The Bhimbetka rock shelters are an archaeological site in central India that spans the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

and

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...

periods, as well as the historic period. It exhibits the earliest traces of human life in India and evidence of

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

starting at the site in

Acheulian Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French ''acheuléen'' after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated ...

times. It is located in the Raisen District in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh about south-east of Bhopal. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that consists of seven hills and over 750 rock shelters distributed over .Javid, Ali and Javeed, Tabassum (2008), ''World Heritage Monuments and Related Edifices in India'', Algora Publishing, 2008, pages 15–19 At least some of the shelters were inhabited more than 100,000 years ago. The rock shelters and caves provide evidence of, according to Encyclopædia Britannica, a "rare glimpse" into human settlement and cultural evolution from hunter-gatherers, to agriculture, and expressions of prehistoric spirituality. Some of the Bhimbetka rock shelters feature prehistoric

cave painting In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 ye ...

s and the earliest are about 10,000 years old (c. 8,000 BCE), corresponding to the Indian

. These cave paintings show themes such as animals, early evidence of dance and hunting from the Stone Age as well as of warriors on horseback from a later time (perhaps the Bronze Age). The Bhimbetka site has the oldest-known rock art in India, as well as is one of the largest prehistoric complexes. The Bhimbetka shelters also contain fossils from the Precambrian, hundreds of millions of years before the human era, including the enigmatic basal animal

Dickinsonia ''Dickinsonia'' is an extinct genus of basal animal that lived during the late Ediacaran period in what is now Australia, China, Russia and Ukraine. The individual ''Dickinsonia'' typically resembles a bilaterally symmetrical ribbed oval. Its a ...

Location

The Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka is 45 kilometres south-east of Bhopal and 9 km from

Obedullaganj Obedullaganj is a town and a nagar panchayat in Raisen district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is situated 70 km from its district headquarter Raisen and 36 km from its state capital city Bhopal. Demographics India census, ...

city in the Raisen District of Madhya Pradesh at the southern edge of the

Vindhya The Vindhya Range (also known as Vindhyachal) () is a complex, discontinuous chain of mountain ridges, hill ranges, highlands and plateau escarpments in west-central India. Technically, the Vindhyas do not form a single mountain range in the ...

Range. South of these rock shelters are successive ranges of the

Satpura The Satpura Range is a range of hills in central India. The range rises in eastern Gujarat running east through the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and ends in Chhattisgarh. The range parallels the Vindhya Range to the north, and th ...

hills. It is inside the ''

Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary The Ratapani Tiger Reserve, located in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, in Vindhya Range in central India, is one of the finest teak forests in the state and is less than away from the capital Bhopal. It has been a wildlife sanctuary s ...

'', embedded in sandstone rocks, in the foothills of the Vindhya Range.Bhimbetka rock shelters
Encyclopædia Britannica The site consists of seven hills: Vinayaka, Bhonrawali, Bhimbetka, Lakha Juar (east and west), Jhondra and Muni Babaki Pahari.

Background

Etymology

Bhimbetka meaning ''"Bhima's resting place"'' or ''"Bhima's lounge"'', is compound word made of ''

Bhima In Hindu epic Mahabharata, Bhima ( sa, भीम, ) is the second among the five Pandavas. The ''Mahabharata'' relates many events that portray the might of Bhima. Bhima was born when Vayu, the wind god, granted a son to Kunti and Pandu. Af ...

'' (second brother among the five Pandavas of Mahabharata) and ''Baithaka'' (seat or lounge). According to the native belief, Bhima during his exile used to rest here to interact with the locals.himbetka: An Accidental Find
Outlook, 22 June 2020.

History

1 of the rock shelter caves at Bhimbetka, Madhya Pradesh

W. Kincaid, a British India era official, first mentioned Bhimbetka in a scholarly paper in 1888. He relied on the information he gathered from local adivasis (tribals) about Bhojpur lake in the area and referred to Bhimbetka as a Buddhist site.Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka: Continuity through Antiquity, Art & Environment
Archaeological Survey of India, UNESCO, page 54 The first archaeologist to visit a few caves at the site and discover its prehistoric significance was

V. S. Wakankar Vishnu Shridhar Wakankar (4 May 1919 – 3 April 1988) was an Indian archeologist. Wakankar is credited with the discovery of the Bhimbetka rock caves in 1957 and the Kayatha culture in 1964, among others. In 2003, UNESCO inscribed the Bhimbetka ...

