PRE-HISTORIC PAINTINGS OF INDIA

Bhimbetka Paintings (Upper Paleolithic Period)

MESOLITHIC Period

Early Historic

Karikkiyur, the largest rock

art site in South India.

• It looked like an arched dome. The entire natural cavern was painted with rock art. A spectacular feature of the site is that the rock surface is an admixture of ancient rock art and contemporary tribal paintings, showing a continuity of tradition."

• The painted surface is about 40 feet (12 metres) long and 20 feet wide. The images include a tiger, a deer with straight horns, anthropomorphic figures marching inside a circle, an elephant seizing a man with its trunk while another man chased it, and several paintings of a bamboo-ladder used for taking honey from the heights. Contemporary tribal paintings show the profile of a man wearing a headgear and that of another man in a tight-fitting coat with rectangular designs on it. This man has his right hand raised, while his left hand rests on the waist.

• It had discovered a prehistoric rock art site at

Porivarai (2003), and ancient rock paintings at

Salekkurai and Sundasingam (2005), near

Karikkiyur, about 40 km from Kothagiri in the

Nilgiris.

• the largest rock art site in South India with about

500 paintings in an area that is 53 m long and

15 m wide. Experts say the rock paintings at

both Mavadaippu and Karikkiyur could be dated

to 2000 B.C. to 1500 B.C.

• The paintings in white ochre include a procession of bisons, monkeys clambering up a tree branch, a herd of deer grazing, human beings welcoming one another with outstretched arms, a battle scene with men aiming at each other with bows and arrows, men on horseback engaged in battle, a shoulder-clasping dance after a successful boar-hunt, a man with a mask, the depiction of sun and its rays, a spiral, a tiger fighting another animal, and a man and his dog sleeping.

REMARKABLE FEATURES OF

Karikkiyur rock art are images

like monkeys clambering up a

branch.

Victory-dance after a hunt.

A man and his dog sleeping.

A battle scene at Karikkiyur, depicting

men with bows and arrows and on horse

back.

• MAVADAIPPU, IN the backdrop of the

Anamalai hills, human and animal

figures in white

Bull Chasing or Baiting