SOUTH ASIAN ROCK ART

SOUTH ASIAN ROCK ARTAuthor(s): BRIDGET ALLCHINSource: Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 135, No. 5366 (JANUARY 1987), pp. 138-156Published by: Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and CommerceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41374267 .

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Ill III

I SOUTH ASIAN ROCK ART I

The Sir George Birdwood Memorial Lecture

by

I BRIDGET ALLCHIN, MA, PhD , FSA III

Joint Directory British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan , and Fellow of Wolf son College , Cambridge ,

delivered to the Society on Tuesday 20th May 1986, with Sir Oliver Forster, К С MG, LVO,

formerly Her Majesty's Ambassador to Pakistan, in the Chair

THE CHAIRMAN: It is a great pleasure to mé that the Royal Society of Arts should have asked me to preside over the Sir George Birdwood Memorial Lecture, particularly since the lecturer tonight is a very old friend, Bridget Allchin. This is a unique occasion in that her husband Raymond Allchin, who is in the audience, also gave the Birdwood lecture a few years ago. Bridget Allchin I have known since I went out to Pakistan as Ambassador in 1979, because she and her husband used every year to lead a multidisciplinary team with archaeologists, geologists, morphologists, what have you, to excavate in Pakistan. They were joint directors of the Cambridge University Archaeo- logical Mission, now the British Archaeological Mis- sion to Pakistan. Sensibly, since archaeologists have to work in the open air, they used to come out in the cold weather, but they often stayed until it was getting un- comfortably hot in the field. They are both distinguished archaeologists,

although they tend to specialize in different fields. Bridget is older than Raymond - not in years, I hasten to add, but in her field of study. She goes back to the very beginning of mankind and the last two seasons of excavation in Pakistan have yielded some very important results, traces of the earliest man outside the African continent. She has not yet discovered the man or the woman who left these artefacts behind, and when she does that will be newsworthy, but that is not our story tonight.

In my ignorance I was rather surprised when I heard the title of this lecture, because I had thought that she was firmly rooted in the palaeolithic past and I did not know that there was much art going on at that time. I also thought that people who delved in that field were really only interested in fragments of bones and pots and flints. But of course rock art is of considerable relevance and the archaeologist is interested in all facets of development; so the earliest art is of great interest to archaeologists. I had forgotten, having known Bridget only in Pakistan, just how high she and her husband ranked in the field of Indologists, how much published work there was to their credit ranging over the Indian subcontinent and in fields not strictly related to excavation, such as the early rock art of the sub-continent. When I was in Pakistan the opening of the

Karakoram Highway was revealing an increasing number of rock inscriptions and paintings along the old Chinese silk route. I went to several learned lec- tures but it was early days; much had not been decided on the dating or even the meaning of some of the paintings and inscriptions. I contributed my small mite by urging the Pakistan Ministry of Tourism that they really must do something to protect these discoveries. They were open to any tourists and unfortunately already a certain amount of modern graffiti were beginning to take their place beside the graffiti of the Chinese travellers of centuries ago.

The following lecture, which was illustrated, was then delivered.

138



JANUARY 1987

BEFORE am but

neither an

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begin an art

I historian must

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BEFORE am neither an art historian nor a folklorista but an archaeologist of South Asia. The

rock art of the subcontinent is very much part of both its history and its prehistory. Rock art has never been my principal research interest, but I have always been fascinated by it, and looked upon it as a very exciting aspect of prehistory. In the course of the last thirty-five years I have had opportunities to travel widely in the remoter ' parts of both India and Pakistan, to see quite a lot of rock art for myself, to meet and talk to those who have seen much more, and to make some very small contributions of my own. It is from this point of view that I approach the subject.

The rock art of South Asia is immensely diverse in terms of what it is itself, of the people who created it, their motivation, and the different cultural traditions that lie behind it. It includes a wide range of styles of painting and drawing on protected surfaces in shallow caves and rock shelters, and a variety of methods of indenting or bruising pictures or designs on hard, weathered rock surfaces in the open. The former often have a quality of surprise and secre- tiveness, while some of the latter provide strik- ing landmarks. All rock art is very much part of its environment, and at the same time it brings sharply into focus the humanness of those who created it. Like all ethnic art it conveys the atmosphere of the communities from which it sprang, and seen in its own setting it brings home the relationship of those communities to their environment in a way that nothing else can do.

South Asia as a whole is very rich in rock art, but it occurs sporadically, concentrated in regions where there are suitable rocks. There are huge tracts, such as the alluvial plains of North India, where there is no rock, and there are also regions where there are rocks that appear suitable but little or no rock art has been found. We must assume that where there is no rock art people found other means of artistic expression, and that those who painted and drew on rocks also did so on other less enduring substances. We must also assume that much rock art has been lost through the natural agencies of weathering and decay, and due to the destruction of the rocks themselves in the course of quarrying, road building and economic development generally. What we see today is merely the

SOUTH ASIAN ROCK ART

tip of the iceberg, or rather small parts of many icebergs. Within the major geographical groups there are many distinct regional and local traditions, some including several different styles. On examination, techniques nearly always prove more varied and complex than at first appears. Another variable feature is the expertise of the artists, which can range from a high degree of skill and originality to repetition of stylized designs or what appears to be no more than doodling. Where a sequential order can be established and phases of the sequence can be dated or related to some event or cultural phase of the historic or prehistoric past a coherent picture begins to emerge. Dating rock art is always difficult.

In attempting to go beyond the technicalities to the interpretation of rock art, one is led into wider fields of archaeology, history, anthropology, folk art and tradition. The rock art of the Indian subcontinent was recognized as being of archaeological interest over a century ago. In 1880-81 A. C. Carlleyle, assistant to General Cunningham, first Director-General of Archaeo- logy in India, visited a number of Central Indian rock shelters and excavated some of them. After his death a few years later, his collection of stone artefacts was distributed to museums in various parts of the world. With some of the artefacts were notes on the sites from which they came. In a few cases the notes mentioned rock paintings. Unfortunately Carlleyle had not published an account of his work, and most of his knowledge died with him. Even the location of the sites was unknown. In the 1950s, by following clues in his notes in the British Museum and elsewhere, we were able to work out where certain of his sites were, and later to rediscover a number of them, including Morhana Pahar described below on page 143.

