Rock Painting Found in the Hill of Dharamjaygarh Area at a Height of 200 Feet | 19 Jan 2023

Why In News?

• Recently Prof. D.S. Maliya, famous for cave exploration and rock painting discovery in Chhattisgarh, has found prehistoric rock paintings in a rock shelter located at an altitude of 200 feet at Dharamjaigarh in Raigarh district.

Key points

• These rock paintings were found in the intensive cave search campaign launched by Prof. D.S. Maliya. Prof. Malia said that the cave exploration campaign is still going on, the detailed information will be shared after the completion of the campaign.
• It is worth noting that in Raigad district till now rock paintings have been received from Kabra Pahad, Singhanpur, Ongana and Ushakothi, Bansajhar, Botalda and some other places which are identified by the State Culture and Archeology Department.
• Cave exploration campaign is being carried out by Prof. D.S. Maliya since 1994 and prehistoric rock paintings have been discovered at 16 other sites, in which the Vandankhoh cave rock paintings found in 2003 from the Panchbhaya hill range of Shokhamuda are the most important, which was discovered by the then Deputy Director of the State Culture Department. Dr. G. L. Badam had termed it as a new discovery.
• According to officials of the State Government's Directorate of Archaeology, the state has shelters ranging from the mid-western period to the historical period, which have become nationally and internationally famous in the maps of history and archaeology.
• The first painted rock shelters in the state were discovered in 1910 by English researcher Anderson. After this, in the year 1918, rock paintings of the hills of Singhanpur in Raigad district were published in India Paintings and in the thirteenth issue of Encyclopedia Britannica.
• Indian historian Amarnath Dutt, between 1923 and 1927, did a comprehensive survey in Raigad district and found many more rock paintings. After him, Dr. N Ghosh, D.H. Garden and Pandit Lochan Prasad Pandey also did important work of study and research in this direction.
• Shail Chitra of Singhanpur in Raigad district is about 20 km west of the district headquarters Raigad. Built on a high hill. They are counted among the oldest rock paintings in the world. These rock paintings are now almost blurred. They also depict hunting scenes, including stair-like males, fish-girls and animal figures.
• Apart from Singhanpur, the district headquarters is only 8 km from Raigad. The paintings made on the Tomb Mountain located in the east are of Garrick color. Among them, geometric ornamentation with wild buffalo, turtle and male figures is particularly notable.
• Raigad district is very rich in terms of rock paintings of early humans. At about 17 km to the south-west from the rock shelters of Singhanpur, in the hills of Basnajhar Village (Tehsil Kharsia), more than three hundred paintings have been marked by the primitive humans. In which scenes of elephant, rhinoceros, wild buffalo, group dance and hunting etc. are marked.
• Only 8 km from Tehsil headquarter Kharsia. Singh cave is located at a height of about two thousand feet in the hills near village Botalda, whose animal hunting scenes and geometrical ornaments on the walls indicate the hustle and bustle of human life thousands of years ago.
• 12 km from Tehsil headquarter Kharsia. But in the hills near Patrapali village near Sooti Ghat, there is a famous rock shelter named Bhanwarkhol, on whose walls fish-girl, wild buffalo, bear, human palm and 'Swastika' symbol of Indian culture are also marked. More than one hundred rock paintings of this type can be seen on the Ongana mountain near Dharamjaigarh in the north direction about 72 km from the district headquarter. This includes groups of bulls and even a human figure with ten heads.
• Not only this but thirty km from the district headquarter itself. But in the hills of Karmagarh, more than three hundred and fifty paintings were done thousands of years ago. In these, many other shape-type pictures including geometric shapes are noteworthy.
• The rock paintings in the shape of animals and birds in Khairpur hill near Tipa Khol Reservoir, twelve km from Raigad itself, are also the center of curiosity for the visitors. 2 km from Kharsia. But Amar cave in the hill of village Sonbarsa, 32 km from district headquarter Raigarh. But village Bhainsgarhi, Sooti Ghat on Bilaspur-Raigarh road and the rock shelters and rock paintings made in the hills of villages Gatadih and Sirauli Dangri, near Sarangarh, the tehsil headquarters of the district, have also become the subject of research for archaeologists.