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Art. V.—Cave Drawings in the Kaimūr Range, North-West Provinces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

John Cockburn
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Extract

These drawings were first brought to notice by the late Mr. Archibald Carlleyle and myself, and were discovered by us independently of each other in 1880, he working in Rewah and Mirzāpur and I in Banda. I took up the subject from the anthropological and zoological side entirely, Mr. Carlleyle from the antiquarian or philological side. He evidently had made some important discoveries of ancient records, but, as he desired to work them himself, he imparted no information on either the nature or the localities of his discoveries, and his knowledge has died with him. The first scientific paper on the drawings was by myself published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1883, and was entitled “On the recent existence of Rhinoceros Indicus in the North-West Provinces, and a description of an archaic rock painting from Mirzapur, representing the hunting of this animal” (Journ., lii, part 2, 1883, pp. 56 to 64, with two plates). This article excited much interest in Europe, and great things were expected from the discovery. I regret that I have no copy of the paper. A short paragraph is also devoted to the subject in the Gazetteer of Mirzāpur. There is a further paper in the Proc. Asiatic Society, Bengal, for 1884, on the durability of haematite drawings on sandstone rocks, by myself also. Shortly afterwards Mr. A. M. Markham, C.S., noticed a few words written in this pigment in ancient characters at Chachaie Koond, or the Falls of the Tons in Rewah.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , January 1899 , pp. 89 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1899

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References

page 89 note 1 “Notes on lately discovered sepulchral mounds, cairns, caves, cave paintings, and stone implements. By A. C. Carlleyle, First Assistant, Archaeological Survey of India. In this paper Mr. Carlleyle enumerates all discoveries of interest lately made by him in the district of Mirzapur, and then gives a general account of his discoveries in Berghelkhand, Bundelkhand, and other places during the last nine years. This paper will be published in the Journal, Pt. I, 1883.” (Proc. A.S.B., Feb., 1883, p. 49.) Unfortunately, the paper never appeared (V A. S.).

page 89 note 2 Abstract in Proc. A.S.B. for 1883, p. 123. (V. A. S.)

page 90 note 1 Proc. A.S.B. for 1884, p. 141. See also ibid, for 1883, p. 125. (V. A. S.)

page 90 note 2 I cannot find any record of this discovery. (V. A. S.)

page 90 note 3 Cunningham, , Arch. Survey Reports, vol. xiii, pp. 34–41, pi. xGoogle Scholar. (V. A. S.)

page 90 note 4 Cunningham, , Arch. Survey Reports, xxi, p. 119, pl. xxxGoogle Scholar. The date is the year 52, probably equivalent to the beginning of the Christian era. The record relates to a Maharaja Bhima Sena. (V. A. S.)

page 90 note 5 The resemblance is not very close. (V. A. S.)

page 91 note 1 Mr. Cockburn's estimate of the antiquity of these documents may prove to be exaggerated. (V. A. S.)

page 91 note 2 This result is, I should think, very unlikely. (V. A. S.)

page 93 note 1 “On Stone Implements from the North-Western Provinces of India. By J. H. Rivett-Carnac, Esq., C.S., C.I.E., F.S.A., etc.” (J.A.S.B., vol. lii, pt. 1, p. 221, 1883Google Scholar.) This excellent account, illustrated by three good plates, describes the larger stone implements, hammers, ringstones, and celts collected by Messrs. Rivett-Carnac and Cockburn in the course of several years. A promised supplementary paper by Mr. Cockburn on the smaller cliert implements does not seein to have been published. (V. A. S.)

page 94 note 1 See Cunningham, , Arch. Survey Reports, vol. i, pp. 60, 67Google Scholar; iii, p. 154, pl. xlv; viii, pp. 86, 129, 192. Cunningham referred this style of writing to the seventh and eighth centuries a.d. (V. A. S.)

page 95 note 1 I have not seen the tracing of this drawing. Tracings of three drawings are enclosed. (V. A. S.)

Fig. 1. Man spearing Goṇr stag (Rucervus Duvaucelii). From Bhalduria, Pargana Ahraura, Mirzāpur. The animal has an arrow stuck in the throat, and was also shown as attacked by dogs. The spear-head, while very like those made of hoop-iron used by the modern Andamanese for spearing dugong, may possibly have been of stone, though the probabilities are in favour of iron or copper. The Goṇr is locally extinct, but is yet found in small numbers 200 miles south.

Fig. 2. Man with a torch encountering a panther at night. From Lohri Cave.

Fig. 3. Man spearing sāmbar hind with stone spear. The object in front is probably a leaf screen, such as Indian shikarris yet use in stalking game. The conventional form of representing the head and barbs of the spear is exactly similar to that used by the modern Australian aborigines in representing their stone spears on bark and in cave drawings. From Likhunia Cave.