At about the same time as Carlleyle was making his discoveries in Central India, on the granite hills of Bellary district in the southern Deccan rock art of a different kind was being recorded by Herbert Knox, and photographed by Fawcett (a retired Deputy Inspector-General of the Madras Police). Bruce Foote, of the Geo- logical Survey of India, and sometimes with justice referred to as the father of Indian prehistory, visited the area in 1893. He later briefly described these South Indian discoveries in the catalogue of his archaeological finds (Foote, 1916).

139



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS A few other people, notably Cockburn and

Anderson, recorded rock art, chiefly painting and drawing in Central India, during the closing years of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. Their work is summarized by Panchanan Mitra in his Prehistoric India, published in 1927, where he attempts to relate Indian rock art to European cave art. In 1922 D'Abreu, a museum curator who had been in- formed that there were rock paintings at Adamgarh, near Hosangabad, visited the site to record them, and had to take urgent action to prevent them from being destroyed by quarrying operations. A number of studies of rock art were made during the 1920s and 1930s.

H. Gordon's work in his many papers and his book The Prehistoric Background of Indian Culture is quite the most comprehensive. There was a curious reluctance at this stage to admit an early date for the rock art. Gordon and others suggested or assumed that it could not be earlier than the second or third millennium ВС.

Throughout the British period many major archaeological discoveries were made. During Cunningham's term of office as Director- General of Archaeology many of the principal city sites and monuments mentioned in the classical literature were identified and examined and inscriptions read and recorded. Stone artefacts were found in both Madras and Sind within two or three years of their recognition in Europe, but in general later archaeology took precedence over prehistory. One has to remember that there was only a very small band of professional archaeologists and enthusiastic amateurs to follow up these discoveries. In post- Independence India there was an upsurge of interest in national culture present and past. Much archaeological attention was directed to early settlements and their ceramics, and rock art too received attention. The work of one man, V. S. Wakankar stands out, although others have made valuable contributions. Wakankar's papers and his book with R. R. Brooks, Stone Age Painting in India, go a long way towards bringing the study of Indian rock art into line with studies in other parts of the world.

The exciting part about this period, and especially the last two decades, has been an increasing awareness of the continuity of Indian folk culture from the prehistoric past into the present. This was linked to the development of anthropological studies in India and to the 140

PROCEEDINGS Gandhian insistence on fostering traditional arts and crafts and bringing them into the modern world. There is now developing an integrated approach to prehistory, archaeology and traditional cultures. Two major contributions to this approach are The Earthen Drum (1980) by Mrs Pupul Jayakar, who has also been a major force in the development and marketing of Indian arts and crafts, and Heinz Mode's Indische Volkskunst (1984), and there are many more. For those interested in cultural traditions rock art, and especially the most ancient examples of it, represent the roots of traditional India-wide arts and crafts and of the beliefs and practices they express or symbolize. Conversely, for the prehistorian, continuity from the pa$t into the present,- or records made in recent historical times of traditional societies and their crafts and technology, are of inestimable value in bringing life to the structures, potsherds and other small objects, bones and organic remains of crops and foodstuffs which are all that remain of bygone cultures. Coupled together, these two approaches give life and reality to history, and to the find- ings of archaeology.

As known at present, the rock art of South Asia can be divided into three major groups: the paintings and drawings of the extensive hill region of Central India; the rock bruisings, paintings and drawings of the southern Deccan; the western Himalayan rock bruisings, including the rich, recently discovered material along the route followed by the new Karakoram highway. Each has its own character stemming in part from the nature and limitations of its environment and, more positively, from the traditions and culture of the people who created it. The Central Indian group is the largest and most fully studied of the three. All clearly stem from local indigenous traditions of rock art, and are influenced to a greater or lesser extent by the world outside. The Karakoram highway material, in as far as it has been described, stands in marked contrast to the rest. It is predominantly the art of the highway itself, done by travellers who passed along it in styles they brought with them. In addition there are a number of minor groups and isolated examples of rock art in various parts of the subcontinent. Each of the major regions will be discussed separately. For the reasons already given Central India will be dealt with rather more fully than the others. I shall try to give a brief impression of the



JANUARY 1987 character of both the northern and southern groups, and to indicate their potential and the reasons why there is a pressing need to record and conserve them as fully as possible.

CENTRAL INDIA The hill and forest region of Central India forms a broad band stretching across the subcontinent from west to east. It corresponds approximately to the state of Madhya Pradesh, and forms a kind of central buffer zone dividing more fertile, heavily populated and economically advanced regions on all sides. Although crossed by ancient trade routes and later by railways and modern highways, Central India's ruggedness and inaccessibility and its relatively infertile soil have tended to isolate it from the outside world. As a result it has developed a complementary relationship with surrounding regions, supply- ing labour, timber, animal fodder, honey, cane- work, baskets, game, animal skins, etc., in exchange for cereals, cloth, pottery, iron tools and other products of the more developed regions.

Central India is peopled by a whole range of communities often referred to as tribes, each with its own distinctive character and lifestyle, and maintaining its identity by marrying almost exclusively within the community. Some appear to all intents and purposes to be indigenous, while others have retreated into the hills in the face of economic, military or political pressures. Until the mid-twentieth century the Gonds in the east formed a distinct society with their own rulers and a quite complex social structure and system of agriculture and subsistence. The Bhils in the west, who are by tradition hunters and bowmen and also, in most cases, practise some kind of agriculture, form a number of separate communities territorially overlapping one another and infiltrating other communities. Un- til recently there were groups who lived exclusively by hunting, gathering and fishing, and many more for whom these activités provided an important part of their subsistence, like for example the Muria in eastern Central India. To- day these activities are still socially important, although their economic contribution has declined. These are only a few examples from the rich and varied mosaic of cultures of Central India. Of the groups mentioned, the Gonds speak a Dravidian language related to Telegu; the Bhils speak dialects of Hindi, Rajasthani,


Gujarati or Marathi according to their proximity to these language areas; the Muria speaK a language belonging to the Munda group, which belongs to the Austro- Asiatic family of languages of South-east Asia. There are a number of excellent accounts of tribal peoples of Central India by government officials and anthropologists. Among these the works of Grigson, Mills, S. C. Roy, Verrier Elwin and von Fürer- Haimendorf are probably among the most outstanding, and there are many others. Sub- sequently anthropologists in India, whether Indians or outsiders, have tended to concentrate on the effects of change upon the social and economic life of such people. This is inevitable in view of the increasing speed of economic development and pressure of population.

