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Home , Upper Paleolithic

ARTICLE

PRIMITIVE PICASSOS OF BHIMBETKA

SHEFALIKA GHOSH SAMADDAR*

"Good artists copy, great artists steal.." – Pablo Picasso

he famous painting of Spanish Civil War, Spain, thousands and thousands . My recent visit to 1937, Guernica, by Pablo Picasso is a powerful Bhimbetka compels me to bow down my head with all my Treflection on the horrors of war. This painting and humility to these primitive Picassos of pre-historic days. others made Pablo Picasso a name recognized as the father of a new of painting 'Analytical Cubism'. Analytic cubists of that period depicted natural forms by reducing the forms into basic geometric forms on the two- dimensional picture plane. Color was almost non-existent except for the use of a monochromatic scheme of grey, blue and . Analytic cubists focused on geometrical forms to represent the natural world that Picasso has discovered. Yes, he has discovered, not invented as the technique and presentation in the same style but in purely two dimensions was unearthed from the pre-historic of Bhimbetka to our surprise. If Picasso can paint a figure with a nose above the eyes using the perspective of Analytical Cubism, these nameless pre- historic cavemen had Bhimbetka is a very unassuming site. the same perspective artists painted their fears, hopes and other lifestyle without a modern elements of gathering and community on rocks as definition to their canvas. The continuous forest from Bhimbetka to represent a female Ratapani Wild Life Sanctuary provides an opportunity for figure with breasts trekking and thereby discovering these wonders as these coming in a vertical come on your way. There is numerous rock climbing sites sequence using the through the forest in the Sanctuary area. The Old Fort of concept of what I the Gond Tribes is an added attraction. should name as Analytical Squarisim! The perspective to depict the world around remained unchanged over the

* Motilal Nehru National Institute of , Allahabad. e-mail : [email protected]

102 SCIENCE AND CULTURE, MARCH-APRIL, 2010 Mythical Boar, Bhoranwali, Bhimbetka is said to be the Pandava's palace, built of lakh. Bhim used to sit on the stones for taking rest while roaming in There are 750 rock shelters of Bhimbetka out of which the forest. 500 are having rock paintings of different style, color and period. These natural rock formations of massive sandstone outcrops were the habitat for Stone Age people. The overhanging rock ledges gave them shelter from heat and cold and the adjoining forest was the source of water, edible plants, fruits and wild animals.

Bhimbetka enjoyed continuous habitation from the Early Stone Age providing enough evidence of cultural sequences of each distinctive period over 35000 years and happens to be one of the earliest dwellings of human beings all over the world. The pre historic caves are in true sense called "the portal to the ancient gallery of The rock shelters has been painted from the Bhimbetka" which preserves some fascinating paintings period right through to the Historical period dating back to times even over one hundred with different motifs, indicative of continuous culture and millennium. The creation of canvas in the form of stone life. It is a virtual prehistoric panorama of the dawn of floors; left behind handaxes, cleavers, scrapers to remove human civilization, filled with hunting and battle scenes and all kinds of animals such as 's, buffalos, flesh and fat from the skin of slaughtered animals, stone rhinoceros, bears and making it the biggest repository hand mills for grinding grain and nuts and tiny needles of prehistoric in India. made from hard quartz in all its sharp and colorful forms are available from this site and preserved in the State Museum of Bhopal for display.

Rock paintings at Zoo-rock, Bhimbetka

Bhimabetaka or Bhimbetka/ Bhimabetaka (2405'N and 76045'E) is 45 kilometers south of Bhopal of Raisen district near the Bhiyapura village of Madhya Pradesh, situated along the Bhopal-Hoshangabad highway, in the northern fringes of the ancient Vindhyachal range. South of these rock shelters are successive ranges of the Satpura hills. Bhimbetka derives its name from Bhim-betka or Bhim The Bhimabetaka hillocks are made of sandstone. The Baithaka implying the seating place of Bhim, the second caves of Bhimbetka present a breathtaking view even from Pandava, a legendary figure, one of Panch Pandavas, from as far as Obaidullaganj, a small town in the vicinity of the longest epic in the world, the Mahabharata. It is said Bhimbetka. These hillocks are surrounded by evergreen that banished from their kingdom, they came here and forest. There are residues of Brahmi scripts which are stayed in these caves. There are other places to support considered an ancient script of writing. In the 10th century, of this theory. It is the resemblance in names of the nearby King Bhojraj started building a temple of Shiva which is places with the names of the Pandavas that happens to having the largest Shivalingam in the world. The be the basis of this theory. One of the villages is known construction remained incomplete over the centuries as Pandapur, while Bhiyapura itself is believed to be a glorifying the glimpse of majestic architecture on which it distortion of Bhimpura, the surrounding Lakhajuhar forest was to build upon. The Bhojpur temple still remained a

VOL. 76, NOS. 3–4 103 human habitat. There are evidence of usage of stages and animal sheds. Bhimabetaka, through its numerous rock weapons, , ceramics, graveyard, human skeleton unearthed from the burial and bones of animals, provided enough evidence of early unwritten human civilization.

