History on the rocks

Tentatively,the shelters are estimated to belong to the Upper Paleolithic 40,000-10,000 years BC period,through the Mesolithic and Chalcolithic eras to Early Historical times,but the jury is out on if they date back to even before the World Heritage Bhimbetka shelters near Bhopal,believed to be 100,000 years old.

The exploration began in January 2012 and the team has so far found over 150 shelters in the 40-sq km area between Bahiram and Salbardi in the sandstone formations of the fringe Gawilgarh range of the Satpura hills,which separate Madhya Pradesh from Maharashra. All the shelters are located on the Madhya Pradesh side.

We are documenting only engraved,painted ones as they were used by humans, Sahu said.

Sahus wife Nandini Bhattacharya-Sahu,a superintending archaeologist,heads the ASI Nagpurs Prehistory and Excavation branches and joins the 15-member excavation team for some of its trips.

One shelter they found was a small 3 m by 4 m but beautiful with a hood-like canopy on a cliff. It had cupules on the floor and walls. Cupules are characteristic circular troughs found cut out in these shelters. They could perhaps have been used to prepare colours, Prabash said.

They named the shelter PCM1 Pachmau1. Its a small one. The largest one we found 40 m x 25 m was at Ghodpend, said Nandini.

Another shelter they discovered was a two-storey one along a dry rivulet. Most commonly found carving in these shelters is that of the female genital. According to Prabash,It could be some expression about sexuality. We are not sure what it really represents. But they are like your toilet graffiti. Based on the decorations,we get a glimpse of their lifestyle and advancements, he noted.

Once it finds such engravings or paintings,the team dusts them before taking photographs and GPS coordinates as part of primary documentation. Prabash admitted the contribution of locals to the exercise. They have become like amateur archaeologists themselves, he said.

The search began following a report by six Amravati-based excursionists on four shelters they had visited a few years agoin Mungsadeo,Gaimukh,Kukadsadeo and Ambadevi. These were known to the local tribals,who had established deities there,but it was to the credit of these amateurs that they reported about it, said Prabash. We thought there could be more such shelters and had a project sanctioned.

These sandstone formations are weak compared to Bhimbetka,in the Vindhyas,which have the toughest sandstone formations, he said.

The exploration is expected to end soon. If Giriraj Kumar,the secretary of the Rock Art Society of India that is devoted to the scientific study of rock art,calls the Gawilgarh rock shelters an important archaeological finding area,Nandini believes they could be our answer to Bhimbetka.

Located in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh in the foothills of the Vindhyas,the Bhimbetka rock shelters are a World Heritage Site. By some accounts,they exhibit the earliest traces of human life in India,suggesting that some of these shelters were inhabited by hominids like homo erectus.

The name Bhimbetka is itself associated with Bhima,from the Mahabharata,meaning the sitting place of Bhima.

Bhimbetka has many thematic paintings like ladies doing daily chores,which are a rarity here. If thematic paintings could be seen as an advanced art form,the Gawilgarh shelters could have come up even before Bhimbetka,who knows? said Nandini.