కొత్త తెలంగాణా చరిత్ర

తెలంగాణా రాతిచిత్రాలలో నెమళ్ళుః

ఇటీవల కొత్తతెలంగాణ చరిత్రబృందం సభ్యులు చూసిన రాతిచిత్రాల తావు రత్నాపూర్ గ్రామానికి సమీపంలో వుంది. మెదక్ జిల్లా శివంపేట మండలానికి చెందిన గ్రామం రత్నాపూర్.

దేవునిబండగా ప్రజలు పిలుచుకునేటి తూర్పుముఖంగా వుండేటి ఒకరాతిగుండుపై 25*20 అడుగుల వెడల్పు, ఎత్తులున్న రాతిగోడపై వందలాది రాతిచిత్రాలు చిత్రించివున్నాయి. ఇక్కడ ఎరుపురంగులో కనిపించే చిత్రాలలో లాంగూర్, కొమ్ములదుప్పి, తేళ్ళు, నీళ్ళు తోడే చక్రాలు, మూపురపుటెద్దులు, తేనెగూళ్ళు, భైరవుడు, వైష్ణవ తిరునామాలు, వైష్ణవభక్తులు, అలంకరించిన గుర్రాలు, రథానికి కట్టిన గుర్రాలు, రథచోదకులు, తాడుపై నడుస్తున్న మనిషి, ఆయుధాలతో మనుషులతో పాటు ఇక్కడ కనిపించే మూడు నెమళ్ళు ప్రత్యేకం. చిక్కటి ఎరుపురంగులో వున్న ఈ నెమళ్ళు మూడు కూడా దక్షిణాభిముఖంగా వున్నాయి. పొడవైన సన్నని మెడలు, తలలపై కుచ్చులు, సన్నగా పొడుగ్గా వున్న తోకలతో ఈ నెమళ్ళు చాలా అందంగా గీయబడి వున్నాయి.

ఈ రాతిచిత్రాలతావులో మనం మధ్యరాతియుగం నుంచి చారిత్రక మధ్యయుగాల దాకా బొమ్మలు గీయబడినవని తెలుస్తున్నది. చాలా చిత్రాలు అధ్యారోపణం(Super imposition) చేయబడివున్నాయి. వైష్ణవమత చిహ్నాలన్నీ పెట్రోగ్లైఫ్సే(తొక్కుడు, చెక్కుడు బొమ్మలు). ఈ రాతిచిత్రాలతావులో మైక్రోలిథిక్ చిప్స్ దొరుకు తున్నాయి. ఈ తావుకు కొంచెం దూరంలో మైదానంలో మైక్రోలిథ్స్ కుప్పలుగా దొరుకుతున్నాయి. అక్కడే చిన్న రాతిబోడుమీద వైష్ణవదేవాలయ శిథిలాలున్నాయి.

సాధారణంగా మధ్యరాతియుగాలనాటి రాతిచిత్రాలలో గీతల డిజైన్లు, సన్నని గీతల్లో మనుషులబొమ్మలు, హస్తాల్ పూర్ లో వలె జంతువుల తలలు, గుండ్లపోచంపల్లిలో వలె ఏనుగు బొమ్మలు, వేటదృశ్యాలు కనిపిస్తాయి.

ఇక్కడి రాతిచిత్రాలలో మధ్యరాతియుగాలనాటి మనుషుల చిత్రాలు, కొత్తరాతియుగంనాటి ఎద్దుల చిత్రాలు, చాల్కోలిథిక్ కాలంనాటి (లైంగికావయవాలతో) మూపురపుటెద్దులు, చారిత్రక పూర్వయుగం నాటి రథాలు, మధ్యయుగాల నాటి వైష్ణవమత చిహ్నాలు ఒకేచోట కనిపించడాన్ని బట్టి ఈ ప్రదేశంలో వేల సంవత్సరాల నుంచి మానవ ఆవాసాలు కొనసాగుతున్నాయని నిర్థారణగా చెప్పవచ్చు.

