Bhimbetka: Brushstrokes of Humankind

The most elaborate rock face at Bhimbetka showing a variety of animals and a hunter on an elephant

The tongues of the bonfire leaped upwards in the enthusiasm of the tribe that had congregated around it. There was an air of jubilation. The hunt had been successful and its fruits were being relished. Some of the tribe held their hands and danced around that fire, that which gave easily and devoured hungrily when provoked - the heavens were out in full attendance as they celebrated, twinkling down silently on this night-full of jubilation.

Even as the sun rose high and shone, some of the revelers were still in slumber, but not the record-keeper and his son. They stood with their fingers dipped in the colour they procured from the plants that grew nearby, and slowly drew the scene from the day before on the sheltered rock where so many before them had recorded their life and times.

Time rolled on unforgiving, the tribe eventually left, seasons changed, and civilisations rose and fell, but those simple scenes stood well protected from the elements, oblivious to the world around, until an archaeologist named V.S. Wakankar came upon them in 1957. These are the rock shelters of Bhimbetka. I'm quite certain that historians and anthropologists would balk at this sugar-coated description of how these cave paintings came to be, but that's how I imagine them… and a bit of story-telling never hurt anyone!

A communal dance, evocative of Warli art

The highway from Bhopal was a dusty one and the early morning chill was rapidly dissipating when we turned off it and onto the hill side. A railway crossing marked the start of the protected forest. One feels like little has changed here since the times the shelters were occupied. It was a revelation to me that not all the paintings belonged to the Stone Age, the most recent ones are from the medieval period. But yes, the oldest date back 30,000 years - the earliest traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent! Our guide Vimal was a godsend, for you really can't decipher much by yourself. Added bonus, we seemed to have the place all to ourselves.

The emtrance

The rocks rose high on both sides forming a cavernous entrance - it was like a cathedral to the almost hallowed nature of what we were there to witness. Our knowledge of cave paintings makes us imagine the most rudimentary of stick figures, but there is an astounding variety of scenes to witness at Bhimbetka. Bisons, tigers and rhinos rampage across the landscape, tribes celebrate with a ceremonial dance, hunters on elephants and armed with spears, bows and arrows chase their game, and in one case, the hunter becomes the hunted when a bison attacks a tribesman as his companions cower in fright - it was a complete magnum opus.

It's not as though each rock surface was just used once - generations, sometimes over hundreds of years drew on the larger surfaces - the time lapse evinced in the progressing detailing of the sketches. One of the more well-known sketches is that of a man mid-dance, interpreted as an early representation of what we know as Natraj.

The sole handprint

But beyond these grandiose jungle scenes it was a direct human connection that touched me - the outline of hand drawn by keeping it flat on the rock. All these years later, each of us can connect to the simple joy of drawing this, as we all have undoubtedly done at some point in our childhood - could the one at Bhimbetka be a signoff of the artist?

The tortoise and the cobra head rocks

Bhimbetka can't be enjoyed through prosaic history lessons, photos don't do it justice either. You need to be there and walk through wearing the lenses of your imagination. If you have a good guide like Vimal, he'll help you build that narrative - not only through the paintings, but in those oddly shaped rocks that are at times lingering, lumbering tortoises and then at other times - a crouching tiger or the head of a cobra glaring menacingly.

There is indeed a prehistory beyond dinosaurs that's interesting - drop in at Bhimbetka and soak in it!

A 'Kalpavriksha' style sketch