The life of the densely populated plains is pushing its way increasingly into the wild, secluded countryside of Central India. This process, which has been going on slowly since the first millennium ВС and before, is now greatly accelerated. Mining, forestry, agriculture and trade are all playing their part. The fundamental factor is the India-wide population explosion. This affects the rock art in three ways. It is affected directly in the sense that in certain cases the rocks on which it was executed are being destroyed. The first reference to this that I have found is that already quoted on p. 140 (D' Abreu, 1933). More slowly but no less directly some groups of paintings are being threatened by the increased attention they are receiving from both scholars and tourists. Touching them and throwing water over them to wash off the dust and 'bring up' the colour, both of which are inevitable if they are not closely supervised, steadily lead to the destruction of paintings and drawings. The disintegration of tribal societies in the region as a whole means that traditional links with the rock art are also steadily being lost.

So far we have been concerned with the broad geographical and social context of Central Indian rock art. The more immediate physical context of the paintings is directly dependent upon the underlying rock formations of Central India. In much of the region these consist of old sandstone with layers of varying hardness and resistance to erosion. As a result, where the sandstone is exposed on the sides of valleys or as residual features on the surface of the many plateaux, softer layers are frequently worn away

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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS PROCEEDINGS

FIGURE 1 . The Vindhya Plateau, Central India, showing rock shelters at the foot of low sandstone cliffs on the left. (Photograph Allchin)

FIGURE 2. A rock painting showing two armed men waylaying a chariot drawn by four horses, in dark red overdrawn in white, from one of the rock shelters at Morhana Pahar in the Vindhya hills,

probably late Bronze Age or early Iron Age. (Photograph Allchin) 142



JANUARY 1987 SOUTH ASIAN ROCK ART

FIG U RE 3 . Another scene from Morhana Pahar (the same rock shelter as Figure 2 % showing animals and armed men, some figures superimposed upon one another in various shades of red; characteristic of the later phases of Central Indian rock art and perhaps contemporary with the scene in Figure 2. (Photograph Allchin)

from beneath harder overlying layers. This results in shallow caves or rock shelters forming in the valley walls, and around outstanding masses of rock (Figure 1). They are often difficult to reach, being protected by steep rocky slopes and dense thorn bush, but once reached they have great charm, combining a sense of seclusion with spectacular views of the surrounding country. It is easy to see that in such rock shelters the surface of the back wall and ceiling positively invite decoration. The materials for painting or drawing, in the form of coloured rocks and earths, are available in the countryside around.

A large number of rock paintings have been recorded throughout Central India. The com- monest subjects are animals, followed by scenes including people and animals in all kinds of situations, abstract designs and inscriptions. The majority are in red, but white, green and purple were also used, and they have been executed in many different ways. There are animals drawn in outline only, drawn in outline and filled by cross-hatching, or wholly or partly filled in by

solid colour or wash. Some show 'X-ray* views of their entrails, or of unborn young. Sometimes the animals are stylized to a greater or lesser degree. There are many birds and a few reptiles and fish. People are always highly stylized, but often full of life and movement. Scenes include hunting, dancing and other activities, and also fights, and 'hold-ups', like that from Morhana Pahar where a group of men on foot with spears and bows and arrows are waylaying a horse- drawn chariot (Figure 2) (Allchin, 1958). At first sight the abstract designs are somewhat mysterious, but some can be explained, as we shall see. In certain cases the animals shown in outline appear to have been drawn rather than painted. There are many examples of figures being superimposed upon one another (Figure 3).

Wakankar (himself a practising artist) has done more work on the subject than anyone else, and is of the opinion that the colouring matter, which is available in the form of soft rock or coloured earth, was ground down, mixed with water and applied with a brush made by fraying

143




FIGURE 4. A female Sambar deer galloping, in bold red outline with the head in solid colour , Lekhania rock shelter , Vindhya hills ; an example of the earlier phases of rock art in Central India.

(Photograph Allchin)

FIGURE 5. A group of one male and two female Chital or spotted deer in dark red, Lekhania rock shelter , Vindhya hills , probably belonging to the earlier phases of Central Indian rock art. (Photograph Allchin)

144



JANUARY 1987 the end of a twig. He considers that no oils or fats were used, but other writers differ on this point. In many of the shelters small hard nodules of haematite and other colouring materials have been found. Of those I have seen many would appear to be suitable for use as crayons. Here again there is a difference of opinion among researchers: Wakankar main- tains that nearly all are paintings, while Mathpal and others believe that a considerable proportion are wholly or partly crayon drawings.

In the course of many years' fieldwork and study Wakankar has worked out a sequence of styles of Central Indian rock painting (Wakankar, 1972; Brooks and Wakankar, 1976). This is based on a combination of factors including general conditions, colouring, painting tech- nique, superimposition, content and association with excavated materials. On this basis he has pro- posed twenty identifiable periods. It is not neces- sary to go into all these in detail here, but the main phases are interesting. The question of dating rock art in Central India is particularly difficult because many of the painted rock shelters have no occupation deposits, merely a bare rock floor, sometimes covered with a few inches of dust and microliths (small stone artefacts). A minority, however, have some depth of occupation deposit, and over twenty have now been systematically excavated. Of these probably the most productive are some of the many rock shelters in the Bhimbetka group in Bhopal, which were excavated under the direction of V. N. Misra and Wakankar over a period of some years. A few have Lower or Middle Palaeolithic remains in the lowest levels, taking them back some tens of thousands of years.