అట్లే చాలా అరుదుగా కనిపించే నెమళ్ళ రాతిచిత్రాలు కొత్తరాతియుగానికి చెందినవై వుండాలి.

రత్నాపూర్ నెమళ్ళ రాతిచిత్రాలతో పోల్చదగిన నెమలిబొమ్మ రత్నాపూర్ కు దగ్గరలో వున్న కంచనపల్లిలో చూసిన రెండురాతిచిత్రాల తావులలో ఒకదానిలో ప్రధానంగా చేపలబొమ్మలతో పాటు నెమలిబొమ్మ అందంగా ఫించంతో గీయబడ్డది. మరొక నెమలి చనిపోయి వెల్లకిలా పడిపోయినట్లు చిత్రించబడి వుంది. ఈ బొమ్మలు రత్నాపూర్ బొమ్మలవలె రంగునింపిన బొమ్మలుకాదు. గీతలబొమ్మలు. అందువల్ల వీటిని రత్నాపూర్ నెమళ్ళకంటె పురాతనమైనవని చెప్పవచ్చు. మధ్యరాతియుగంలో చివరిదశకు చెందినవి కావచ్చు.

పాండవులగుట్ట(వరంగల్ జిల్లా)లోని 8 రాతిచిత్రాల తావులలో వున్న రాతిచిత్రాలలో ఎదురుపాండవుల రాతితావులో వున్న వందలాది బొమ్మల్లో అడుగువరుసల్లో ఒకచోట నెమలిబొమ్మ గీయబడివుంది. కాని, బొమ్మ సౌష్టవంగా లేదు.కాని, గీతలను బట్టి అది నెమలి అని చెప్పవచ్చు. ఇదే బొమ్మగురించి ఎన్.చంద్రమౌళి తన ‘ రాక్ ఆర్ట్ ఇన్ ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్’ అనే పుస్తకంలో, ఆర్కియాలజీ ఆప్ తెలంగాణా వారు ప్రచురించిన ‘రాక్ ఆర్ట్ ఇన్ తెలంగాణ’ అనే కాఫీటేబుల్ పుస్తకంలో ఫోటోలతో వివరించబడ్డది.

అయితే నెమలి బొమ్మలు రంగారెడ్డి జిల్లాకు చెందిన గుండ్లపోచంపల్లిలోని రెండవ రాతిచిత్రాలతావులో, అదే జిల్లాకు చెందిన లాల్ గడి మలక్ పేట రాతిచిత్రాలతావులో కూడా కనిపిస్తున్నాయి.

PEACOCK IN ROCK ART OF TELANGANA

Dr. B. M. Reddy, Mr. SriramojuHaragopal and Mr. VemugantiMuralikrishna

Abstract:

Rock Art is the depiction of lines/paintings which indicates different shapes and forms done by the prehistoric and historic personal on the surface of the rock. Telangana is no exception and it has several rock art sites. So far 70 sites have been reported from Telangana state. This paper is about the rock paintings of peacock found at two new sites in Telangana.

The representation of peacock figures in the rock art of Telangana isvery rare.So farprobable figure of peacock was reported from Pandavulagutta and Kossegutta in Warangal district. They have been found at newly discovered placessuch as Kanchanapalli and Ratnapur, both in Medak district.The paintings are in red and red ochre colour. These are unique paintingsfrom the artistic point of view and the style of paintings is different.The depictionof figures differ from one place to other. The paintings can be assigned to Mesolithic and Neolithictimes.

It is almost one and half century after the discovery of rock art in India by Archibald Carlleyle in 1867-68 in Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh. Later few reports were made about rock art at different parts of India. The major and important discovery in Indian rock art was made by V. S. Wakankar in 1957 at Bhimbetka, a complex of painted rock shelters in Central India in Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh. This has been declared by the UNESCO in 2003 as the World Heritage site, a great honor to Indian rock art. After the discovery of Bhimbetka the study of rock art in India has come up among the learned scholars and scientists who started showing interest to carry out research widely in this field.

Telangana is no exception and it embodies several rock art sites. So far about 70 sites consisting rock paintings have been reported from this newly formed state.