, who saw these rock formations and thought these were similar to those he had seen in Spain and France. He visited the area with a team of archaeologists and reported several prehistoric rock shelters in 1957. It was only in the 1970s that the scale and true significance of the Bhimbetka rock shelters was discovered and reported. Since then, more than 750 rock shelters have been identified. The Bhimbetka group contains 243 of these, while the Lakha Juar group nearby has 178 shelters. According to Archaeological Survey of India, the evidence suggests that there has been a continuous human settlement here from the

through the late

to the late

until the 2nd century BCE in these caves. This is based on excavations at the site, the discovered artifacts and wares, pigments in deposits, as well as the rock paintings.Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka: Continuity through Antiquity, Art & Environment
Archaeological Survey of India, UNESCO, pages 15–16, 22–23, 45, 54–60 The site contains the world's oldest stone walls and floors. Barkheda has been identified as the source of the raw materials used in some of the monoliths discovered at Bhimbetka. The site consisting of 1,892 hectares was declared as protected under Indian laws and came under the management of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1990. It was declared as a world heritage site by UNESCO in 2003.

Dickinsonia fossils

Dickinsonia fossils found at Bhimbetka , the first discovery of the ''Late

Late Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

(c. 635–541

mya Mya may refer to: Brands and product names * Mya (program), an intelligent personal assistant created by Motorola * Mya (TV channel), an Italian Television channel * Midwest Young Artists, a comprehensive youth music program Codes * Burmese ...

) fossil Dickinsonia'' in India, are similar to

tenuis from the Ediacara Member of Ediacara Hills in South Australia. Fossils were found within the sandstone of Bhander Group of Vindhyan Supergroup mixed with sand deposits ( aeolian processes ,

tsunami deposit A tsunami deposit (the term tsunamiite is also sometimes used) is a sedimentary unit deposited as the result of a tsunami. Such deposits may be left onshore during the inundation phase or offshore during the 'backwash' phase. Such deposits are us ...

s (tsunamite), and intertidal

facies In geology, a facies ( , ; same pronunciation and spelling in the plural) is a body of rock with specified characteristics, which can be any observable attribute of rocks (such as their overall appearance, composition, or condition of formatio ...

(rock deposits in intertidal zone). The research findings support the conclusion about the formation of Gondwanaland by 550 Ma, but does not support the true

polar wander Polar wander is the motion of a pole in relation to some reference frame. It can be used, for example, to measure the degree to which Earth's magnetic poles have been observed to move relative to the Earth's rotation axis. It is also possible to use ...

(movement of earth's magnetic poles relative to the Earth's rotation axis) as the conclusion show that the Cloudina lived in tropical to subtropical climates, whereas Dickinsonia lived in temperate to subtropical.

Auditorium cave

Of the numerous shelters, the Auditorium cave is one of the significant features of this site. Surrounded by quartzite towers which are visible from several kilometres' distance, the Auditorium rock is the largest shelter at Bhimbetka. Robert G. Bednarik describes the prehistoric Auditorium cave as one with a "cathedral-like" atmosphere, with "its Gothic arches and soaring spaces". Its plan resembles a "right-angled cross" with four of its branches aligned to the four cardinal directions. The main entrance points to the east. At the end of this eastern passage, at the cave's entrance, is a boulder with a near-vertical panel that is distinctive, one visible from distance and all directions. In archaeology literature, this boulder has been dubbed as "Chief's Rock" or "King's Rock", though there is no evidence of any rituals or its role as such. The boulder with the Auditorium cave is the central feature of the Bhimbetka, midst its 754 numbered shelters spread over few kilometres on either side, and nearly 500 locations where rock paintings can be found, states Bednarik.Robert G Bednarik (1996), The cupules on Chief's Rock, Auditorium Cave, Bhimbetka, The Artifact: Journal of the Archaeological and Anthropological Society of Victoria, Volume 19, pages 63–71

Rock art and paintings

The rock shelters and caves of Bhimbetka have a large number of paintings. The oldest paintings are found to be 10,000 years old, but some of the geometric figures date to as recently as the medieval period. The colours used are vegetable colours which have endured through time because the drawings were generally made deep inside a niche or on inner walls. The drawings and paintings can be classified under seven different periods. Period I – ( Upper Paleolithic): These are linear representations in green of humans dancing and hunting. Period II – (

): Comparatively small in size the stylised figures in this group show linear decorations on the body. In addition to animals there are human figures and hunting scenes, giving a clear picture of the weapons they used: barbed spears, pointed sticks,

bows and arrows The bow and arrow is a ranged weapon system consisting of an elastic launching device (bow) and long-shafted projectiles (arrows). Humans used bows and arrows for hunting and aggression long before recorded history, and the practice was common t ...