Welcome to a Hero, © K. L. Kamat

Hunting a deer (© K. L. Kamat) Notice the grass in the deer's stomach. place of attraction for devotees as as for the connoisseurs of art and culture.

The rock caves at Encircling the prey, © K. L. Kamat Bhimbetka are elevated from the valley making it moderately flood The caves of Bhimbetka were discovered in 1957-58 resistant, though the caves were by an intrepid archaeologist from Vikram University, Ujjain, submerged in water over a long Dr. Vishnu S Wakankar. UNESCO citation declaring the period of time. Some of the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka as a World Heritage Site at caves bear the mark of stagnant the entry gives precise information on its discovery. water and paintings in such Bhimbetka obtained its place in Indian archeological These rock paintings caves were damaged to some records in 1888 as a Buddhist site. Dr. Vishnu S Wakankar the difficulties and extent due to constant water was traveling by train to Bhopal when he saw some rock triumphs of the native man.© K. L. Kamat logging. There are some caves formations similar to those he had seen in Spain and which are natural havens of . He visited the area along with a team of archaeologists and discovered several prehistoric rock shelters in 1957. Later, the archaeological excavations yielded remains, serially from the Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic Age to the protohistoric, early historic and medieval periods. The paintings were created as a means of expression of suffering and devotion to supernatural entity, when mankind was devoid of any script. Some older paintings are having the new ones on them, clearly showing the development in technique as well as in life style, through Man walks a dog © K. L. Kamat four of five layers of sketches on top of another. There Rock Painting, Bhimbetka are red, green, and white colors in different varieties in

104 SCIENCE AND CULTURE, MARCH-APRIL, 2010 the paintings though there are yellow and green painting and the organs indicating their desire for renewal of life. of ladder, flowers etc. of Gupta period in one of the caves. Few Bhimabetaka paintings identify a woman with small The colors used by the cave dwellers were prepared by symbolic vagina. However, in some paintings women were combining manganese, , soft red stone and drawn with large breast with fountain of milk. Rock wooden , animal fat and extracts of leaves. The weaponry, bows, , , with bamboo and same were used to decorate the burial spots of climbing the trees are popular subjects of painting. The the dead and these colors were found in funeral spots cavemen learnt to weave a from tree bark and cloth also. The colors have remained intact for many centuries from the fibers. There are pictures in Bhimabetaka which due to the chemical reaction resulting from the oxide illustrates ferocious warfare among . Since there present on the surface of the rocks. Brushes were made were no signs of horses in the neighborhood of of pieces of fibrous plants. The paintings were done Bhimabetaka, the ones in the picture were probably later primarily with a hand made brush of feathers, wooden introduction by raiding invaders. There are pictures of sticks, and needles of porcupines or finger while main group dance, mask dance, and stick dance. Experimentation color is reddish orange colored earth called "Ochre". In with community life by our ancestors completed a full circle some painting the impact of motion has been created by with the scenes of domestic bliss like a woman with a movement of brush stroke like running herd of animals child or a woman performing household chores, and and warriors attacking each others. documentation of a hunt, raid during warfare. Popular religious and ritual symbols also occur frequently in The native man has drawn animals and birds with paintings of later period. just two or three strokes of geometrical shapes making use of signs and symbols e.g. a trunk denotes an elephant, The tribal of Madhya Pradesh, the Adivasi, even a long feather at the back represents a peacock, and a today draw animals and birds on their walls consisting of decorative horn illustrates a female deer. The animals and triangles and circles for success in hunting. They have birds are present everywhere either in silhouettes or as a unisex clothing, hunting with bows and arrows, and group full figure by using triangles, rectangles, circles, and dances similar to their ancestors. hexagons freely. The usual animals are bison, , Barkhera, another spot with less number of visitors, rhinoceros, , elephants, monkeys, antelopes, is 7 km from Bhimbetka. There are thousands of Acheulian lizards, dogs, peacocks, crocodiles etc. One rock cave, tools scattered in the thick teak forest, and fields. Barkhera popularly referred to as "Zoo Rock', depicts hoard of animal was considered a large camp site of the final Acheulian like elephant, sambar, bison and deer. Paintings on other hunter-gathers. Out of 750 rock shelters, 243 are in the rock shelters are of a peacock, a snake, a deer and the Bhimbetka group and 178 in the Lakha Juar group. sun, two elephants with tusks, scenes with Archeological studies revealed a continuous sequence of hunters carrying bows, arrows, swords and shields. In one Stone Age cultures (from the late Acheulian to the late of the caves, a bison is shown in pursuit of a hunter Mesolithic), as well as the world's oldest stone walls and while his two companions appear to stand helplessly floors. The earliest paintings on the cave walls are believed nearby; in another, some horsemen are seen, along with to be of the Mesolithic peiod. The of Bhimbetka archers as if to give a hero's welcome. The presence of has been classified into various groups on the basis of the figure of a horse indicates that some of the drawings the style and subject and time period. The superimposition date back a few thousand years. But there are other of paintings into a number of layers used by different drawings of the Paleolithic age as proved by people at different times allowed that the drawings and archaeologists, using carbon dating techniques. paintings can be classified under seven different periods. The internals of animals are painted as if they were Period I – (Upper Paleolithic) These are linear transparent. These are ample proofs of inquisitiveness representations, in green and dark red, of huge figures of towards surroundings and nature. Vivid presentation of a animals, such as bison and boar beside stick like human deer running away from a lion, animals crying for help to figures. the hunters, men running away from wild boars, animal fights, honey collection, decoration of bodies, disguises, Period II – (Mesolithic) Smaller in size compared to masks and different types of animals etc. are eye-catching. the earlier period, the stylized figures using symbols in It was grossly a men's world as among the thousands of this group show linear decorations on the body containing pictures, less than ten show women. The cave paintings animals, human figures, hunting scenes giving a clear of Spain of the similar period show the culture of sexes picture of the weapons they used like barbed ,

