BHIMBETKA
A. N. Maheshwari
India has the world's richest collection of rock art. The rock paintings of Ajanta and Ellora are well known. India's heritage of rock art spans from pre-historic period to present times. Even today women in villages decorate their homes by painting walls with natural pigments and vegetable dyes. The central India is rich in rock art, some of which can be traced to pre-historic period. Bhimbetka is about 50 km from the city of Bhopal, 3 km off the National Highway joining Bhopal to Hoshangabad.
It is a group of caves on a picturesque rocky hill. Each cave is an art gallery of beautiful rock paintings. Some of the paintings belong to a period earlier than five thousand years and may be as old as 10,000 years. But the changing style of paintings from that of simple line drawings in single colour to use of different colours, depiction of human figures on horsebacks carrying swords and shields, horses and elephants indicate that the rock art at Bhimbetka evolved over several millennium. The paintings at Bhimbetka depict animals, hunting and magical scenes, and scenes from everyday life.
In some pictures the impact of motion has been strikingly created. There are pictures showing running herd of animals and warriors attacking each other.
An album of rock art has been put on this website. Individual pictures can be accessed from their thumbnails.
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