An unusual tour to the rocks

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS are always on tour, mostly handling red tape-related work. But, a group of officials, most of them from the Chennai Government Museum, were on a trip recently that was totally different.

The officials went to the erstwhile South and North Arcot districts besides Pudukottai and Nilgiris to study rock paintings and sculptures of pre-historic and historic periods.

``The trip intellectually enriched us,'' says the Commissioner of Museums and Archaeology, Dr. R. Kannan, who was the team leader.

Their first stop was Perumukkal, regarded in certain quarters as the only pictographic cave in south India.

This pre- historic place, about 10 km from Tindivanam, is also the third petroglyph site in the country where scripts and symbols have been carved on rocks, the other two being Bhimbetka in

Madhya Pradesh and Edakkal in Kerala.

Atop the hill was a dilapidated temple of Lord Shiva with a fortified wall.

``Going by the archaeological finds, the construction of the temple might have started during the Chola era (10th-11th century A.D) with the extension carried out during Vijayanagara period,'' Dr. Kannan points out.

``The script found in a cave, away from the temple, resemble Indus script,'' according to Dr. R. Madhivanan, Chief Editor of Tamil Etymological Projects, another member of the team.

Considering the area's importance, the Commissioner of Archaeology has now sent a proposal to the Government for final notification to declare Perumukkal as protected monument.

At Alampadi, about 30 km from Villupuram, some rock paintings portray anatomy of human and domestic animals with such detail as the lungs, heart and even a cow's intestine.

In Pudukottai district, the team studied rock sculptures, bas- relief and paintings of the Jain period.

At Brahadambika temple, there were the sculptures of Sapthamatrika (seven goddesses) - Brahmi, Varahi, Vaishnavi, Chamundi, Indrani, Maheswari and Gowmari.

After four hours of trekking, the group, which comprised two curators and one lecturer of the College of Arts and Crafts, reached Vellarikombai, an inaccessible hilly terrain in Nilgiris district.

The rock paintings were in red ochre and white ochre. Another place in the district was Iduhatti, where symbols, representing matured phase of the Harappan era, were found, says Dr. Madhivanan.

The paintings in the two places throw light on worship of sun, moon, stars and other celestial phenomena.

``What is remarkable is that symbols drawn in red ochre, which were noticed in Keelvalai (about 25 km from Villupuram), resemble those of Vellaraikombai and Iduhatti,'' the Commissioner points out.

Whenever one speaks of cave art, the references are invariably about Garga cave of hands in France or Bhimbetka.

``But, in our own State, there are about 100 rock art sites such as Perumukkal,'' Dr. Kannan says.

The Government can even chalk out a rock art tourism package, organising trips to these places for serious tourists, including those abroad studying such treasures.

By T. Ramakrishnan

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Electric facets of life
Next     : It's cool, yet hot