Prehistoric Art and Rock Paintings
“When the stomach is full, the need to satisfy the mind arises… and that’s where art begins. Even in the earliest ages of history, humans possessed not just the ability to think, but also the urge to express — through their art, through their imagery.”
🧱 Why Did Prehistoric People Create Art?
- After meeting basic needs like food, water, shelter, and clothing, humans felt the inner urge to express themselves.
- They began to:
- Paint on cave walls → Pictographs
- Engrave images or symbols on rocks → Petroglyphs
- Purpose?
- Possibly to decorate their shelters
- Or to record events from their daily life — hunting, gathering, dancing, emotions
“This artwork wasn’t merely ornamental — it symbolized a social and psychological necessity.”
🎨 Types of Rock Art in India
| Type | Description |
| Pictographs | Painted rock art (generally on walls) |
| Petroglyphs | Engraved images (often on boulders or vertical rock surfaces) |
| Geoglyphs | Large-scale surface engravings on flat rock beds or earth surfaces |
🪨 Petroglyphs: India’s Oldest Rock Art
- Found extensively across India.
- Notably at Bhimbetka, where petroglyphs are up to 50,000 years old.
- In the Auditorium Cave at Bhimbetka, two petroglyphs are around 100,000 years old — among the oldest in the world.
🌄 Geoglyphs: Rare and Unique
- Engraved on rock floors, unlike vertical petroglyphs.
- Rare in India.
- Found only on the lateritic plateaus of the Konkan Belt (Western Ghats region).
🎨 Bhimbetka Rock Paintings: India’s Cultural Treasure
| Aspect | Details |
| Location | Foothills of the Vindhya Range, Madhya Pradesh |
| Discovery | By V. S. Wakankar in 1957–58 |
| Time Span | From Palaeolithic to Mesolithic and even recent periods |
| First Discovery in India | Archibald Carlleyle (ASI) found rock paintings in Sohagighat, Mirzapur (UP) in 1867–68 |
🖌️ Themes and Techniques in Bhimbetka
- Common subjects:
- Humans (stick figures), animals, hunting scenes, dances, geometric designs
- Colours used:
- Red, white, yellow, black, green, purple, brown
- Most common: red ochre (geru) and white (lime/chuna)
- Painting style:
- Wavy lines, dots, rectangles
- Hand-linked dancing figures
- Tools:
- Colours made from natural minerals, applied with fingers, twigs, or brushes made from animal hair
🕰️ Paintings by Period
1️⃣ Upper Palaeolithic Period
- Linear designs
- Green dancers, red hunters
- Some early forms of wash painting
- Themes: hunting, food gathering
2️⃣ Mesolithic Period
- Smaller, more numerous figures
- Central theme: group hunting
- Depiction of:
- Spears, bows, arrows
- Animal emotions — fear, love, coexistence
- Refinement in technique and emotional expression
🖼️ Superimposition of Paintings
“Where new images are drawn over older ones — many eras coexisting in one place and time”
- Seen in both Bhimbetka and Lakhudiyar (Uttarakhand)
- Bhimbetka: up to 20 layers of paintings
- Lakhudiyar: black (oldest) → red ochre → white (most recent)
🖌️ Lakhudiyar Paintings (Almora, Uttarakhand)
| Categories | Examples |
| Humans | Stick figures, dancing |
| Animals | Deer, bulls |
| Geometric | Rectangles, dots, lines |
🎨 Other Neolithic Painting Sites
| Sites | Region | Special Features |
| Kupgallu, Piklihal, Tekkalkota | Karnataka | Red ochre paintings, white background paintings, animals and symbols |
| Themes | Bulls, elephants, horses, stylised humans, vegetal motifs, tridents |
🧬 The Co-Existence of Ages
“History is not a straight line — it is a complex web where different ages coexisted at the same time.”
- Around 2000 BCE, the Indian subcontinent had:
- Neolithic Age people in some regions
- Chalcolithic Age people in others
- Even Bronze Age Civilisation (Harappans) flourishing elsewhere
🧭 This was because:
- Societies did not evolve uniformly
- Geography, environment, and culture shaped their speed of change
- Hence, different historical periods often coexisted side-by-side
🎯 Conclusion: From Survival to Symbolism
This was an age when humans were not merely living — they were searching for the meaning of life — growing grain from the soil, crafting art from stone, and adorning walls with memories.”
From food producers to painters, from hunters to homemakers — the prehistoric human laid the foundation of civilisation through innovation, emotion, and expression.