indian art

Prehistoric Art

  • Prehistory refers to the era before paper, language, or the written word existed.
  • Scholars piece together knowledge of prehistoric life through excavation sites containing old tools, pottery, habitats, bones, and cave drawings.
  • Cave walls served as canvases for early humans to express themselves through painting and drawing, fulfilling a need beyond basic survival.

Bhimbetka Rock Art Sites

  • Bhimbetka rock art sites are located approximately 45 kilometers southeast of Bhopal.
  • Discovered by V.S. Wakankar starting in 1957.
  • Located in the Vindhyan range of central India, stretching about 10 kilometers by 2 kilometers.
  • Features over 500 painted sandstone shelters across seven hills, within a forest environment.
  • The environment is threatened by population increase.
  • Some shelters contain only a few images, while others contain hundreds.
  • Added to the World Heritage List of UNESCO in 2003.
  • About fifteen of the most visually impressive sites have been fitted with passageways and protections for public viewing.
  • Guards are present to provide information and enforce regulations.

Succession for the Art (Mathpal 1998)

  • Prehistoric Depicting the Life and Environment of Hunter-Gatherers
    • Phase 1
      • Large size animals (buffaloes, elephants, wild bovids and big cats), outlined and partially infilled with geometric and maze patterns; no humans.
    • Phase 2
      • Diminutive figures of animals and humans, full of life and naturalistic. Hunters mostly in groups. Deer are dominant. Colours are red, white and emerald green (the latter with humans in S-shaped bodies, dancing) (Photos 81, 82).
    • Phase 3
      • Large size animals with vertical strips and humans.
    • Phase 4
      • Schematic and simplified figures.
    • Phase 5
      • Decorative. “Large-horned animals” drawn “in fine thin lines with body decoration in honey-comb, zigzag and concentric square pattern” (Mathpal 1998: 11).
  • Transitional Beginning of Agricultural Life
    • Phase 6
      • Quite different from the previous ones. Conventional and schematic. Body of animals in a rectangle with stiff legs. Humps on bovines, sometimes horns adorned at the tip. Chariots and carts with yoked oxen.
  • Historic
    • Phase 7
      • Riders on horses and elephants. Group dancers. Thick white and red. "Decline in artistic merit" (Mathpal 1998: 11).
    • Phase 8
      • "Bands of marching and facing soldiers, their chiefs riding elephants and horses (…), equipped with long spears, swords, bows and arrows" (id.). Rectangular shields, a little curved. Horses elaborately decorated and caparisoned. "White infilling and red outlining" (id.) (Photos 27 to 33, 88, 89).
    • Phase 9
      • "Geometric human figures, designs, known religious symbols and inscriptions" (id.).

Human and Animal Representation in Rock Art

  • Mathpal's study of 817 human figures identified 779 as men (95.595.5%), 16 as children, and 21 as women.
  • Of 428 animal figures, horses are dominant (185, 43.243.2%), followed by deer (39, 99%), and bovids (37, 99%).
  • Other animals include dogs, tigers, buffaloes, panthers, and monkeys, but are much rarer.
  • Vishnu Wakankar is revered as the