bhimbrtka-day-trip

Day trip to Bhimbetka

BHOPAL – BHIMBETKA

Pick up from your hotel in Bhopal and drive towards Bhimbetka to see rock sheters. Bhimbetka is 45 km south of Bhopal, takes less than an hour to reach by road. Enjoy Day trip to Bhimbetka.

ARRIVES BHIMBETKA

Arrives Bhimbetka. Upon arrival, go to see Bhimbetka rock sheters from earliest traces of human life.

Bhimbetka Rock Shelters:

Reaching here to the site of Bhimbetka rock shelters from Bhopal is depending on the traffic and road conditions. However, one can reach to Bhimbetka from Bhopal in less than an hour. The Bhimbetka rock shelters are pre-historic archaeological site, illustrating the earliest traces of human life in India.

Bhimbetka rock shelters lie at the Vindhya hills in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh. Bhimbetka has derived its name from Bhimbaithaka means a sitting place of Bhima, from the epic Mahabharata. An early evidence of dances is also found here in the form of rock paintings of Stone Age. Some shelters are said to be of 30,000 years old. It comes under the UNESCO world heritage sites.

Bhimbetka caves had been discovered by Dr.Vishnu Wakankar in 1957-58, an archaeologist from Vikram University, Ujjain. In due course of time, the archaeological excavations yielded remains, serially from the Lower Palaeolithic Age to the early medieval Ages. It is spread over 10 km in length and 3 km in width houses more than 700 rock shelters, of which 400 have paintings.

However the major attractions of site are Auditorium Rock Shelter, Zoo Rock and Boar Rock. You can find a cluster of paintings depicting deer, tiger cattle and peacock. These magnificent paintings can be seen even on the ceiling of the rock shelters located at daunting heights.

The paintings here include those of A Mesolithic boar painted in dark red, animals like: elephant, rhinoceros, boar, barasingha, spotted deer and cattle and snake, etc. Most of the paintings are said to be of Mesolithic Age. The rock art and paintings of Bhimbetka has been classified into seven various groups on the basis of the style.

Period I (Upper Palaeolithic)

It is linear illustrations of huge figures of animals and human of green and dark red colour.

Period II (Mesolithic)

There are again a linear decoration but comparatively smaller in size, depicting animals and human figures in this rock shelter range. There are representation hunting scenes of human holding weapons used in those times including barbed spears, pointed sticks, bows and arrows. Other depiction of communal dances, birds, mother and child etc are also seen.

Period III (Chalcolithic)

These paintings and drawings are the representation of lives of cave dwellers dating back to the calcolithic period, depicting their mutual exchange of requirements with agricultural communities of the Malwa plains.

Period IV (Early Historic)

Showcasing decorative figures painted in red, white and rarely green depicting riders, religious symbols along with scripts of different periods.

Period V,VI & VII (Medieval)

In this group, these paintings are geometric, linear and more schematic showcasing degeneration and crudeness in their depiction. The paintings of Hindu gods like Ganesh and Natraja are also found in these rock shelters. Thus, the high sloping face of the ceilings of these extraordinary rock shelters bear scenes, frozen in action of a long expanse of time starting from the period when man was a hunter gatherer to the time when iron technology had become quite significant.

However, the most important of all discoveries are the large number of stone tools found used by the cave dwellers that suggests the rock shelters of Bhimbetka served as habitation of palaeolithic period.

After finishing the sightseeing of Bhimbetka rock shelters, drive back to Bhopal. On arrival, drop at your hotel.

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