Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c17.s1.t3.2

v1.c17.s1.t3.2

But what may be worth noting here is that certain implements depicted in the archaic cave-paintings of central India plateau bear a close resemblance to the harpoons. For example, a cave called Ghormangur in the Mirzapur District, U.P. contains a scene of rhinoceros hunt, wherein six persons attacking the animal from various sides are armed with long, harpoon-headed poles. In another cave, Likhunia in the same District is portrayed a man who is about to thrust a multiple-barbed spear into the body of a sambhar. Whether the implements represented in these paintings were of copper or bone or even wood and stone combined cannot be precisely determined, but whatever the raw material, the fundamental conception is indeed the same. It is, therefore, not unlikely that the copper harpoons of the Gangetic basin may have had some relationship with those portrayed in the Central Indian paintings. (Lal, 1951: 35)