Assocated with this period, and earliest in order of superimposition, is a group of paintings which consists mainly of single animals on a fairly large scale in bold outline, solid colour or hatched (Figures 4 & 5). Human figures appear only at the end of this phase. This early group includes a high proportion of pictures in a particular shade of green, fragments of which have been found in levels transitional between the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. Until recently the dating of the rock art and associated occupation deposits was uncertain, but during the last few years independent physical dates have been obtained for Upper Palaeolithic levels at Bhimbetka and elsewhere. Among a number of burials at Bhimbetka one was accompanied by a


string of ostrich eggshell beads. Ostriches have been extinct in India for some thousands of years, and only appear in the earliest paintings. Ostrich eggs from another Central India site, Patne, have been dated to 25,000 BP (Wakankar, 1984). This is not conclusive as there were no rock paintings there, but taken with other dates for the Upper Palaeolithic in western or Central India which range between approximately 15,000 and 17,000 ВС it suggests a much greater anti- quity for the earliest rock paintings than was previously supposed. More work will have to be done to establish the age of the earliest paintings with certainty. C. Krishna, on the basis of a survey of rock paintings around Bhopal carried out by the Madhya Pradesh State Archaeology Department, estimated that the earliest paintings there dated to between 8,000 to 18,000 ВС or even earlier.

Predominantly the occupation deposits in most rock shelters are of the Mesolithic and later periods. The Mesolithic, which is now considered to extend back to about 10,000 ВС, is characterized by the presence of small delicately made stone artefacts known as microliths. These are very beautifully made, often of semi-pre- cious stones, and occur in profusion. In a few cases colouring materials corresponding to those used in the paintings on the walls have been found in association with microliths in excavations, thus providing a valuable correlation. The paintings of this, the second major phase, show arrowheads and other tools incorporating microliths of various characteristic forms. These form part of hunting scenes and other pictures showing both people and animals in action. Some of the abstract forms are explained as bags, baskets, traps and hunting or fishing gear represented in a stylized manner (Figure 6). In the context of these lively, rather impressionistic scenes this is a very convincing explanation. Some of the larger designs, particularly rectangles surround- ed by rows of elaborate hatching, require further explanation. This is provided, as well shall show, by ethnographic parallels.

In the third main painting phase there is increasing evidence of contact with the Chalco- lithic cultures of the more advanced areas of the peninsula, both in the content of the pictures, i.e. weapons, carts, chariots, etc. (e.g. Figure 2), and in the occupation deposits where small numbers of potsherds characteristic of settlements in adjoining regions are found. Further,

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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS

FIGURE 6. Various animais, mainly deer, some superimposed on one another; also incomplete animal figures, unidentified forms, strokes and dots. The animals in solid colour are purple and the rest

in shades of red. It has been suggested that unidentified forms of this kind may represent traps, baskets or hunting gear. Rock shelter near Roberts Ganj,

Vindhya hills. (Photograph Allchin) there is a remarkable similarity between the rock paintings of phase three and painted pottery from a whole range of Chalcolithic sites of the second and third millennia ВС in North India. Both show rows of stylized dancing figures, animal-headed human figures and animals and birds represented in the same semi-stylized manner (Figure 7). It is possible to find extremely close parallels, as Wakankar and others have done, but which way the influence went is a subject of discussion among pre- historians: perhaps it was something of a complementary process.

During the fourth and fifth phases details of dress, weapons and equipment indicate links with known and dated cultural phases of the Iron Age, and later with historical periods and particular dynasties such as the Kushans and the Guptas. One example of this is a Kushan war- rior with distinctive dress and an exaggeratedly long bow recorded by Wakankar. Inscriptions are increasingly associated with the pictures, and by the nature of the language and script often provide fairly precise dating. This process continues into medieval and recent times, with the addition of pictures of armed horsemen and caparisoned elephants, and with an increasing 146

PROCEEDINGS

tendency to rigidity. Latterly many of the rock shelters were taken over by Hindu and Buddhist holy men or hermits whose writings are also found there.

Evidence of continuity into historical times was one of the factors that made archaeologists of both the British and post-Independence periods regard all rock paintings as of comparatively recent date. We have seen how the dates of the earliest examples have been steadily pushed back, while the latest remain firmly based in medieval and recent historical times. This raises the question of what became of the people who painted or drew them, and where their descendants are now. The answer undoubtedly is that they are among the inhabitants of Central India described earlier. Their lifestyle has changed, sometimes quite radically, in response to chang- ing times, but their traditions, although somewhat modified in many cases, still survive with them. The ostriches and rhinoceroses which appear in paintings of the Mesolithic period have long been extinct in Central India, and other large animals have become rare and are now protected as part of the national plan for natural conservation; but many tribal people

FIGURE 1.Л òaora zvali painting from eastern Central India, showing lines of dancers, reminiscent of later Central Indian rock art and Chalcolithic painted ceramics, together with motifs associated with

more recent times such as horse and elephant riders, palanquin bearers and men with guns. (Photograph courtesy Heinz Mode)




FIGURE 8. A Rathva priest or Badvo in a trance consecrating a painting of the marriage of Prithero, a creation myth, on the interior verandah wall of a Rathva house in western Central India.

(Photograph courtesy Jyotindra Jain)

still hunt where there is game available, and the Bhils particularly carry bows and arrows and pride themselves on their prowess as bowmen. On the occasion of weddings and festivals many people in remote areas still dance in long lines like the lines of dancers shown in the rock paintings and on Chalcolithic pottery. Some have festivals in which animal masks and head-dresses play an important part. These things, and much more that has been recorded during the last hun- dred years, leave no doubt that the indigenous people of Central India are the cultural and traditional inheritors and, to an extent, probably the physical descendants of those who inhabited and painted the rock shelters from the closing phases of the Upper Palaeolithic forward.

