Friday, August 23, 2013

Paintings at Bheembetka caves

Historians and archaeologists  tell us that paintings at Bheembetka caves dates back as early as to 300 B.C. or even older than that. It is also said that these petrographs belong to  the periods of history stretching from Paleolithic to medieval. I don't know much about the classification of paintings to different eras but their longevity and the lives of the people of that time definitely fascinate me. The clarity of images on the rocks filled me with a sense of wonder. What medium the man of that time used to draw the pictures which provided them such a long life span ? Did they extract the colors from plants ? Perhaps yes..only nature is capable of leaving such immortal imprints. Who drew the paintings? Were the women used to draw when men folk went out deep into the forest to hunt, gather food etc.?or both men and women indulged in this creative pursuits. These rock shelters must have been their home. Were these pictures drawn for decorating their homes or the pictures were drawn on the occasions of certain festivals,celebration, worshiping their deities etc. As I stood there trying to locate the various images on the mammoth size of rocks several questions kept on popping .The images do answer certain questions but it's the charm of the unknown, the fathomless that make the experience so unique.

Man always loved to tell stories. Man has this desire to preserve and propagate his time, era, activities and life of his own time and what better way than to weave stories comprising all the details. Paintings too are a form of story telling. The petrographs at Bheembetka are stories in carving. They have a power to transcend time, language and culture. They transmit culturally and adaptively appropriate and useful information.

There are war scenes depicted in these paintings, battles between two armies, animals like elephants and horses used in war, the weapons, soldiers on horses fighting with swords. There are figures dancing, playing instruments, celebrating  and then there are images of Gods and Goddesses. Such pictures convey socially relevant information. They create historically relevant documents.

Art in any form is an integral part of man's being. Art, its appreciation and its role in the aesthetic development has always been an extremely early characteristic of human being. Art and its uses in man's daily life provide him with a deep sense of certainty and collective art like these painting at Bheembetka are not just an individual leisure time expressions and occupations rather it correspond to a basic human need of being connected to the things around him and if this need is not fulfilled it makes man feel insecure and anxious.
Man observes closely the things around him, he enjoys his observation and then out of these images he interprets life, trains himself for the life. Man has always been interested in things around himself-plants, trees and animals.
These paintings are great works of art in the sense that they invite one to be inhabitant of those bygone times.The paintings revive and readapt the time and space and open doors to those strange and special times.

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a group dance may be

the aeroplane like structure in this painting astonished me.Did those people living in caves really imagined about aeroplane? or looking at the birds flying high up in the sky gave birth to the wish to be able to soar high in the vast expanse of sky.
this one has been dimmed with the passage of time still a horse like figure is traceable.In many of the gigantic caves it took us long time to search the figures painted and then we tried to decipher the shapes.They allured us to their world.  

all the pictures are by Sunder Iyer






Saturday, April 20, 2013

In commune with rocks






I had been to bheembetka caves to see the marvel of the paintings by the pre-historic man dating back to some 15000 years but the enchanting encounter with the raw rugged beauty of the rocks themselves left me spellbound. The bheembetka rock shelters are not only the repository of the paintings created by man belonging to various epochs of the time but they themselves are an outstanding examples of the exceptional beauty that nature provides in the form of the magnificent rocks. 
Unusually high formidable rocks flanking the entrance stand like fearsome sentinels guarding the magical art gallery created by nature itself.
Highly textured blocks of rocks, moulding into varying shapes entice our fantasy and a whole new world consisting of images of animals, faces, streams, people open up before us. Put your imagination at work and the rocks can embody just about anything. It is not only forms but the formless, the abstract patterns painted on the rock canvas that impart them a beauty beyond words. The patterns are descriptive enough to suggest certain forms yet they are abstract enough to leave the interpretation to the viewers imagination.
At places patches of uniform colors suddenly slides to an adjacent patch of entirely different color.
A crevice at the farthest end of a long huge cave frames the distant trees. It looks like a landscape painting adorning the wall.Nature itself lures as art.
Somewhere rocks cling to each other with a passionate intensity of being on with the other while on other place a boulder sits atop the rocky platform barely touching it.
At times the light touches the rocks in a way to uncover the hidden rainbows while there are moments when the cool dark shades make the rocks look grim and distant.

At first it is entertaining to observe the rocks with rapt contemplation and identify images but slowly you get connected to a deeper sense. From time immemorial these rocks stand there under the open sky in direct commune with Him above and He through His different elements wind, rain, sun bless them with His grace to be the carrier of such beauty par excellence. Isn't there a lesson for us --lesson of perseverance and acceptance.
The experience of rooting to earth's energy albeit in a different form is a humbling experience. Standing there midst the high rising rocks from all sides the silence echoes with resonance of bygone era. The blue sky above peers down, the tree, creepers all stand  in quietude. None of them appears to be overtly anxious to explain to you the strange stirrings within your heart yet the divinity that exists in every form of nature is benevolent enough to guide you to seek out your own answers.



























Beauty comes as much from the mind as from the eye. -Grey Livingston

 

all pics by Sunder Iyer.

 

Location of bheembetka caves--- About 40 to 45 Km from Bhopal,Madhya Pradesh on Bhopal -Hoshangabad route