Brief Work done:

In 1934 Leonard Munn, a British personal (Annual Report-1986-87, 1990:1) was first to report a rock art site at Sanganonipalli in Mahabubnagar district in Telangana. Later on L. S. Krishnamurthy (1941:55-89) had reported the same site along with other rock art site at Dupadugattu in the same district. After some gap, Thakur Rajaram Singh of Peddapalli town made his best efforts and discovered few rock shelters. Unfortunately his writings are not available at present. V.V. Krishna Shastry (1983:46-47, 59) has dealt with for the first time about few rock art sites in his book. Ervin Neumayer of Austria (1993, 2011) and N. Chandramouli (2013) have worked then extensively on rock art of Telangana and published few books and research papers. The State department of Archaeology and Museums of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh also explored few rock art sites besides some scholars who had reported some important painted rock shelters in Telangana region. A coffee table book entitled Rock Art Sites in Telangana(2015) incorporating brief description of main rock art sites has been brought out by the State department of Archaeology and Museums of Telangana State.A comprehensive book in local language - Telugu is ready for release entitled Telangana PrackCharitra (Pre-history of Telangana)part I,written by co-authors (Haragopal 2018) of this paper, wherein details of so far discovered rock art sites in Telangana have been discussed at length.

The peacock (peafowl) figures in Telangana rock art occur very rarely, like in Indian rock art. We have found the figures of peacock along with other figures of different periods in two sites namely Kanchanapalli and Ratnapur in Medak district. These are unique and beautiful paintingsin red and red ochre colour. The findings are important in view of their period from Telangana. Both the sites have been discovered by the co-authors(Mr. SriramojuHaragopal and Mr. VemugantiMuralikrishna, members of Kotha Telangana CharitraBrundham)with the help of local people in 2016.

Location of Sites:

Asmall village Kanchanapalli (Koudipallimandal) is situated about 9 kms from Ratnapur towards west with pucca road. The rock art site is reachable throughthorny bushes after a kilometer from the puccaroad towards south at the foot of hillock locally called Sannasulagutta (17⁰59' 9"N longitude and 78⁰15' 47"E latitude) (Fig.1). Ratnapur(Shivampetamandal) isalso a small village located on a diversion road towards north-west at about 5kms distance from Shivampetawhich is on Toopran to Narsapur road towards west for about 3 kmsfrom national highway NH 44 - Hyderabad to Nizamabad. Here the rock art boulder facing east andknown as Tirumalayabanda (17⁰53'11"N longitude and 78⁰15'47"E latitude)(Fig.4) is approachable throughsmall bushes for half a kilometer distance from pucca road. At both the sites the paintings have been drawn on granite boulders.

Description of Figures:

Kanchanapalli–The figure of peacock is drawn facing to right inlinesin red colour. It is shown naturalistic with bodily details and long spread feathers (Fig.2). The shape of peacock is completely visible in the painting and it measures approximately60 cms length and 18cmswidth at the body. Legs and a part of feathers of figure are drawn on a big honey nest of earlier times. Another figure is also noticed in red colour in the same surface at the left top. It appears to be of peacock shown fallen on the ground having long feathers besides fish species (Fig.3).

Ratnapur– We have three figures here on the same surface one above the other in a series facing left in red ochre colour (Fig.5). They are undoubtedly peacock figures though front part of two lower figures is faded because of seepage of water from the top of boulder. These figures are filled in colour completely. We observe that in the middle figure the depiction of supposed head crown of peacock at the end of tail gives impression to its direction to right facing. But that is connected to other mutilated figure of deer or some other animal. The anatomy of all three peacock figures is same and schematically painted with a stiff body and prominent curves. The size of the figures is almost maintained and measuresapproximately the upper one 60 cms length and 8 cms width at the body, the middle one 59 cmslength and 6 cms width at the body and the lower one 64cms length and 8 cms width at the body, with all tail thickness 2.5 cms.Because of water seepage from the top of the boulder at some places the paintings have been faded.

