A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c8.14

c8.14

The date of the rock-paintings of peninsular India was at one time thought to go back to the Stone Stage. But recent studies assign them to a later period when iron had come into common use. A considerable number of paintings have been found in the Mahadeo Hills from Tamiā on the east to just south of Seoni-Malwa in the west; the latest of them are believed to be of the tenth century A.D., and it has been held unlikely that any are earlier than the seventh century B.C., but certainly not beyond the limits of the first millennium B.C. The paintings back to the earliest series show obvious metal arrowheads. The rock-paintings of Singhanpur and Kābrā Pahār ‘Raigarh State’ (Madhya Pradesh) have been connected with the earlier paintings of the Mahadeo Hills; they are probably contemporary with part of the Microliths found in their immediate vicinity, and this applies also to the shelters, paintings and Microliths of the Son Valley.