Artistic Appreciation of the Rock Art of Chaturbhujnath Nala

Abstract

Rock art is our heritage and spread in all over the world. In India, it is widely spread from East to West and North to South. Rock art is the best expression to understand the life of the ancient period. No other way is remain to know anything about the pre-historic period. newlineRock art of India is divided into seven zones. One of them is Central India zone; that is highly enriched with the rock art. The gallery of Chaturbhujnath Nala is one of them that prosperous the list of rock shelter in the Central zone. newlineThe art of Chaturbhujnath Nala is a reflection of celebration of life through time. The figures of Mesolithic Stone age reflect the typical spirit of dynamic life, full of gaiety and enthusiasm with creative ideas and styles of execution. It is evident in the development of human forms, headgears, mode of life, socio-cultural life, tactics and technologies etc. newlineHunting scene, action of running and dancing were the most preferred activities in the Stone Age and scenes of depicting affection with nature and wild life forms were the second choice to express on the walls. These themes are related to their joy and experience. Some rock shelters are most preferred shelters of such scenes. These rock shelters have open area and water pools in front of them in the Nala, which retain water for longer time. newlineAfter nomadic hunter food gatherers they developed regularly and reached to the stage of cattle domestication. This was a step forward towards settled life. In this period they started paintings of cattle riding, cattle domestication, family groups, group dance, spiritual themes, designs, symbols, motifs, bullock cart, ploughing, group move of human and animals, load bearers, boat riding, abstract human and animal forms, indoor game (Chopad) and chariot riding etc. These paintings are the direct way to know about the life of that time. The topics found in the gallery of Chaturbhujnath nala purely indicates toward a settled life. The society of this place was developing continuously and they received lots of information to live life with facilities. newline newline