Sandstone_deposits,_Near_Allahabad,_Uttar_Pradesh,_India

Baghor stone is an

Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...

archaeological object that was found in the

Son river Son River ( hi, सोन नदी, also spelt Sone River) is a perennial river located in central India. It originates near Amarkantak Hill in Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi district of Chhattisgarh and finally merges with the Ganges River near Pat ...

valley near the village of Medhauli, in the Sidhi District,

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

, India. The stone, interpreted as a cult object, was found at the site of Baghor I, which is located near the base of the Kaimur Escarpment. It was first excavated in 1980. Baghor stone is a natural triangular piece of local sandstone; it is rather colourful, and had been decorated with yellow pigment. These types of stones may be found on top of the escarpment. The Baghor site, with all its many lithic artefacts, is dated between 9000 B.C and 8000 B.C.

Site description

The site was first excavated under the direction of archaeologists G. R. Sharma of

Allahabad University , mottoeng = "As Many Branches So Many Trees" , established = , type = Public , chancellor = Ashish Chauhan , vice_chancellor = Sangita Srivastava , head_label ...

and

J. Desmond Clark John Desmond Clark (10 April 1916 – 14 February 2002) was a British archaeologist noted particularly for his work on prehistoric Africa. Early life Clark was born in London, but his childhood was spent in a hamlet in the Chiltern Hills of B ...

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

, and assisted by

Jonathan Mark Kenoyer Jonathan Mark Kenoyer (born 28 May 1952, in Shillong, India) is an American archaeologist and ''George F. Dales Jr. & Barbara A. Dales'' Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He earned his Bachelor of Arts, Master's ...

and J.N. Pal. This was determined as a short term occupation site. The floor was composed of rubble, and there was a lot of manufacturing waste from stone tool manufacture. Many varieties of backed blades and geometric microliths were found, as well as grinding stones and ring stones. Later, as a lot of material was removed, a stone platform was identified, with the Baghor triangular stone in the center. This platform was interpreted as a site for ritual ceremonies. Thus, it took archaeologists quite a lot of time to correctly identify the original role and meaning of the Baghor stone.

Shakti worship

Numerous ethnographic comparisons have been made between the palaeolithic site of Baghor I and some of the other sites in the area that are still being honoured today by local peoples. Thus, Baghor site has been interpreted as the earliest mother goddess shrine in the subcontinent.

Shakti In Hinduism, especially Shaktism (a theological tradition of Hinduism), Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति, IAST: Śakti; lit. "Energy, ability, strength, effort, power, capability") is the primordial cosmic energy, female in aspect, and rep ...

worship is one of the local personifications of this tradition. Specifically, the tribal groups Kol and Baiga, have been mentioned. Their primary subsistence has traditionally been hunting and gathering, and they currently worship at the sites rather similar to Baghor. These tribes have Dravidian affinities.

Notes

Bibliography

* * *{{cite journal, last1=Jones, first1=Sacha C., last2=Pal, first2=J.N., title=The Palaeolithic of the Middle Son valley, north-central India: Changes in hominin lithic technology and behaviour during the Upper Pleistocene, journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, volume=28, issue=3, year=2009, pages=323–341, issn=0278-4165, doi=10.1016/j.jaa.2009.05.003

External links

Spirituality in India - A Cultural Perspective/Roots of Indian spirituality
Archaeological sites in Madhya Pradesh Shaktism

Site description

Shakti worship

See also

Notes

Bibliography

External links