Can this approach help us to understand the significance of the paintings themselves, and the motivation behind them? The answer is that to some extent at any rate it can. Brooks and Wakankar (1976) cite a number of examples of paintings done on the mud walls of houses in eastern Central India by Gonds, bison-horned Muria and Saora, which have features in common with rock art while also showing Hindu and Buddhist influence (Figure 7). An example

of traditional folk art that has recently received attention is the wall paintings of the Worli people of the western Ghats. The Worli have a tradition of having come from farther north (? western Central India). They do these paintings or Chowks in white on the mud walls of their houses to mark the occasion of marriages and other important events. A marriage Chowk includes human figures engaged in various practical activités, musicians and lines of dancers, trees, plants and animals all full of movement but to a greater or lesser degree stylized. The most prominent feature is a square delineated by concentric lines of chevrons, small triangles, intersecting loops and other devices. In the central enclosure is a stylized human figure, or Palaghat, represen- ting the fertility goddess. The surrounding pat- terns form her house or temple and are also said to represent her jewellery (Yashodhara Dalmia, 1983). There are many other examples in folk art of rectangular designs of this kind, which are described as houses, temples or sacred enclosures. Together they give some in- dication of the significance of their prototypes in rock art.

147




FIGURE 9. A view of the southern Deccan countryside taken from a granite hill, showing terraced fields and living platforms of the Neolithic period in the foreground and a later settlement with trees in the middle distance.

(Photograph Allchin)

The Rathva are a community of between 100,000 and 200,000 according to the 1961 census. They live at the western end of the Cen- tral Indian hill region in eastern Gujarat. Today they practise mixed agriculture, clearing and cultivating fields where possible, and grazing their animals in the surrounding grassland and open forest. They also have a tradition of utiliz- ing and exploiting many natural products which form a significant part of their economy. These include honey, wild fruits, flowers, shellac and various substances used in making dyes and pickles and in cooking. Many of these they sell at local markets. They also cut basket-making materials and bamboo for building their houses and for sale. Like many traditional rural communities, both Hindu and tribal, they have a great respect for the natural environment, and particularly for trees, which they lop or fell only with great care and economy.

Rathva houses are built of split bamboo on a wooden frame and plastered with mud and cow- dung. Certain interior walls are regarded as reserved for sacred paintings, and when a family can afford to do so they install them with traditional rites. The paintings represent their entire 148

theology (Jain, 1984). The most important ele- ment is the story of the marriage of Prithero, a creation myth, which traditionally occupies the back wall of the verandah of a family house. Other myths and pictures of gods and goddesses occupy other walls.

Sacred paintings are made only after careful preparation and the associated ceremonies are complex, including the sacrifice of goats and offering of cereals, milk and other produce to the gods. The painting is done by experienced men, farmers or labourers to whom the knowledge has been passed on by their seniors. Today the mud wall is whitewashed; string is used to draw straight lines to mark out the sacred enclosure containing the most important parts of the Prithero story and stencils to draw the bodies of the horses in the marriage procession. Colour- ing materials are bought in the bazaar, and include bright red, orange, blue, green and yellow. When a painting is finished it is con- secrated by the community priest or Badvo , who goes into a trance, names the characters and checks its correctness according to tradition (Figure 8). If any details are wrong he insists that they are put right at once.




FIGURE io .A rock painting on a protected granite surface at Piklihal, southern Deccan. This shows humped bull, Bos indicus, with extremely long, slender horns, some decorated with bows,

in various shades of red, characteristic of the earliest period. Some later figures are superimposed ( Photograph Allchin) The layout of the Prithero paintings today is

said to be heavily influenced by Rajput ceremonial processions. In more remote adjoining regions simpler versions are made of the same subject, painted directly on mud plaster, without the whitewashed background. The painting itself is done predominantly in white and free-hand, without the use of a line or stencils. Jain likens these to rock paintings, which he considers to be the direct ancestors of the Rathva mural paintings. Allowing for several intermediate developmental stages, this is probably true. This makes the Rathva sacred paintings a living representative of one aspect at least of the ancient rock painting tradition of western Central India.

There is another aspect of folk painting of this kind: it can also be seen to relate by a series of developmental stages to more sophisticated artistic traditions of historical and modern times. This is exemplified in Rajasthan. The Pabhuji paintings, huge sheets of cotton covered with an interlocking series of pictures, are used

to illustrate the recitation of the heroic epic of Pabhuji which takes several days and nights to complete in full. These paintings are done in a distinctive folk style with a kind of semi-profes- sionalism that in many ways parallels the Rathva Prithero painting. At the same time this style reflects elements of Rajput court painting - or is it the other way about? Whichever it is, Rajput court painting in turn has much in common with Moghul art and through it with many of the major artistic traditions of the world. There is an equally clear overlap between folk art and popular urban Hindu religious art as represented by religious pictures, calendars, etc. Popular Hindu art of this kind again relates directly to the classical Indian tradition of Hindu-Buddhist art, as represented in so much splendid sculpture and painting.

THE SOUTHERN DECCAN The rock art of the southern Deccan is associated in the main with the granite hills and trap dykes that rise abruptly from the surface of the

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FIGURE il. A rock brutstng on the weathered surface of a granite boulder on a hill similar to that shown in Figure 10, at Maski, in the southern Deccan.

This shows a group of figures, and belongs to the early or middle period of rock art in the region.

(Photograph Allchin) Deccan plateau. It is an area of fairly low rain- fall, ranging from 20 to 30 inches per annum, and of heavy black cotton soil. Today much of the plateau is under cultivation and parts of it are irrigated. Where any natural vegetation remains it consists of acacia thorn and coarse grasses, larger trees such as neem and mango having been planted and carefully nurtured. Most present-day settlements of any size are situated in the open plain. This pattern appears to have been established in the early Iron Age, the earlier Neolithic settlements being on the granite hills, where huts were built on levelled terraces with retaining walls of boulders (Figure 9). Millet was grown in Neolithic times as it is. today, but whether on the terraces or in the surrounding plain we do not know. Terracotta figurines of humped bulls (Bos indicus) and quantities of broken cattle bones, which show that the meat was cut up and cooked, have been found in excavations. Eating beef is contrary to Hindu practice today, but the importance of Bos indicus in economic and even more in socio- religious terms is a well-known feature of Indian life, and very emphatically so in the southern Deccan today.

