cow, calf and a man indicating the domestication of animal by man and agriculture. The past glory of this place is still unexplored. Near Yogimath, there is a mountain named Risipiti which is well known for producing clear echoes.
Anangpur is a historical village located near Faridabad in Haryana, India. Anangpur forms a geographical triangle along with Mehrauli and Tugluqabad. It was the earliest settlement of the Tomara dynasty. Anangpur was the capital of the Tomar king, Anangpal Tomar I.
The microlithic occupation there is the last one, as the Stone Age started there with Acheulian times. These rock shelters have been used to light fires even up to recent times by the tribals. This is re-fleeted in the scatter of 14C dates from Bhimbetka
the rock shelter site of Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh exhibits the earliest traces of human life
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