The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c16.11

v2.c16.11

EARLY man of the Deccan has left some engravings on rocks which show his sense of the pictorial art in the drawing of both human and animal figures, however crude they may be. Some notable examples of these drawings are on a hill near Benkal (Plate I *a*), a village in the Gaṅgāvatī *tāluk* of the Raichur District.¹ One of them represents a hunting scene, the figures of horses with riders being prominent in it. One hunter is armed with an axe which closely resembles a metal weapon, and on this assumption the drawing may not be considered to date back earlier than the Iron age, and may even be much later. Another class of ancient monuments which bear some relation to Buddhist architectural forms in regard to their origin is represented by the megalithic tombs of the Deccan. They exist in great abundance, and among them ‘cairns’, or tumuli with stone circles, show a striking resemblance to the Buddhist *stūpas*, and may be their earlier prototypes (Plate I *b*). But architecture as a fine art must possess certain aesthetic features and must also indicate a creative effort in the shaping of human actions towards the attainment of intellectual progress and elevation of life in its various aspects. The prehistoric monuments of the Deccan fall far below such a standard and therefore they cannot be studied in this chapter.