The rock art of the region is almost exclusively associated with the hills inhabited in Neolithic times. The earliest account of both the settlements and the rock art is that of Bruce Foote (1916). Further sites were recorded by 150

PROCEEDINGS

Munn, Gordon and others. In 1950-51 F. R. Allchin and the writer made a survey of ancient sites in Raichur district, and carried out the first excavation of a Neolithic hill settlement at Piklihal (F. R. Allchin, 1960). In the course of this work we considered the rock art in relation to the sites and to the major recognized cultural periods. Since then further research has been done on the Neolithic settlements but little on the rock art. Much less is known about it in this region than in Central India, but certain rather general statements can be made.

The rock art of the southern Deccan consists of paintings and crayon drawings on protected surfaces and in caves and rock shelters, and of rock bruisings. The latter were described by Foote as follows:

The graffiti are really rough sketches of human beings in groups and singly and many figures of birds and beasts . . . They cannot, strictly speaking, be regarded as sculptures . . . Rock-bruisings would be the best term by which to describe them. They were, I doubt not, produced by hammering the weathered surface of the rock with stones more or less sharp pointed, a pastime not infrequently indulged in by the herd boys of the present time whom I have sometimes come upon so occupied. (Foote, 1916, pp.87-8.) The paintings are almost all in shades of red, ranging from crimson to russet, made from haematitic rock or earth as in Central India. A small minority are done in white or red and white. In both paintings and rock bruisings there is a wide range of styles. Some have parallels in Central India, but many are quite different, and the totality has a distinctive character of its own. The predominant motif throughout is the humped bull (Bos indicus ). Within a palimpsest of painted bulls, of which- there are several, or among a group of bruisings, bulls are portrayed in many different styles, indicating that more were added as time passed (Figure 10). Other species of wild and domestic animals, including antelope, tiger, sheep and many more, are represented, and they show stylistic differences comparable to those seen in the representation of bulls, but they are in a fairly small minority. There are also large amorphous male figures (Figure 11); groups of pin-men full of movement, dancing or hunting (Figure 12); scenes showing armed men on foot, on horseback and on elephants; medieval and modern Hindu religious symbols and inscriptions.



JANUARY 1987

FIGURE 12. Iron Age rock art from the Benkal forest, southern Deccan, showing lines of dancers ,

armed men, men on horseback, humped cattle and other animals. (After L. H. Munn)

Both bruisings and paintings have been shown to fall into three main groups which form a sequence, as follows: 1. Neolithic art, including wild and domestic

animals, male human figures and some dancing figures. Humped bulls predominate, and the majority are shown slightly built, with long, slender horns, and resemble Neolithic terracotta figurines. A minority appear to be more solid and more heavily boned.

2. Iron Age and Early Historic. These include the groups of hunters and armed men on horseback; more dancing pin-men; humped bulls of a rather less slender and graceful kind than the majority of those of phase 1, and carts.

3. Medieval to Modern. The religious symbols and inscriptions largely belong to this phase. Humped bulls continue but become stiffer and more wooden (Gordon and Allchin, 1950). The practice of making rock bruisings con-

tinues to the present day. Like Bruce Foote, we saw herd boys hammering pictures on the rocks, and some of the most recent humped bulls were undoubtedly modelled on the bull symbol of the Congress party in the 1950s. That the tradition of rock art extends back to the Neolithic is also indisputable. It is interesting that in the course

SOUTH ASIAN ROCK ART of our survey of Raichur district we found that hills with suitable rocks but no Neolithic settlements tended to have no rock art of any period, while at those with Neolithic settlements there were paintings and bruisings from the Neolithic forward, showing that the tradition was localized. We now know, as the result of carbon fourteen dates from excavated sites, that the Neolithic culture continued from the beginning of the third millennium ВС to the end of the second, when great changes took place with the beginning of the Iron Age. The question we must ask is, does any of the rock art predate the Neolithic settlements, and if so by how long? At present there is no definite answer, but it is reasonable to suppose that some of the pictures of wild animals could date from earlier times. Whether any of the humped bulls are also earlier depends on whether Bos indicus was introduced into the region as a domestic species, or was a wild species domesticated there by the Neolithic population. This too we do not know, but there is some evidence that it was locally domesticated (Allchin, F. R. and В., 1974).

Regarding the function of the rock art of the granite hills, we can say little on the basis of present knowledge except that at certain places there appears to be a living tradition carried on by herd boys of making pictures of cattle on the rocks. At Piklihal paintings associated with small secluded caves, one of which was the shrine of a local goddess, suggested a similar continuity at holy places. The rock art and other evidence from the Neolithic sites leave no doubt of the importance of cattle in the lives of the Neolithic inhabitants of the region. Today, too, cattle are of enormous importance in the lives of country people both in practical terms and in a socio-religious sense. A significant proportion of the population, however, as Hindus, do not eat beef. It has been pointed out (Nagaraja Rao, 1965) that traditionally the hill sites were associated with a community known as Boyars, herdsmen and hunters who were renowned for their physical toughness, and regularly ate beef. Many fought in the armies of Tipu Sultan and some were converted to Islam.

We cannot leave South India without making one further observation with regard to the fate of both the rock art and the Neolithic sites. Today stone is in great demand for building roads, dams, irrigation systems, housing, etc., and the granite hills are an obvious source of stone. The

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FIGURE 13. Rock bruising from the Karakoram Highway, on the north bank of the Indus near Thor. Strong darkening of the bruised area and stylistic characteristics point to an early date

(2nd millenium ВС or earlier). (Courtesy J ettmar)

boulders that cover them, and of which they sometimes appear to be built, are the result of the natural weathering of the rock. They provide a readily available source of stone which is easily quarried. There are many granite hills, and only a minority have Neolithic settlements and rock paintings or bruisings. Sadly, on each occasion when we have revisited the area after an interval of several years we have found that sites we knew had been heavily damaged. Recently attempts have been made to direct quarrying activities to hills that have no antiquities. It is important that this matter should be kept in the public eye in every possible way so that some at least of the cultural heritage of the southern Deccan can be preserved. Ideally one would like to see all the hills protected as they give the land- scape its distinctive character. Destruction on the scale we have seen could radically change this.

