Prehistoric Cave Painting in India.

1. Indian Pre Historic Painting
Mrs. Shalini Tiwari
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Drawing & Painting
KMGGPGC Badalpur

2. Objectives:
The following are the aims and objectives of the present topic:
1. To systematically explore the prehistoric rock paintings in various parts of
Indian subcontinent.
1. To understand the subject matters, style and technique of different periods of
prehistoric rock art of India.

3. Prehistoric cave Painting
● Prehistory means before the history(Period of time before written records).
The past , when there was no existence of paper, language or script and
hence no books or written document, is called as the Prehistoric period.
● Cave paintings were the oldest art forms practiced by human beings to
express themselves using the cave wall as their canvas.
● Art of Prehistoric period can be categorised into three main historical
periods.
● 1. Paleolithic period 2. Mesolithic period 3. Neolithic period
● The Paleolithic period can be divided into three phases:

4. 1. Paleolithic period (4,00,000-10,000 years ago)
1. Lower Palaeolithic (4,00,000-1,00,000 years ago)
2. Middle Palaeolithic (1,00,000-40,000 years ago)
3. Upper Palaeolithic (40,000-10,000 years ago)
● We did not get any evidence of cave paintings from lower or middle
paleolithic age. We get the evidence of cave paintings in the upper
Palaeolithic period.
● In India, examples of rock paintings have been found in many states of India,
such as Madhy Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, andhra Pradesh,
Telangana and karnataka.

5. Characteristics of Paleolithic period:
1. Human figures are represented in a stick like form.
2. Subject matter of this period was confined to simple human figures, daily
activities, geometrical designs and symbols.
3. Paintings were divided into three catagories: Man, Animals like Bisons, tigers,
elephants and Rhinos, and Geometric Symbols.
4. Mainly Red and White colours were used in cave Paintings. But Black, yellow
and green colours were also there in the paintings.

6. 2. Mesolithic Period (10,000-4,000 years ago)
● In this period largest amount of paintings were found.
● Subject Matter:
1. In this period hunting scenes were found more than any other subject.
Hunters with spears, arrows, bows and pointed stick in groups are hunting
animals.
2. Scenes of daily life and community dance is also a common theme.
● Human & animal Figure: Animals were painted in naturalistic style and
humans were in stylistic manner.

7. 3. Neolithic Period:
● Belari was the main centre of Neolithic period.
● In this period human started doing farming.
● In this period we can see the use of pottery.
● In this period human figures were more realistic and common motifs were
used but vividness of older periods disappeared from these paintings.
● In rock Painting mineral colours were used such as haematite, lime
stone, Chalcedony etc.

8. Important Indian centres of prehistoric paintings:
1. Mirzapur(UP): Archibald Carlleyle and John Cockburn gave introduction to the
kaimur (Mirzapur) hill paintings in 1880 AD. There are so many centres of cave
paintings in Mirzapur district, such as Lakhania dari, Lohri, kohbar, vijaygarh and
Ahirora etc.
Famous Painting: Hunting scene of Sambhar using a spear and Barasingha.
Painting of poached wild pig.
1. Raigarh Area (Madhya Pradesh): Paintings of Singhanpur and kabra hill is very
famous of this area.
Famous Painting:

9. 3. Panchmarhi Area (Mahadev hills, MP):
Nimbubhoj, Mahadev, Bazar cave, Mandadev and Dorothi Island are some Important
centres of this area.
Famous Painting: Daily life scenes, hunting scenes, singing and dancing scenes.
4. Bhimbetka rock shelters(MP):
It is an example of the oldest known rock art in India. It is located in Raisen District of
Madhya Pradesh about 45 km. south east of Bhopal. It is a UNESCO World Heritage
Site that consists of over 750 rock shelters distributed over 10 km. It was discovered
in 1957-58 by Dr. Vishnu Shridhar wakanar.
Bhimbetka rock shelters spans the prehistoric Paleolithic and mesolithic periods. The
antiquity of Bhimbetka dated to nearly 1,00,000 years. This is a wonderful example of
human and cultural evolution from hunter- gatherers to agriculture.
There are more than four hundred rock paintings and the earliest are about 10,000
years old, corresponding to the Mesolithic period.

10. ● Colour: Colours made by grinding various coloured rocks such as red from haematite,
white from lime stone, black from Charcoal or burnt bones, green from Chalcedony,
yellow from Yellow stone ( Ramraj).
● There are 20 layers of paintings, which shows the development of culture from period
to period.
● Subject matter: Social life, hunting scenes,animals were painted mainly.
● Style: 1. Naturalistic 2. Geometric 3. Abstract
5. Uttarakhand: In Uttarakhand Almora, kumaon and Garhwal regions are famous for
Pictographs and Petroglyphs.
6. Andhra Pradesh: ketavaram in kurnool, Chinnaur
7. Tamilnadu: Madurai, Nilgris and South & North Arcot district
8. Karnataka: Kalagadi group at Ramdurga in Belgaon district, Badami, Aihole and
Pattadakal.

11. Prehistoric Rock Paintings:
Source: http://www.mptourism.com/places/bhimbetka-caves-rock-shelters.htm

12. Source: http://www.mptourism.com/places/bhimbetka-caves-rock-shelters.htm

13. Source: https://www.123RF.com

14. Source: https://www.openart.in

15. Source: https://eindiaartfestival.com

16. References:
1. Agrawal, R.C.,2005, study of Indian Rock Art : A General Survey, Rock Art Society of
India, Vol. 14-15, 2005
2. Neumayer, E., 1992, Rock Art in India, in M. Lorblanchet (ed.) Rock Art in the Old
World
3. Mitra, P. 1927, Prehistoric India, Calcutta
4. Pandey, S.k.,1992, Central India Rock Art, in M. Lorblanchet (ed.) Rock Art in the Old
World
5. Tewari Rakesh, 1992, Rock Paintings of mirzapur in Uttar pradesh, in M. Lorblanchet
(ed.) Rock Art in the Old World, New Delhi
6. Gordon, D.H.,1958. The Prehistoric Background of Indian Culture, Bombay

17. Links & Suggestive readings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6AApsTJsWQ
1. Avinash Bahadur Verma - Bhartiya ChitraKala Ka itihas
2. G.K. Agrawal- Kala aur Kalam
3. Percy Brown - Indian Paintings