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Tag: archeology

  • Bhimbetka Rock Shelters

    Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh stands tall with the grandeur of seven hills and over 750 rock shelters  with cave paintings of ancient times, distributed over 10 km.

    It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Bhopal, renowned for its rock shelters and cave paintings. Bhimbetka has the oldest-known rock art in India, as well as it is one of the largest prehistoric complexes.

     The place name Bhimbetka originated from a myth related to Bhima of Mahabharatha . Bhimbetka means “Bhima’s resting place” or “Bhima’s lounge”.

    This amazing rock shelter consists of seven hills: Vinayaka, Bhonrawali, Bhimbetka, Lakha Juar (east and west), Jhondra and Muni Babaki Pahari

    South of these rock shelters are successive ranges of the Satpura hills. It is within the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary, embedded in sandstone rocks, in the foothills of the Vindhya Range.

    The Auditorium rock is the largest shelter at Bhimbetka. According to the accounts of Robert G. Bednarik this prehistoric cave has “cathedral-like” ambience with its Gothic arches and soaring spaces.

    There is an ancient Mata Vaishavi Temple in Bhimbetka.

    Location

    Bhimbetka rock shelter is situated at Bhojpur Raisen in Bhopal District about 45 kilometres south-east of Bhopal, at the southern edge of the Vindhya Range.

    Historical significance

    Bhimbetka is a scenic and picturesque site with it is world famous rock shelters  which throw light into the earliest traces of human life in India and evidence of the Stone Age starting at the site in Acheulean times.

    Some of the Bhimbetka rock shelters feature prehistoric cave paintings and the earliest are dated to 10,000 BCE, corresponding to the Indian Mesolithic.

     These cave paintings depict various types of animals and human figures with early evidence of community living with dance and hunting from the Stone Age.  The paintings also depict warriors on horseback from a later time.

    Link with Mythology

     Indigenous people of Bhimbetka believes that Bhima during his exile used to rest here to interact with the locals. There is also a narrative that Bhima Worshiped Mata Vaishavi at this location and blessed for concurring the forthcoming war.

    Auditorium cave.

    The cave is one of the prominent features of Bhimbetka which throws light into the history of this place.  It is surrounded by quartzite towers.

    The cave’s plan is similar to 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 – Chief’s Rock” or “King’s Rock]. The boulder with the Auditorium cave is the central feature of the Bhimbetka.

    Cave paintings of Bhimbetka unravel the evolution of a civilization

      The rock shelters and caves of Bhimbetka have a large number of paintings. Some of the oldest paintings are dated to 10,000 BCE.

    It was W. Kincaid, a British India era official who first mentioned Bhimbetka in a scholarly paper in 1888.But the archeological significance of this rock caves was found by V. S. Wakankar. However, the prehistoric significance of Bhimbetka was revealed only in the 1970s.

     There was human settlement here from the Stone Age through the late Acheulian to the late Mesolithic until the 2nd century BCE. The artefacts from the excavation site and the pigments present in deposits, as well as the rock paintings points to that.

     The drawings and paintings of Bhimbetka can be classified under seven different periods.

    V. S. Wakankar classified the drawings and paintings into seven different periods and dated the earliest paintings to have belonged to the upper Palaeolithic to be as early as 40,000 years ago

     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.

    Period I – (Upper Paleolithic): These are linear representations in green and include humans dancing and hunting.

    Period II – (Mesolithic): small figures in this group show linear decorations on the body. There is animal as well as human figures and hunting scenes with the weapons such as barbed spears, pointed sticks, bows and arrows. The types of weapons used are clear indicators to the periods of history.

     Tribal wars also have been portrayed here. The depiction of communal dances, birds, musical instruments, mothers and children, pregnant women, men carrying dead animals, drinking and burials are detected among the paintings.

    Period III – (Chalcolithic) – These resemble paintings of the Mesolithic. These paintings denote 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 colors.

    The association is of riders, depiction of religious symbols, tunic-like dresses and the existence of scripts of different periods.

    The figures of yakshas, tree gods and magical sky chariots also have been found here.

    Period VI & VII – (Medieval): These paintings are geometric linear and more schematic, however they show degeneration and crudeness in their artistic style. The colors used in these paintings seems to be prepared by combining black manganese oxides, red hematite and charcoal.

    In one of the desolate rock shelters, the painting of a man holding a trident-like object and dancing has been found and it is assumed by many as Lord Shiva.

    Many paintings of Bhimbetka has been lost or degenerated overtime.

     It has been estimated that paintings of at least 100 rock shelters might have eroded away.

     Bhimbetka stands with its numerous rock shelters in the lush green valley of Vindya ranges, since many centuries unravelling the history of mankind. It offers new lessons for exploring our roots taking a stroll through the depth of the caves which unfolds the untold history of people who thrived here centuries and decades ago.

    How to reach Bhimbetka?

    By air : Raja Bhoj Airport is the major airport of Bhopal, located around 15 km from the city center in Bairagarh suburban area on National Highway 12. Bhopal is well connected to the metros other cities by various companies’ airlines.

