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Rock Art and Archaeology in India
Karabad
For the first series of sites, our base was Bhopal, the capital city of Madhya Pradesh. The Karabad sites, west of it, are a series of small shelters about 120 feet above a valley. As is most times the case, these sandstone shelters are rather shallow, so that the paintings have always been done in the daylight.
They were an excellent introduction to Indian rock art with their herds of bovid with inner body decoration, sometimes all red or all white, more rarely red and white. Other animals, like a rhino (an animal that became extinct by the end of the Chalcolithic), elephants, deer and big cats were present, as well as a composite creature, i.e. a human with fantastically long limbs and an animal’s head and other humans.
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The absence of warriors and inscriptions and the high number of animals put those paintings in a rather early phase of the art, earlier than the Historic period to which so much Indian rock art belongs. Many superimpositions occur, as is the case in European Palaeolithic art even though the images here are much later. These superimpositions can sometimes become quite clear when images are enhanced.
(above right) Overhang with a series of wild animals with inner decoration.
(left) A good example of many superimpositions on the same panel.
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Lions with a dotted body,
on top of a herd of cattle
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Stags and other animals with
rectangular adorned bodies
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Red and white humped bull
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Red elephant
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