. Some scenes are interpreted as depicting tribal war between three tribes symbolised by their animal totems. The depiction of communal dances, birds, musical instruments, mothers and children, pregnant women, men carrying dead animals, drinking and burials appear in rhythmic movement.Yashodhar Mathpal, 1984
Prehistoric Painting Of Bhimbetka
Page 214.M. L. Varad Pande, Manohar Laxman Varadpande, 1987
History of Indian Theatre
Volume 1, Page 57.Dance In Indian Painting
Page xv. Period III – ( Chalcolithic) Similar to the paintings of the Mesolithic, these drawings reveal that during this period the cave dwellers of this area were in contact with the agricultural communities of the Malwa plains, exchanging goods with them. Period IV & V – (Early historic): The figures of this group have a schematic and decorative style and are painted mainly in red, white and yellow. The association is of riders, depiction of religious symbols, tunic-like dresses and the existence of scripts of different periods. The religious beliefs are represented by figures of yakshas, tree gods and magical sky chariots. Period VI & VII – (Medieval): These paintings are geometric linear and more schematic, but they show degeneration and crudeness in their artistic style. The colors used by the cave dwellers were prepared by combining black manganese oxides, red

hematite Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...

and

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

. One rock, popularly referred to as "Zoo Rock", depicts elephants, barasingha (swamp deer),

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...

and deer. Paintings on another rock show a peacock, a snake, a deer and the sun. On another rock, two elephants with tusks are painted. Hunting scenes with hunters carrying bows,

arrow An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers c ...

sword A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...

s, and shields also find their place in the community of these pre-historic paintings. In one of the caves, a bison is shown in pursuit of a hunter while his two companions appear to stand helplessly nearby; in another, some horsemen are seen, along with archers. In one painting, a large wild bovine (possibly a gaur or

) is seen. The paintings are classified largely in two groups, one as depictions of hunters and food gatherers, and in others as fighters, riding on horses and elephant carrying metal weapons. The first group of paintings date to prehistoric times while second one dates to historic times. Most of the paintings from the historic period depict battles between rulers carrying swords, spears, bows and arrows. In one of the desolate rock shelters, the painting of a man holding a trident-like staff and dancing has been nicknamed "

Nataraj Nataraja () also known as Adalvallaan () is a depiction of the Hindu god Shiva as the divine cosmic dancer. His dance is called Tandava.''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (2015) The pose and artwork are described in many Hindu texts such as the ''T ...

" by archaeologist

. It is estimated that paintings in at least 100 rock shelters might have eroded away. File:Dancing painting at Bhimbetka.jpg, Mesolithic dancers File:Rock Shelter 15, Bhimbetka 02.jpg, A man being attacked by a horned bovine. File:Bhimbetka rock paintng1.jpg, people hunting animal File:Bhimbetka Cave Paintings.jpg, People riding horses holding weapons File:Rock Shelter at Bhimbetka.jpg, Man riding elephant File:Bhimbetka Natraj painting.jpg, An eroded painting in the caves showing a man dancing and holding a trident-like staff

Similar sites in India

Other misolithic sites with cave art, tools, paintings, etc are Anangpur caves ( Faridabad) and Mangar Bani Caves ( Gurugram) in Delhi NCR, and

Pahargarh caves 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 paintings were discover ...

(

Morena Morena is the headquarter city of Morena district, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is governed by a municipality corporation. It is also the administrative headquarters of the Chambal division. It is from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. G ...

) in Madhya Pradesh.

References

External links

UNESCO World Heritage: Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka

The Rock Art of Central India

TRACCE Online Rock Art Bulletin photogallery by Sarbanidas Roy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhimbetka Rock Shelters World Heritage Sites in India Caves of Madhya Pradesh Archaeological sites in Madhya Pradesh Tourist attractions in Bhopal Prehistoric art in India Tourist attractions in Raisen district Rock art in India Caves containing pictograms in India Rock shelters World Heritage Sites in Madhya Pradesh