THE NORTH-WESTERN MOUNTAINS Ironically, the discovery of the spectacular wealth of rock art along the new Karakoram 152

highway is due to the same processes that have destroyed the southern hills: road building and general development. The reason for this is that much of the Karakoram highway follows an ancient route, all along and around which travellers have made pictures on the rocks which form the valley walls and on large boulders that lie on the valley floors. In clearing the route to build a wide modern road along valleys and over passes much rock has been blasted, and an enormous amount of rock art must have been lost. The route followed by the new road is one of several alternative routes through the Himalayas. Collectively they form one of the southern branches of the silk route from China to the West. More locally the route divides again with branches leading to Taxila, in the northern Punjab, and to Kashmir. The opening of the modern highway in 1979 made possible the first systematic attempt to record the rock art by a German team led by Karl Jettmar and A. H. Dani of Pakistan. Something of its wealth was already known from the records of earlier travellers, including Aurel Stein.




FIGURE 14. Rock bruising from the Karakoram Highway, in the Indus valley near Chilas. The Kharosthi inscriptions date the accompanying rock art to the 1st century ВС- 1st century AD.

On the left is a squatting human figure which might also be interpreted as a stupa; at the right armed men leading their horses approach a stupa, and one man carries a (?) plough. (Courtesy Thewalt)

In the seven years since the completion of the highway a considerable amount of rock art has been recorded and published. But much remains to be done in order to obtain the maximum amount of information, and to protect and preserve it. So far two major categories of rock art have been put on record: the art of the indigenous people of the region and that of travellers. The first consists of pictures of animals, chiefly ibex and makhor, species of wild sheep and goat still found in the region, drawn in various styles; scenes showing stylized men hunting these animals with bows and arrows; large simplified outline figures of men; hand and footprints and other subjects in similar style (Figure 13). This group is part of a much more widespread tradition of rock art extending through the Himalayas from Kashmir north-westward to Afghanistan, the Pamirs and the Hissar mountains of Soviet Cen- tral Asia, and probably beyond. Wild sheep and goat and paricularly ibex are an important ele- ment throughout. This shows the economic

importance of these animals as sources of food and clothing and their place in folklore and tradition from middle Stone Age times down to the present. Over 40,000 years ago ibex horns were laid over the graves of Neanderthal hunters of these same mountain regions. No study has yet been made of the prehistoric rock art of northern Pakistan and north-west India and very little has been done in adjoining mountain regions, and so there is no sequence of styles such as we have in Central and southern India. This is an exciting topic for future research.

The second group, ascribable to travellers from far and near and perhaps to the more sophisticated communities in the valleys, is very complex (Figure 14). It includes inscriptions in many scripts and languages and the art styles and symbols of several major cultural and religious traditions. It therefore demands the detailed attention of historians and linguists. The earliest inscriptions so far noted date from around the beginning of the Christian era. They include Arabic, Chinese, Indian and Iranian

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FIGURE 15. Rock bruising from the Karakoram Highway, near Chilas , Indus valley.

Many Buddhist images made around 600 AD owed their existence to commissions by patrons. The Maitreya figure shown here, like a number of others, was commissioned by a certain Sinhota.

Next to it is a cornucopia and a stupa. (Courtesy Thewalt)

languages in a variety of scripts, and others, some not yet identified. The religious pictures are predominantly Buddhist and include many Buddha figures and stupas in various styles stemming from the homelands of the artists (Figures 15 & 16). There are also many non- religious subjects. The earliest include Achae- menid and Kushan figures datable to the last centuries ВС and early centuries AD, and animals in the Scythian style probably of the same period or rather earlier.

I hope that what I have said gives some indica- tion of the quantity and variety of South Asian rock art, and of its interest and value in under- standing the character of the subcontinent, both anciently and at the present day. It is clear that there is still much rock art to be discovered, and a great deal of work to be done recording it for posterity, and relating it to religion, mythology, trade and political development throughout 154

PROCEEDINGS

FIGURE 16. Rock bruising from the Karakoram Highway at Thalpan, opposite Chilas.

The Buddha is shown under the Tree of Enlightenment sitting enthroned on a lotus with a stupa overhead

6th-7th century AD Commissioned by a most important patron: Kuberavahana.

(Courtesy Thewalt)

South Asia and the world outside. If this is to be done the rock art itself must be conserved and protected. This is a matter of urgency. In each of the three regions discussed we have seen that there has been great destruction in the last few decades of this century. The pace of development is still increasing rapidly. The regions which are richest in rock art were once remote from all this, but they are no longer remote. They are rapidly being opened up to all kinds of modern developments. All of them have one factor in common: there is still enough space and sufficient resources to allow for a certain amount of choice in planning this development. This means that by careful planning the rock art can be spared: other rocks can be quarried, alternative routes chosen for roads, alternative sites for construction. More important, it means that there is time to plan development of these areas in such a way that the whole environment can be utilized without destroying its character.




