CHENNAI: The paintings of animals on rocks or caverns may not enthuse many as they would pass by with scarcely a glance. But archaeologists and researchers of ancient history are a different breed altogether, who consider artworks on the canvass of rocks as a treasure trove to understand the richness of forest and environmental conditions of yore.
The fauna descriptions on rock art found in several places in Tamil Nadu shed light on the animals that lived in the forests and environmental conditions of the prehistoric Tamil land. Among the animals, deer finds frequent descriptions followed by buffaloes, horse, wild boars, cows and fish in the rock shelters that came to fore in the past years.
The paintings also bring out the food habits of the ancient people, the nomads as well. A well-preserved painting of a female deer, standing near a fire and the flesh pierced with a long pole or spear being grilled in the fire is seen in the rock shelters of Ayyanar Malai Settavari in Villupuram district while the painting of a small deer seen encircled by three men is found at Tirumalai in Sivaganga district.
“This picture clearly explains that the deer was an often hunted animal by men in the past. On hindsight, it may suggest the food habits of the ancient people,” said Dr S Vasanthi, an expert in excavations. The paintings found in Karikkaiyur about 40 km far from Kothagiri in the Nilgiris depict a big herd of grazing deer.
The significant findings made at Kovanur, a village in Coimbatore, have a collection of 60 paintings which portray the hunting of an elephant and a herd of deer and images of tiger, herds of bison, a monitor lizard and hunters with bows and arrows.
Saying that certain paintings made on rock shelters throw light on how animals were domesticated, Vasanthi, who recently retired as Superintending Archaeologist, TN Department of Archaeology, informed that the picture of a goat, Nilgiri tahr, was found in a village, Nayanur, located near Thirukoilur. It is the locally grown goat variety in the Nilgiris and was tamed by tribesmen belonging to Kurumba community.
“Mallapadi located on the Krishnagiri-Bargur Highway near Krishnagiri has a treasure of several faunal descriptions. The images of a man seated on a horse with upraised arm holding a spear, an elephant and two horse riders fighting with poles offer glimpses into domestication of horses in the early times” she told
Express. At Maharajakadai in Krishnagiri, figures of a bird, an archer, a man riding a horse and another man holding a raised pole were found.
While faunal descriptions in rock art are found in several places, the case of floral pictures is a rare sight to see. However, floral depictions could be seen in Chennarayanapalli in Vellore where grass and plants are painted on a rock, besides a small tree and a damaru.
A tree in railing, a drum-like figure and a tulasi plant on a pedestal are noticed at the rock art at Mallachandram located near Krishnagiri.