Pachmarhi Rock Art Paintings: An Ode to Korku & Gond Tribe’s Hidden Talent

By Colonel Satish Singh Lalotra

Research has shown that the happiest people are those who use their natural talents to the utmost’—well these prophetic words are the creation of world famous author, businessman and motivational speaker T. Hary Eker. A Canadian born thinker. He has encapsulated a world of knowledge of we humans that lie latent waiting to be only exploited by an odd opportunity that comes our way.

To understand our natural talent and put it to good use one doesn’t require much prescience in one’s life. Had it been so then the vast majority of our tribal population wouldn’t have dived and indulged into the world of ‘Rock paintings’ thousands of years ago. The very fact that this very prescience was bestowed upon them in their own natural way, places them eons ahead of us the modern man; in every way of sense.

The tribal population of our central India which inhabits the vast swathes of Satpura & Vindhyachal ranges primarily consists of *Korku. And ‘Gond’ tribes who are ardent worshippers and followers of animistic religion that specializes in revering natural objects and resources like the sun, moon, stars, rivers etc.

As a corollary to the above line of their placing the natural objects on a pedestal, these ancient people developed a direct commune amongst themselves and gave expression to their creative instincts within their abodes (read caves) , thus giving rise to one of the earliest `Cave paintings’ in the world. Going by the name `Pach mar I cave paintings’, these rock edicts cum paintings form one of the richest zones of prehistoric rock art in India. The highest concentration of rock art sites in India are situated in the Satpura, Vindhya and Kaimur hills. These hills were formed from the Gondwanaland sand stone series of the Talcher group formations.

My impetus to write this article on Pachmari rock craft has been twin aimed ; firstly to acknowledge a belated ‘International rock day’ that was celebrated all over the globe on 13th July 2024 that went past last month and secondly to club this belated acknowledgement with my personal first-hand experience with one of the oldest and famous rock cave paintings done by an ancient group of aborigines whose vestiges are found still in the central part of India in the form of Korku & Gond tribe people. I have had the wonderful opportunity to visit these unique rare caverock paintings that are now a signature mark of the quaint looking hill station of Pachmari few years back while still in service and posted at CPE ‘tarsi.

It was actually not part of my itinerary to visit these rock paintings, but did become as part of my visiting circuit while on my tour to the world famous `Bison cum tiger interpretation center’ that too is located at Pachmari. It later on dawned on me that though serendipitous, this visit of mine to the rock paintings at Pachmari over shadowed all my previous visits to the places of interest at this hill station in MI The best part of the visit to these cave paintings was that a commonality of sorts existed between them and the legacy of C apt James Forsyth of Royal Bengal lancers who again wore the crown for having discovered these unique paintings and mentioned them though in a passing manner in the world famous book of his he highlands of central India’.

He mentions in his famous book that when he came to this highland of Pachmari, the area was occupied by the Jagirdar of Korku tribe and had traces of a much older civilization in the shape of ruined huts near Ilandiltho’ site. These cave paintings went into a period of forced oblivion in India owing to the Geopolitical reasons and a huge gap of about seven decades took place before they were rediscovered by the famous British archaeologist GR Hunter in 1935, who later led an excavation into the site with Col DH Gordon in 1958 after India attained independence.

Archaeological surveys evidenced that these rock paintings were created in the `Mesolithic period’ and the Thalcolithic period’ i.e. dating back to 40002000 BC when metal was first used by the human beings. It is also called as the ‘Copper stone age’. Evidence suggests that these cave paintings at Pachmari may also have continued to be made well after the ‘Mesolithic period’. Some of these paintings are in prominent rock shelters such as the MahaDeo hills, Nimbu Bhoj, Jambu Deep, Dorothy Deep, bazar cave Raj at Pratap cave. These are located a few kilometers from the town of Pachmari in smaller hills such as Mahadeo, Mandiadeo and Jatashankar. The subject matter of rock paintings of Pachmari can be been divided into following categories:-

1. Human forms.

2. Animal forms

3. Scenes

4. Material culture

5. Nature

6. Inscriptions.

In the remote mountains, deep dense forests, swamps etc the lives of these Korku and Gonds who were primarily the ‘Huntergatherers’ remained almost undisturbed , long after more advanced cultures settled in the valleys and lowlands. These tribal people developed indigenous styles of painting and art based on three distinct types viz contoured or outlined figures, solid figures that are partially or completely filled in and lastly stick figures. Solid figures are further categorized into naturalistic (resembling reallife proportions of creatures), geometric (for example inverted triangles to represent the upper or lower human body) and Xray styles viz pregnant cows and deer with the offspring depicted within.

The X ray style is of particular interest to the scholars because it suggests that the painters had deep anatomical knowledge of the animals they hunted. As far as the rock shelters are concerned , they contain inscriptions and figural petroglyphs , including those of several human heads purportedly collected as trophies and other depictions of human sacrifice that superimpose older paintings of hunter-gatherers, especially at Rajat Pratap cave.

Experts have identified these as examples of head hunting. The paintings differ in their details across rock shelters and depict representative rather than realistic human and animal figures. Some of these wild animals depicted include the wild boar, bison, deer, elephants, horses, bulls, crocodiles etc. Depictions of smaller animals which are painted in a manner that suggests that they were not necessarily hunted include rats, lizards, scorpions and birds such as peacocks, ostriches and other fowls.

Similar to other cave painting traditions, these paintings depict the life style of ‘Huntergatherer’ groups: scenes of hunters holding weapons such as spears, axes and bows and arrows with battle scenes with warriors riding horses and holding swords and shields. Further the scholars have discovered layers of paintings wherein the themes of conflict, war and fighting between human hunting animals and collecting honey and fruits along with other domestic activities reign supreme.

It will be of interest for the readers of this article to know that even today many of the Korkus and Gonds follow their ancient rituals in the deep recesses of Satpura and Vindhya mountains hidden from the prying eyes of a modern camera. All these special qualities of Korku and Gonds have not gone unnoticed by the GOI and even the MP government. Their attributes have been put to good use in the STR (Satpura tiger reserve) wherein they have been employed as forest guides, drivers, forest guards in both the core zone as well as the buffer zone of STR.

What better community to make use of than these indigenous people who are the actual sons of the soil’ of this central highland of India. With the ‘World tribal day2024 being celebrated on August 09 2024 , it is high time that these people are brought out from the closet of their habitats and exposed to the world at large and mainstreamed accordingly with the national ethos of India.

With the first citizen of India Mrs Draupadi Murmu too belonging to the tribal heartland of Jharkhand, is it not high time that instead of indulging in sheer `artificial semantics’ of keeping these tribals on our right side, a genuine effort is undertaken to showcase them to the world of their assets in terms of their usefulness?

The overall aim of penning down this write up was an ode to the tribal gangs of Korku & Gonds and their earthy knowledge which lies scattered from the hills of Satpura to Vindhya to Kaimur in the form of their rock carvings cum paintings on the day of international rock day that went past last month.

Executed in these forlorn caves thousands of years ago by thee simpletons, isn’t their creativity exhibited a chastening on the minds of we modern humans who bask in the glory of our new found sense of superiority (read scientific advancement & technological knowhow)? As very aptly quoted by famous Jill TarterVItimatelywe all belong to only one tribe, to earthlings’. The sooner this fact dawns upon us, the better for us.

(The writer is a regular scribe of RK)