BIBLIOGRAPHY Allchin, В., 'Morhana Pahar: a Rediscovery', Man, 58, 207, pp. 153-5, 1958. Allchin, F. R., Piklihal Excavations (Andhra Pradesh Government Archaeological Series, No. 1), Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta, 1960. Allchin, F. R., and В., 'Some Thoughts on Indian Cattle', South Asian Archaeology, - 1973, ed. J. E. van Lohuizen and J. M. M. Ubaghs, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1974. Brooks, R. R., and Wakankar, V. S., Stone Age Painting in India, Yale University Press, 1976. Dalmia, Y., 'The Worli Chowk: a World View', Design, Tradition and Change, pp. 79-90, ed. G. Sen, Indian International Centre, Delhi, 1983. Dani, A. H., Chilas, the City of Narga Parvat, Islamabad, 1983. Elwin, V., The Banga, John Murray, London, 1939. Foote, R. В., The Foote Collection of Indian Prehistoric and Proto- historic Antiquities, Government Press, Madras, 1916. Fürer-Haimendorf, С. von., The Chenchu, Macmillan, London, 1943. Fürer-Haimendorf, С. von., The Raj Gonds ofAdilabad, Macmillan, London, 1948. Gordon, D. H., The Prehistoric Background of Indian Culture, Bombay, 1958. Gordon, D. H., and Allchin, F. R., 'Rock Paintings and Engravings in Raichur, Hyderabad', Man, 55, 1 14, pp. 97-9, 1950.

Greigson, W. V., The Maia Gonds of Bostar, Oxford University Press, 1938. Jain, J., Painted Myths of Creation, Art and Ritual of an Indian Tribe, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 1984. Jayakar, P., The Earthen Drum, National Museum, New Delhi, 1980. Jettmar, K., Nevendeckten Felsbilder und Inschriften in den Norgebeiten Pakistan, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Bonn, 1980. Mills, J. P., The Head Hunters of Assam, Macmillan, London, 1926. Mode, H., and Chandra, S., Indische Volkskunst, Leipzig, 1984. Panchanan Mitra, Prehistoric India, Its Place in the World, University of Calcutta, 1927. Rao, N., The Stone Age Hill Dwellers of Tekkalakota, Deccan College, Pune, 1965. Wakankar, V. S., Paper delivered to the All India Oriental Congress, 'Dating Indian Rock Paintings, 1972'.

The following give more recent general accounts of South Asian rock art: Agrawal, D.P., The Archaeology of India (Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series), Curzon Press, London and Malmö, 1982. Allchin, В., and F. R., The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan, Cambridge University Press, 1982.

DISCUSSION

THE CHAIRMAN: That was a most fascinating lecture, certainly of great interest to me and a lot of it very new, although the pictures of the Karakoram Highway and inscriptions did bring back some memories.

MR TREVOR RUSSELL-COBB: What language were the inscriptions in?

THE LECTURER: More or less all the languages of Asia seem to be represented because it is a major highway. There is a tremendous amount of historical and linguistic research to be done. This is one of the reasons for the crying need for conservation. They are of enormous interest as pictures, but also there is a wealth of linguistic detail.

THE CHAIRMAN: There are Buddhist missionaries coming from all over, I suppose?

THE LECTURER: And traders; this is a branch of the silk route.

THE CHAIRMAN: A lot of it is graffiti, isn't it, say- ing 4 am so-and-so from China; I was here.'?

THE LECTURER: Yes, perhaps, and others, I should think, are auspicious phrases, written in the hope of gaining protection against the brigands of the journey.

DR F. R. ALLCHIN: Those inscriptions the ques- tioner referred to were in Brami script of the fifth or sixth century AD, and the language is almost certainly Sanskrit.

AUDREY EIFFE: I wondered what the man standing between the great horns with his bow was supposed to represent?

THE LECTURER: Wakankar thought he was some sort of shaman or wizard, but I think maybe it was to show that he was a great hunter and had shot three deer.

MRS MIRANDA HARRIS, MA (Artist/Lecturer): Can you say why the hut paintings were executed on the side rather than the front of the hut?

the LECTURER: The Rathva creation myth paintings were done on the back wall of the veranda, which is regarded as a suitable place for holy paintings. It is central to the family house and visitors can see it when they come.

THE CHAIRMAN: This is one particular tribe?

THE LECTURER: The Rathva are quite numerous. I think in the 1960 census there were some hundreds of thousands of people who practised this kind of art. Outside, of course, it would get washed off. It needs to be protected.

MRS HARRIS: How often did they repaint them?

THE lecturer: A very good book by J. Jain called Painted Myths of Creation, published in India, goes into that and other things connected with them at considerable length; a lot depended on when people could afford to renew them. They obviously could not do it every year. I think it varied greatly from family to family according to their circumstances.

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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS MISS thetis blacker: What was the pigment

used in the paintings?

THE LECTURER: The old ones which were largely in white on plain mud plaster probably used natural dyes. These people gather a lot of wild produce to aug- ment their income as I indicated in the lecture, but when it comes to painting they like the bright colours they can get in the bazaar and they use those. So those you saw would be done with modern chemical paints.

PROFESSOR A. C. MAYER (Professor Emeritus of Asian Anthropology, Univesity of London): Is it possible through locating various stages of artistic development of these paintings to discern the geographical movements of people?

THE LECTURER: I think at the moment they have twenty sequential stages through time for the area as a whole, and the only suggestion of where you might get some movement of people is with modern paintings, the people possibly having come from central India.

MR JONATHAN GESTETNER: Have you studied the paintings of the caves of Ajanta?

the LECTURER: I have not studied them as an art historian, but I have been there. They are rather special in that they are in the classical tradition of

PROCEEDINGS

painting and sculpture. The calendars are a kind of urban folk art, and they do relate to classical tradition, but I don't think you could say that there was a direct link. I would not say it was a very close one, because they come from a very sophisticated society, court painting.

THE CHAIRMAN: The dating of these- early paintings must be formidably difficult?

THE LECTURER: Very difficult.

THE CHAIRMAN: Unless there is something you can relate it to?

the lecturer: Just occasionally you get a bit of the stuff that they use to do the colouring in an excavation deposit. The animals are done in purplish colours and also in a particular greenish colour, which is unusual later, and they found some of the same greenish material which had been used for the animals in the upper palaeolithic layers, but that is very rare.

the CHAIRMAN: Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure you would like me to express our great thanks to Bridget Allchin for giving us such a fascinating lecture. Although she professed that it was outside her special field of archaeology, I think she did reveal a considerable depth of erudition and study.

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SOUTH ASIAN ROCK ART