VOL. 76, NOS. 3–4 105 pointed sticks, bows and arrows. The depiction of It is in picture from the nomadic ways of the communal dances, birds, musical instruments, mother and prehistoric man to a settled agricultural life, his interaction child, pregnant women, men carrying dead animals, with the other contemporary communities living in the drinking, and burials appear to capture motion in different nearby plain of Malwa; the gradual changes and situations. adaptations into a more civilized lifestyle. Bhimbetka is also having walls of a ruined citadel, Buddhist stupas Period III – () Similar to the paintings on indicating Buddhist influence in the Maurya / Sunga of the Chalcolithic, these drawings reveal that periods in this area, besides rock cut beds typical of during the period, the cave dwellers of this area were in Buddhist monastry. A number of inscriptions, which date contact with the agricultural communities of the Malwa back to the Sunga, Kushan, and Gupta periods, are plains and exchanged goods with them moving towards discovered. Shankha script inscriptions are also seen at a more civilized societal colony. number of places which is yet to be deciphered. Some Period IV & V – (Early Historic) The figures of this temples belonging to the Parmara period are also group have a schematic and decorative style and are discovered. painted mainly in red white and green. The presentation India has the world's richest collection of rock art. of riders, depiction of religious symbols, tunic-like dresses The rock paintings of Ajanta and Ellora are well known and the existence of scripts of different periods are for their techniques and styles. Jack Mathew from significant departure from the earlier period. The religious informed in October 2005 that some cave paintings similar beliefs are represented by figures of Yaksha, tree gods to Bhimbetka caves were discovered in Gujarat's jungle by and magical sky chariots. Ahmedabad based researcher Pathak. Rock Shelters Period VI & VII – (Medieval) These paintings are of Bhimbetka bear a significant resemblance to similar rock formed out of geometric linear and more schematic, but art sites such as Kakadu National Park in Australia, the they show degenerations and crudeness in their artistic cave paintings of the Bushmen in Kalahari Desert, and style compared to the earlier stage may be due to mass the Upper Paleolithic cave paintings in France. production of routine themes. The colors used by the cave dwellers were prepared combining manganese, hematite (soft red stone), and wooden . Paintings on the concepts of Brahmanical gods like Ganesh and Natraja are considered the contribution of this period. © K. L. Kamat Group dsance, Bhimbetka

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