MISSION GOES ON:
VISION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROCK ART DISCIPLINE IN INDIA
Address, by the Secretary General, Rock Art Society of India
Delivered in the 23rd Congress of Rock Art Society of India, Ujjain, 22-24 February 2019.
Giriraj Kumar
Dear friends on this sacred occasion of the celebration of the birth centenary of Dr V. S. Wakankar it is but obvious to remember him, his vision and indomitable spirit to establish the Indian rock art as an important heritage of mankind in the world. It is an inspiration for us to proceed further in this direction.
India is one of the major countries having the richest treasures of rock art in the world. The rock art of India has its own characteristics and is mostly in the form of narrative panels ranging in time from Stone Age till a few centuries back. However, the nature of rock art Discipline is very different from Archaeology. It needs innovative ways for its documentation and scientific study. We also need to find out our own effective ways for its protection by increasing the mass awareness and public involvement.
For the scientific study of rock art Dr Wakankar did the pioneering work and set an example. He developed three tier system for the documentation of the painted rock shelters at Bhimbetka, e.g. Auditorium Cave was numbered as BHIM III F 24, where III stands for the hill no., F for the no. of the cluster of rock shelters and 24 for the rock shelter/ rock number. It worked very well and is flexible to accommodate further discoveries of the painted rock shelters in the cluster.
Similarly, he excavated many rock shelters at Bhimbetka to correlate the archaeological evidences such as used pigments, ostrich eggshell beads, evidence of climatic changes, etc found in the excavations with the antiquity of rock art. He substantiated them with the internal evidence of rock art such as depiction of the economy and life style, tools and technology, etc and developed a reliable chronology for the rock art of Bhimbetka in particular and that of India in general from Upper Palaeolithic to Historic period. It is more or less applicable to pan Indian rock art and more or less is being followed throughout India.
However, the most important evidenceof the earliest rock art in the world was in the form of two highly weathered and patinated petroglyphs obtained from the Acheulian strata in the excavation of the Auditorium Cave by Wakankar. These were recognised by Robert G. Bednarik much later in 1990. It was an important discovery of the global significance from India which along with the Palaeolithic cupule site Daraki-Chattanin Chambal basinled the foundation for further scientific studies of the early Indian petroglyphs through the EIP Project in the first decade of 21st century.
The EIP Project is a high-profile joint venture of Rock Art Society of India (RASI) and Australian Rock Art Research Association (AURA), under the leadership of the author and Bednarik. The excavations through it at Daraki-Chattan Cave (DC) and the scientific study of its petroglyphs have established the antiquity of early Indian petroglyphs to Lower Palaleolithic and endorsed the evidence from the Auditorium Cave, Bhimbetka. Thus, the confirmed evidence of rock art in the form of petroglyphs in the Auditorium Cave, Bhimbetka in the Vindhyas and in Daraki-Chattan in the Chambal basin is 10 times or even mucholder than the earliest rock art of the world. Therefore, Wakankar’s dream to establish the global significance of Indian rock art was more than fulfilled. We are trying to obtain absolute dates for both of these sites. Mention may be made here that DC was discovered by shriRamesh Kumar Pancholi. Dr PradymnKumaer Bhatt, Coordinator of RASI Bhanpura region, happily provided all the basic logistic support to carry out the EIP Project during the first decade of this century.
Because of Wakankar’s untiring efforts Indian rock art started gaining attention in the world in 1970s. However, western scholars were still not ready to recognise it. Wakankar experienced it badly in the first World Archaeology Congress (WAC) held at Southampton in England from 1-6 September 1986. He tried his best to make the scholars convinced that Indian rock art has its own nature and characteristics, and is equally important like European rock art to understand the cognitive and cultural development of the early man. However, absorbed in the Western supremacy in the world, no one listen to him except Mr Robert G. Bednarik from Australia, who perfectly agreed with Wakankar’s views. Bednarik later on invited him to participate in the first AURA Congress held in Darwin, Australia in September 1988. However, Wakankar succumbed to a massive heart attack in Singapore on 3 April 1988and could not attend it. In his absence the author was invited as the leader of the team of seven Indian scholars. International Federation of Rock Art Orgainsations (IFRAO) was formed in that Aura Congresswhich greatly encouraged the evolutionary model of cultural development, thus helping in demolishing the European supremacy in rock art. Rock Art Society of India is one of the earliest members of the IFRAO.
