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Primitive Picassos of Bhimbetka

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Primitive Picassos of Bhimbetka 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 years. 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 style 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 ochre. 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 caves of Bhimbetka to our surprise. If Picasso can paint a human 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. Stone Age the same perspective artists painted their fears, hopes and other lifestyle without a modern elements of gathering and hunting 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 Technology, 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 Mesolithic period right through to the Historical period dating back to Paleolithic 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 deer's, buffalos, flesh and fat from the skin of slaughtered animals, stone rhinoceros, bears and tigers making it the biggest repository hand mills for grinding grain and nuts and tiny needles of prehistoric art 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, tools, ceramics, graveyard, human skeleton unearthed from the burial cave 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 well 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 mirror 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 France. 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, hematite, soft red stone and drawn with large breast with fountain of milk. Rock wooden charcoal, animal fat and extracts of leaves. The weaponry, bows, arrows, knives, baskets with bamboo and same pigments 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 rope 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 humans. 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.
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