Early South Indian Palaeography c9: Appendix: Rock Paintings and Engravings in India
Early South Indian Palaeography c9
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Appendix: Rock Paintings and Engravings in India
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The question whether there was any ideographic script that preceded the evolution of true writing in India as is found in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, has not found a good answer. This is not due to the paucity of material evidence on the subject but due to the indeterminable nature of most of the material available with regard to their chronology and place in the evolution of writing in India.
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It is difficult to ascertain the pre-historic nature of the rock paintings and engravings in India. Flake tools and microlithic implements have been collected from many sites in North India where rock paintings have also been noticed. In the Deccan rock paintings and engravings have been found near sites which have yielded neolithic implements and pottery. Thus it may be seen that the central table land of India, excluding the Indus and Gangetic valleys, and the Deccan plateau form the cradle of Indian rock paintings and engravings. Most of these, however, are not datable with any amount of certainty, but can be generally ascribed to the first or second quarter of the first millennium B. C. at the earliest. To the early series of Rock paintings belong those found in the Mahadeo Hills in Madhya Pradesh, and classified by D. H. Gordon as belonging to the Early First Series.¹ These are mainly line sketches of human figurines and animals, the 'ape-man' and carpet designs with tasselled hem. These drawings are followed by three more Series, the last of which is dated as late as the tenth century A.D. Gordon in view of the 'unbroken' 'succession' linking one series to the next, suggests therefore that "the earliest of these paintings cannot be taken back earlier than c. 700 B. C."²
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¹ *The Pre-Historic Background of Indian Culture*, p. 101.
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² *Ibid.*, p. 108.
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On the analogy of the harpoons and spear-heads from the Gangetic Valley copper hoards, the painted spear-heads from Likhunia (Mirzapur), are ascribed to the eighth century B.C., as their earliest date. There are other paintings from Mirzapur which depict hunting scenes, animals and birds. These have parallels from Hoshangabad and Singanpur.³
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³ See M. Ghosh, 'Exploration of Rock-paintings and Prehistorics,' *Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India*, No. 24, pp. 9-21.
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In the last decade, archaeological explorations in the districts of Madhya Pradesh have thrown valuable light on the antiquity of the rock-paintings in India. A large number of microlithic implements have been collected from the rock-shelter at Adamgarh Quarry.⁴ M. G. Dikshit discovered them in the rock-shelters of Kabra Pahar⁵ and at Mori and Awra in the Mandasor district.⁶ In the rock shelter at Modi, M. V. Trivedi, assisted by V. S. Wakankar, excavated a trench 'which yielded eight layers, a coloured stone and haematite-coloured granules'.⁷
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⁴ *Indian Archaeology, A Review*, 1954-55, p. 59.
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⁵ *Ibid.*, 55-56, p. 69.
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⁶ *Ibid.*, 57-58, p. 26-28.
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⁷ *Ibid.*, 58-59, p. 28.
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Early Brāhmī incriptions have been reported from some caves in Madhya Pradesh. In one of the rock shelters bearing rock paintings near Kharwai in the Raisen district, an Aśokan Brāhmī inscription consisting of three letters has been noticed.⁸ In one of the rock shelters at Bhinyapura, twenty miles south of Bhopal, V. S. Wakankar reports an early Brāhmī inscription in characters of the second century B.C.
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⁸ *Indian Archaeology—A Review*, 1960–61.
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In the Deccan though the rock paintings and engravings are scattered in groups, a good number of them are found in the Raichur district "at Koppal, Piklihal, Maski, Billarayan Gudda and in the Benkal forest."\'9 The early paintings are coloured in a dark red ochre. These paintings generally represent animals, armed men, horse-riders and hunting or chasing scenes.
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\'9 9. Allchin, *Development of Early Cultures in the Raichur District*, p. 257-54.
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Pecked rock engravings are found on the Gombigudda hill in the Belgaum district, at Chiltaldrug in Mysore and Kuppagallu near Bellary. The last of these is adjacent to the excavated site of Sanganakallu. The engravings at Kuppagallu shows animal motifs pecked in outline. There are some later pecked engravings also showing human sexual motifs.
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While dealing with the chronology of the Prehistoric paintings and engravings and their association with the Prehistoric Cultures in India, it must be borne in mind that there is no correlation between the periods such as the Chalcolithic and Neolithic between Western Asia and Europe on the one hand and India on the other. Therefore there is a vast range of difference between the periods, techniques and themes of the cave paintings in India and those in other countries. It is important to note here that the rock paintings and engravings, respectively attributed to the Chalcolithic and Neolithic folk in India are only the casual handiwork of the people who did not have any developed script for their language. Hence these paintings and engravings do not contribute much for a study of the origin and evolution of writing in India. On the other hand pictographs or picture-writing, in the form of grafitti marks, found on the pottery of the Chalcolithic and Megalithic Cultures of India, open a new field for intensive study and research.¹⁰
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¹⁰ The study in this field started long ago by M. Yazdani has been taken up again by scholars like B.B. Lal and a few others. (See B.B. Bal's article, 'From the Megalithic to the Harappa: tracing back the graffiti on the pottery' in *Ancient India*, Number 16 (1960), pp. 4-24 and plates 1-xxxiv).