In Southampton Dr Wakankar became very upset and wrote to me that if we Indian wanted to earn respect to Indian rock art heritage we had to work in an organised way and had to publish our work in the reputed journals and publications at home and in the world. Therefore, to fulfil the last wishes of Dr Wakankar and to continue his mission of establishing rock art studies on scientific grounds we established Rock Art Society of India (RASI) and its peer reviewed journal Purakala in the Rock Art Conference organised at Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra from 22-24 February 1990, exactly the same dates of the present RASI Congress. Both have been nurtured with missionary zeal and made an important impact in Rock Art Discipline at global level. In this endeavour we have been receiving the support from the well-wishers and friends of Dr Wakankar and the younger generation with the same enthusiasm and missionary zeal.
Dr Jagdish Gupt was the founding President of RASI while Dr Rakesh Tewari was a great force behind it. We received the blessings and support of Dr S. P. Gupta, Dr Jagatpati Joshi, shri K. V. SoundarRajan, Prof. V. N. Mishra, Prof. N. A. Sundara, Dr R. S. Bisht and Dr B. R. Mani. However, Prof R. C. Agrawal, former Joint DG, ASI and now the President RASI has been a strong pillar to support RASI continuously since 1993 till present. Besides, all the RASI members and friends from ASI, State Archaeological departments and Universities from throughout India contributed in their capacity to make RASI grow and Purakala get nurtured.Prof Robert G. Bednarik, Convener IFRAO, provided his valuable guidance time to time and extended his help and support whenever needed to establish Indian rock art heritage globally. Now India is being considered as one of the countries playing crucial role in establishing the Rock Art Discipline on scientific grounds. The beautiful logo of RASI was designed by Prof Shivendra Singh. The credit for impressive presentation and designing the attractive cover page in every issue of Purakalagoes tohim. For the proper and smooth functioning of RASI the advice and cooperation of the RASI Executive Committee membershas been crucial. Prof Ashvini Kumar Sharma played a significant role as its Treasurer. Dr Arakhita Pradhan provided his selfless services with dedication as the Joint Secretary RASI during most of this journey. To geteach issue of Purakala,composed and well-designed I had to be out till very late in the night for weeks together. My wife and children bore that periods without any complaint. Besides, the anonymous referees of Purakalawhom I could not mention by name provided their selfless services to the cause of Rock Art Discipline in India. Their selfless services are great source of inspiration and motivationfor all of us. My heartfelt thanks are due to all of them. My sincere thanks are also due to the Authorities of Archaeological Survey of India and Indian Council of Historical Research for supporting RASI conferences and its journal Purakala. The latest issue of Purakala Volume 27-28, 2018 is being released in a short while in this conference. It has been dedicated to the sweet and inspiring memories of Dr V. S. Wakankar.
At present we are at a threshold to move further with great zeal and dedication. If we want to see ourselves as a global player in Rock Art Discipline, we have to work hard in an organised way with far sighted vision so that we can move at least at the pace of other important players in this field. So far, we have only one UNESCO World Rock Art Heritage site in the form of Bhimbetka. There are manysuch sites in different States of the country which need to be properly studied and promoted like Bhimbetka. Equally, we need to concentrate on the scientific documentation, protection and popularisation of our rock art heritage. We need to do every effort to protect DC Cave. We recommend to close it for the general mass. However, it can be accessed by the scientists with permission from the government on the recommendations of the EIP directors.The archaeological department of the Government of Maharashtra under the leadership of Dr TejasGarge is doing commendable work for the protection and development of its rock art heritage. This model can be improvised and implemented in other states also.
Indian rock art has great potential to help India in its sustainable economic and cultural development. We need to design the proper plan and strategy to utilise this great heritage of ours for the development of India. Hopefully, our collective wisdom and efforts will be able to design a proper plan and strategy to meet these challenges in this conference. Rock art study is a missionary work. On this great occasion of the celebration of the birth centenary of Dr Wakankar we dedicate ourselves againto achieve the desired goal.
Thank you very much once again.
Prof Giriraj Kumar
Secretary General, Rock Art Society of India
Email: girirajrasi.india@gmail.com
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