    To reach Bhimbetka Rock Shelters from Bhopal, you can take a bus or taxi on NH46, which is about a 46 km drive.

    By rail: The nearest railway station to the Bhimbetka Rock Shelters is Bhopal Junction (BPL]. It is served by the West Central Railways. Bhopal is on one of the two main Delhi to Mumbai railway lines and also on the main line to the southern state capitals of Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Thiruvananthpuram.

    By road:

    The nearest bus stand to the Bhimbetka Rock Shelters is Obaidullaganj, which is about 9 km away, and buses from Bhopal can take you there.

    References

  •  Romila Thapar

    Romila Thapar is a renowned Indian historian and author of many historical books.  She has authored many internationally acclaimed books on history including From Lineage to State, Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, Early India: From Origins to AD 1300, and the popular History of India, Part I.

    Thapar is an Honorary Fellow of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, where she also received her Ph.D. in 1958, and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was an emeritus professor of history at jawaharlal nehru university , New Delhi.

    Thapar is a historian who believed in authenticity of historical data that is corroborated by archaeological evidences. Her historical writings delineate the origins of Hinduism as an evolving interplay between social forces.

    Romila’s book From Lineage to State analyses the formation of states in the middle Ganga valley in the first millennium BCE, tracing the process to a change, driven by the use of iron and plough agriculture, from a pastoral and mobile lineage-based society to one of settled peasant holdings, accumulation and increased urbanisation. Her book on Somnath examines the evolution of the historiographies about the legendary Gujarat temple.

     Thapar was a great critic of “communal interpretation” of Indian history, in which events in the last thousand years are interpreted solely in terms of a notional continual conflict between monolithic Hindu and Muslim communities.  According to Thapar, this communal history is “extremely selective” in choosing facts, “deliberately partisan” in interpretation and does not follow current methods of analysis using multiple, prioritised causes.

    Personal life

     Romila Thapar was born 0n 30th November 1931 in lucknow,india as the daughter of Lieutenant-General dr.Dayaram thapar,the director general of Indian armed forces medical services. Young Romila ‘s education was in different cities of India as her father had to move as a military officer. She is an alumna of the St. Mary’s School and Wadia College, Pune. After doing her graduation from Punjab university in English literature she secured a second bachelors degree and later doctorate in history from the university of London in 1958.

    Career

      she started her career journey in Indian history as a reader at Kurukshetra university between 1961 and 1962 and later at Delhi university between 1963 and 1970.  Thapar joined as professor of ancient Indian history at the Jawaharlal Nehru university, New Delhi later and continued in the university as Emeritus professor.

    She has authored many books as a historian and her major works include:

    • Asoka and the decline of the Mauryas
    •  Ancient Indian social history: some interpretations
    •  Recent perspectives of early Indian history
    •  A History of India volume one
    •  Early India: from the origins to ad 1300.
    • From lineage to state.

    Thapar’s first volume of a history of India narrates the period from its early history to the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century.

     Ancient Indian social history gives an account of the period from early times to the end of the first millennium, and detailing a comparative study of Hindu and Buddhist socio-religious systems. It scrutinizes the role of Buddhism in social protest and social mobility in the caste system.

    From lineage to state   is a meticulous analysis about the formation of states in the middle Ganga valley in the first millennium B C and it traces the process to a change, driven by the use of iron and plough agriculture, from a pastoral and mobile lineage-based society to one of settled peasant holdings, accumulation and increased urbanisation.

    Each book of Romila Thapar is an immersive account of historical narratives from a research-oriented perspective.  

    Honors & accolades

     Romila Thapar is an honorary fellow at lady Margaret hall, oxford, and at the school of oriental and African studies (soas), university of London.

     She holds honorary doctorates from the university of chicago, the institut national des langues et civilisations orientales in Paris, the university of oxford, the university of Edinburgh (2004), the university of Calcutta (2002) and recently (in 2009) from the university of Hyderabad.

     Thapar was elected a foreign honorary member of the American academy of arts and sciences in 2009. She was also elected an honorary fellow of st Antony’s college, oxford, in 2017.

    in 2004, the us library of congress appointed her as the first holder of the kluge chair in countries and cultures of the south.

    She has been a visiting professor at Cornell university, the university of Pennsylvania, and the college de France in Paris.

    She was elected general president of the Indian history congress in 1983 and a corresponding fellow of the British academy in 1999.

    She is co-winner with Peter Brown of the Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity for 2008.It is a very prestigious prize received by Romila Thapar. The prize is awarded by the John W. Kluge Centre at the Library of Congress.

    in January 2005, she declined the Padma Bhushan awarded by the Indian government.  Later she wrote to the president like this “i only accept awards from academic institutions or those associated with my professional work, and not state awards”.

    Romila Thapar is considered as one of the intellectuals of Indian history who believes in doing justice to the nation’s history with a bold unyielding voice.

    written by

    Dr.Sanjana p. Souparnika