Discussion:

At both the sites, Kanchanapalli and Ratnapur, there are super impositions of figures indicating painting activity indifferent phases. The peacock figures have been veryschematicallydepictedin red and red ochre colour in two different periods.

Peacock is naturalistically portrayed in contour lines at Kanchanapalli. It is ascribed to Mesolithic period on the basis of super imposition and the style of execution.

The depiction of colour filled proportionate body at Ratnapur is the best representation of the peacock in the rock art of Telangana. This is very interesting composition consisting three species in one canvas in an order one above the other along with other animal figures belonging to same culturalphase.Basing on super imposition and the context of the paintings at this site consisting langur, antelope, human figure, humped bull, scorpio, etc., having the peacock figures the same colour scheme belongs to Neolithic (early cattle - domestic) period. One point to be noted in these paintings is that of over lapping of figures of same phase at few places.

Here it is pertinent to mention that some figures were found in the rock paintings drawn in red ochre color at Pandavulagutta, near Revulapally hamletof Thirumalagiri village (Chandramouli 2013:158;Rock Art Sites in Telangana,2015:18) and Kossegutta, near Narsapur village (Rock Art Sites in Telangana,2015:37), both in Warangal district in Telangana. They have been identified as figures of peacock as shown all bodily detailsandassigned on the basis of chronological patterns at the sitestoMesolithic and Historic times respectively.But the figure ofKossegutta in contour lines appear to be of early period, though in thick lines, as there are traces of long feathered part of peacock superimposed by human figure which is considered of historic period, or otherwise itappears peacock like bird (crane) which is yet to identify with certainty.

We have found one more figure of peacock atGundlapochampalli in Medchal district (Haragopal2018). This is a peculiar figureof peacock depicted with full blossomfeathers turned backward towards head of dancing stage,and may be ascribed to Neolithic period.

In South Indian rock art the peacock is found in bruisings, engravings and paintings at some places like Maski, Koppagallu, Kandli, Piklihal and Kethavaram. All these assigned to Neolithic/Chalcolithic period and cannot be compared with the present figures, except Piklihal where very same kind of figures found.

In Central Indian paintings also we found peacock figures at Bhimbetka (Lakhajoar), Panchmarhi(Mahadeo hills), Satkunda and Kharwaibelonging to Mesolithic toMedieval periods.

Acknowledgement:

We are thankful to the local people of Kanchanapalli and Ratnapur, who helped us in finding the sites and study them.

References:

1. Annual Report – 1986-87. 1990, edited V.V. Krishna Shastry, Department of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad.

2. CHANDRAMOULI, N. 2013, Rock Art of Andhra Pradesh A New Synthesis, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (Aryan Books International), New Delhi.

3. HARAGOPAL, SRIRAMOJU, edited VEMUGANTI MURALIKRISHNA and MAMIDI HARIKRISHNA. 2018, Telangana PrackCharitra(Telugu), Telangana Jagruthi, Hyderabad (Yet to be released).

4. KRISHNAMURTHY, L. S. 1941. ‘Geology of parts of Mahabubnagar and Gulbarga district’,The Journal of Hyderabad Geological Survey, vol.4, part-1.

5. KRISHNA SHASTRY, V. V. 1983, The Proto and Early Historical Cultures of AP, Department of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad.

6. NEUMAYER, ERWIN.1993, Lines on Stone: The Pre historicRock Art of India,Manohar Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi.

7. NEUMAYER, ERWIN.2011, Rock Art of India: The Pre-historic cave-Art of India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

8. Rock Art Sites in Telangana:Art Galleries from the Paleolithic & Neolithic Era, 2015, Department of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of Telangana, Hyderabad.

Dr. B. M. Reddy

Flat No. 201, Jyothi Blooms

H.No.8-2-277/34 & 35

Road No.3, UBI Colony

Banjara Hills

HYDERABAD – 500034

Telangana State, India

Email: drbmreddy@yahoo.co.in

Mr. SriramojuHaragopal

Convener

Email:akshara25@gmail.com

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