Rock art that dates back 10000 years - Bhimbetka (M.P)

What can match the joy of discovering things of different era. A time, place, aesthetic, you know nothing about. Stories etched in stone paintings that tell you about the people of a long gone era, their life, their times and that is historical gem called Bhimbetka located in state of Madhya Pradesh.

Bhimbetka group of rock shelters located close to 45 kms of Bhopal in Vindhya mountain range amidst the Ratapani wildlife sanctuary exhibit the earliest traces of human life in India, number of these analysis suggest that at least few of these shelters were inhabited for over 10000 years ago. Home to the most gorgeous rock painting,. There are over 750 rock shelters in this region and guess what !! 500 of them are adorned with rock paintings. The site remained a center of human activities right from lower Paleolithic times up to medieval period. The subject of the paintings depict day to day activities of ancient man, human figures, animals, communal gatherings and dances, warfare etc.There is also one of the earliest recorded hand print of a kid.

Bhimbetka as the name stands is corruption of the Hindi word Bhimbaithka meaning seat or sitting place of Bhim, one of the Pandava's brother. Bhim is still worshiped as deity to several tribes residing in forest and villages of surrounding areas. It all started when Dr Vishnu Shridhar Wakankar, the discoverer  from Vikram university, Ujjain when travelling along the hills on a train, noticed the spectacular sandstone rock formations along the ridge, He got fascinated by them and their surrounding landscape. He got down from the train to explore and strayed too far from beaten path and thus found himself in treasure trove and discovered the greatest heritage of India. This was in 1957. Even imagining about the moment when Dr Vishnu would have taken a first glance on this rock paintings gives me goosebumps !!

Spread across 1892 hectares covering five hills withing the Vindhyan range, shelters are spread over 5 hills but only 15 shelters are accessible to general public. Filled with narratives of hunting, battle, festive scenes, daily life, royal processions, dancers and animals and birds of all kinds, these paintings shows the dynamics between humankind and nature in all its complexity. Colors used were mainly ochre from haematite and white from lime, plant extracts, animal fat and even rubbed stones.The cover of dense forest and vegetation has protected these rock paintings so far from being lost to vagaries of nature.

During excavation of one the caves some skeletons were also found in disintegrated state. The Mesolithic people (10000 - 2500 years) used to bury their dead within the caves in the living areas. The dead body was placed either in an extended position or in a crouched position with head usually to the east. Stones, rubber, antlers, bone tools were placed with the dead as grave goods.

The earliest drawing of a men which reminded me of good old school days when we as kids have also drawn something similar looking male figures.

Below is the painting with two elephants with long uplifted tusk and man standing on smaller elephant holding a spear in one hand and holding a goad in another.

Domesticated animals like goat, cows, bison as well as Tiger is shown in below pics. In all there has been total of 1377 wild as well as domesticated animals painted on the walls of rock shelters.

Shelter no 4 is one of the most elaborately painted one known as "Zoo rock" due to large number of animal species painted on the rock. There are total of 252 animals of 16 different species seen here.

Historic warriors with different kinds of weapons as seen in below pic. Sometimes the artist has used the same painted surface used earlier without obliterating earlier paintings.Superimposition of such paintings can be seen at many places.

The most famous of all the Bhimbetka paintings below which shows some procession with soldiers, dancers and various animals, birds as well as a scorpion on top left corner.

Panel where a flying bird is shown along with peacock and a snake with some humans forming a chain. Some men painted in white are the probably the newer paintings while one painted in natural dye are from earlier era.

Another masterpiece shown below is that of a mythical boar chasing a man while it is surrounded by armed men, men shown here are quite small in size as compared to the animal. A local tribe called Korkus living in the fringes of the forest still worship wild boars.

A line of galloping horses with horsemen brandishing their swords seen in rock shelter no 7.

Human chain seen here seems to be part of some dance ritual with one person holding some musical instrument.

What makes Bhimbetka even more interesting is that some of the painted shelters are still regarded as sacred by local Hindu villagers including the Gond and Korku tribes who go to them on special occasions in order to perform rituals and ceremonies even today. One of the old shelter converted into Goddess Durga temple is just a furlong away from main Bhimbetka shelters.

At the few distance before the cave, there is situated a flat bed of rocks which gives a beautiful panoramic view of the dense Ratapani wildlife sanctuary, area rich in varied animal species.

Nature has also played its part by creating some unique rock formation, There is a rock mass which looks like tortoise, the uncommon rock formation are due to enlargement of cavities through physical and chemical erosion.

When I and my friend Kiru decided to visit this place in December, we took an early morning train to Bhopal from Vidisha as that was our base for the trip and reached Habibganj. From there we took a public transport bus which dropped us at Obdellatif Ganj (which was a mistake we realised later as we could have continued further on same route towards Hoshangabad on NH12), Rickshaw here charge close to Rupees 400-500 for a round trip of 2 hrs, so instead we took another bus which dropped us at Bhimbetka junction. From here one does not get any transport and has to travel 3.2 kms on foot to the site passing through a check post and railway crossing. We were lucky to get a local bike rider who did two round trips to drop us at caves at a small price.

The ideal season to visit would be from November to February as temperatures are cooler. An early morning visit gives you ample time to explore the place with less crowd, ASI guides are available and at times the security guards also act as guide. Each rock shelter has been marked with sign board but it takes a lot of effort to spot and view the paintings. Though there are only 15 shelters for public viewing which requires a walk of 1.5 kms in well marked pavement, it took us close to 5 hours to view the spectacular heritage of Bhimbetka.

Nearby attractions: Bhimbetka tal around 4 kms from cave site who can't resist taking off beat route.

Bhojpur: On the way return to Bhopal one can also visit the half built Shiva temple of Bhojpur which is a heritage town. The temple is famous for it's unique Shivling which is 18 ft tall and is built out of a single rock.

Bhopal - Bhojpur: 29 kms
Bhopal - Bhimbetka: 45 kms
Bhimbetka - Bhimbetka T point: 3.2 kms
Bhopal NH12 - Mandideep - Obdellatif ganj - Bhimbetka - Shahganj / Hoshangabad