B.A.Ist yearINDIAN PAINTING

Dr. O. P. Parameswaran,Assistant Professor,

Department of Fine Arts,Post Graduate Govt. College for

Girls,Sector-11, Chandigarh

Pre – Historic Figure Paintings from Bhim-Betka, ( Near Bhopal) 5000 B.C.

Bhim-Betka Caves

Pre – Historic Figure Paintings from Bhim-Betka, ( Near Bhopal) 5000 B.C.

The very first works of visual art created on the Indian Subcontinent were primitive cave-or rock –paintings. Many hundreds are known but the largest concentrations appear in central India, on sandstone rock shelters within a hundred – mile radius of the city of Bhopal.

None are as ancient as the cave-paintings of Europe: Carbon-14 dating place the oldest at C.5500 B.C.

In many cases the older images are overlaid with later paintings and graffiti (drawings on public wall), continuing down to modern times.

Pre – Historic Figure Paintings from Bhim-Betka, ( Near Bhopal) 5000 B.C.

Place: There is one railway station named

Ubedullaganj in between Hoshangabad and Bhopal. The Bhim –Betka caves are situated on the south of that place.

These caves are more than six hundred in number.

Pre – Historic Figure Paintings from Bhim-Betka, ( Near Bhopal) 5000 B.C.

Nature of Pre- Historic Paintings: The paintings most often depict animals such

as elephants, horses, cows, bullocks, buffalos, boars etc. These paintings are depicted either singly or along with stylized humans in hunting or magical scenes.

Some tableaux (dramatic scene) seem to show such activities as hunting or perhaps bull-jumping, and figures with bows and arrows; other paintings, evidently later, show humans on horse back carrying swords and shields, which are obviously Iron age objects.

Pre – Historic Figure Paintings from Bhim-Betka, ( Near Bhopal) 5000 B.C.

There are also rare examples of ‘x’-ray imagery, where a cow’s unborn calf appears inside the animal or the internal organs of an antelope are charted, very in the style of paintings made by the contemporary Australian bushmen.

Pre – Historic Figure Paintings from Bhim-Betka, ( Near Bhopal) 5000 B.C.

Materials and Techniques: The pigments used are all natural mineral

colors and range in hue from dark reds and purples through terracotta creams, pinks, and oranges, to blues and greens and white ochres outlined in red.

The paintings are executed in solid areas or lines of color and attempts at tone and value (relation of light and shade) are rare.

Pre – Historic Figure Paintings from Bhim-Betka, ( Near Bhopal) 5000 B.C.

According to Robert Brooks, some pigments were directly applied with fingers, while others were apparently brushed on with a frayed palmetto (type of small palm tree with fan-shaped leaves) stem or some crude bush like object.

The pictures drawn in outline appear to be the most recent of these ancient works: they can be dated roughly to the fourth century A.D.