India is one of the three countries having the richest treasures of rock art in the world. Indian Palaeoart (Purakala), consisting of non-iconic and iconic rock art, and non-utilitarian objects, presents the dynamic and vibrant life of our Stone Age ancestors in the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Age. It also depicts the clear picture of transition from hunting-food gathering to pastoral economy in late Mesolithic Age. It happened with humpless cattle. Humped bull and metallic implements appeared later. It led the foundation of self-reliant economy which brought radical change in the life and culture of the people.
The crucial issue of the origin of art has also been discussed in the perspective of latest research. It has established that throughout the world iconic Palaeoart is preceded by non-iconic presentations. It was because of the human brain and his capacity to produce the nonutilitarian communication symbols, forms, motifs, and iconic compositions. It developed slowly from Homo erectus onwards through Neanderthals and Homo sapien sapiens. The issue of the origin and development of different stages of the Palaeoart has been discussed for the first time through the Indian evidence of non-iconic Palaeoart art from Lower Palaeolithic onwards to Upper Palaeolithic in the global perspective. The evidence is so important that it is set to affect not only our concepts of art origins and Pleistocene hominin development in southern Asia, but it will influence the way we view cognitive evolution generally.
The replication of different forms and size of the early cupules in Daraki-Chattan and the rock paintings of Chaturbhujnath Nala in river Chambal Valley carried out in the last 22 years helped us to understand the intelligence, cognitive, technological, and cultural development of the authors of Palaeoart. Attempts have also been made to study Indian Palaeoart from the perspective of art and communication design. It is quite capable of changing the perception of the art historians to look beyond the Harappan culture for the rich early tradition of the Palaeoart heritage of India.
The continuity of art tradition through the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age cultures and Cave art has been discussed, so also the current practice of rock art production by Karbi Naga community in Assam. Scientific dates for Indian Palaeoart obtained by different methods of dating through the EIP Project have been presented and discussed. Regional characters of Indian Palaeoart in this book have brought out its regional colours, flavours, and nature. The main objective of the study of Palaeoart is to understand the origin and development of the human ability to create constructs of reality. It is to trace our journey of progress in ourself and social behaviour, science and technology, and the spirit to explore unfathomable secretes of the Nature; and how the man became the dominant species on the planet Earth. We can observe the clearly defined stages of the cognitive, technological, and cultural development lively depicted in Indian Palaeoart.
The location of the Palaeoart sites in the lap of the Nature, stunning beauty of the landscape, and rich wild fauna are great attractions to the people, especially the young ones. Rock art sites inspire us to follow the spirit of adventure and creativity of our ancestors. In short, this book presents the brilliant and dynamic personality of Indian Palaeoart in a holistic way and its significance to the humanity.
Prof. Giriraj Kumar, born at Baran in Rajasthan on 01 January 1953, is a veteran scholar of Rock Art Science and Indian Culture. His field work and research in Palaeoart during the last 47 years have established Rock Art Discipline on scientific footings in India. He has brought out 10 books and published nearly 150 research papers on Palaeoart, Stone Age archaeology, and Chalcolithic cultures in national and international peer reviewed journals. The present book entitled as, Palaeaart of India: Nature, Spirit, and Significance, is a concised volume specially designed for the Indian youth to be proud of their invaluable Palaeoart heritage and to be motivated for its further scientific study and promotion for the economic development of the country. He has edited and published 31 volumes of Purakala; and organsied many national and international conferences in India and abroad.
To promote scientific rock art research in India at par with the global developments he founded Rock Art Society of India (RASI) and its peer reviewed international journal Purakala in 1990, and has been serving both of them as the Secretary General and President till present.
His research has established the existence of Ostrich in India in the late late-Pleistocene period, discovered many rock art sites. He was the close student of late Dr V. S. Wakankar, the father of Rock Art Discipline in India. With him he carried out excavations at Bhimbetka, the Stone Age rock art site in the Vindhyas (1977), (now a UNESCO World Heritage site); and also that of Mandsaur (1978), Dangawada (1979, 1980, 1982) and Runija (1981), the Chalcolithic sites in Chambal Valley in Madhya Pradesh.
Prof. Kumar carried out excavations at Daraki-Chattan Cave (DC) under the EIP Project. DC is an early Palaeolithic petroglyph site in river Chambal basin under the EIP Project with Prof. Robert G. Bednarik and Dr Ram Krishna. It established unambiguously the Lower Palaeolithic antiquity of the cupules and petroglyphs at Daraki-Chattan Cave, for the first time in the world. It is 3-10 times much older than that of Europe.
Prof. Giriraj Kumar, for his extraordinary contributions in rock art and archaeology, was awarded with the prestigious Dr V. S. Wakankar award 2017-18 by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 2021. He was invited by the UNESCO/WHC/SpaFIT/Prehistory_3, Paris as the Asian Expert to participate in the, "Prehistory and the World Heritage Convention: Towards an Action Plan in 2008
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