Ancient
Stone Stories
Mr. Rhutvij Apte
Art is a way in which people express their ideas, feelings, and imagination. It can be in the form of drawings, paintings, dance, music, or even stories. Art is like a language that does not use words but still helps us to understand what someone wants to say.
Ancient rock art is one of the oldest forms of art. Long ago, before people learned to read and write, they drew pictures and carved shapes on rocks and cave walls. These pictures showed animals, hunting scenes, daily activities, and even symbols. The colours they used were made from natural things like soil of different rock and minerals which later mixed with the plant juices, blood and egg whites. Some rock art was created by scratching the surface of the rock with sharp tools.
There are mainly three types of rock art:
Petroglyphs: These are carvings or engravings on rock surfaces.
Pictographs : These are paintings made on rocks with natural colours.
Geoglyphs/earth figures: Large figures carved or stone aligned on a horizontal surface more than 3 meters.
Famous examples of rock art are found in many places around the world. In India, the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh are very well known. They have paintings of animals, people, and hunting scenes that are more than 10,000 years old. Recently, newly reported rock paintings from Sulawesi (Southeast Asia) have been identified as the oldest dated figurative artworks, approximately 50,000 years old.
In France, the Lascaux caves have beautiful paintings of bulls, horses, and deer. In Australia, Aboriginal rock art shows animals and spirits, while Africa also has ancient carvings in the Sahara Desert. The Nazca lines from Peru are known for the geoglyph carvings.
Ancient rock art is like the first storybook of humankind. It tells us how early people lived and how they think and observe things. Studying rock art can help us to understand daily life, culture, animal species, natural surroundings and beliefs of early humans.
A large number of geoglyphs are found along the western coastal belt of India. My colleagues and I have been working on this subject for the past twelve years, documenting images carved on the laterite (Soil formed by intense tropical weathering, rich in iron and aluminum oxides) plateaus of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, and Kerala. Although geoglyphs have been reported from other parts of India, such as Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, but their occurrences are not properly studied. The Konkan coastal geoglyphs are unique and better studied, as they form a continuous distribution from Maharashtra down to Kerala and include some exceptionally large and distinctive figures.
So far, our teams have discovered around 2,500 geoglyphs across 110 villages from Maharashtra and Goa.
Diversity of the Carvings
The figures display remarkable diversity and comprises animals, birds, human figures, geometric forms, as well as both engraved and relief (standing out from the background) carvings.
- Animals: Among these, some species depicted no longer exist in this region today; for example, the one-horned rhinoceros and elephants. Other carvings show tigers, leopards, wild boars, and several types of deer, along with smaller animals like the civet cat and fox.
- Humans: Human figures show notable variation, ranging from 4 feet to 14 feet in height. Interestingly, none of the human figures are shown with five fingers on their hands or feet. The shapes of their heads also differ considerably.
- Aquatic species: Sharks, stingrays, and many other fish are carved, though identification of certain species is still ongoing.
- Birds: Peacocks and predatory birds such as kites and eagles are also represented.
- Geometric patterns: Circular, rectangular, square, and linear forms are also common.
Monumental Scale
A striking feature is that almost all animal and bird figures are carved life-sized or larger. For example:
The elephant at the Kasheli site measures 50 x 48 feet. The one-horned rhinoceros at the Deood site measures 18×10 feet. Ofcourse, animals of such enormous size never existed. This raises key questions:
Why were such large figures created? How were they carved? When were they made? These remain subjects of ongoing research.
Dating Evidence
During our documentation, we recovered thousands of stone artifacts. Based on their typology and size, these can be broadly identified as microliths (Small, finely crafted stone tool used in prehistoric composite weapons), which in South Asia are now known to range from about 48,000 to 2,000 years ago. While this shows people lived in the area, we must be careful: the small stone tools and the rock carvings found on the laterite surface may not belong to the same time, culture, or context.
Also, another important feature is that in Maharashtra region the animals which are carved, are wild in nature but when we started documenting South to this, we got the domesticated animal figures too such as humped bulls and cattle.
The presence of rock shelters nearby the carvings have also been recorded and excavations will take place to get some more evidences.
Community and Conservation Efforts
Since most of these carvings are located on private land, our efforts for past several years focused on making landowners and local villagers aware of their significance. This awareness work is now bearing fruit, as more communities have begun to recognize their heritage value.
UNESCO Recognition
Out of all documented sites, nine geoglyph sites have already been included in UNESCO’s tentative list of World Heritage sites. A crucial step toward gaining full World Heritage status in the future.
