Prehistoric period Rock Art in a small western Ghats Hill /தேன்வரந்தை குகை ஓவியங்கள் (Thenvaranthai Cave Paintings), Kallapuram / Mathakadiputhur, Palani reigon, Dindigul District, Tiruppur District, Tamil Nadu.

10^th September 2017.

While planning for this Udumalpet Heritage Visit,  we decided to cover different interest heritage sites like temples, Nadukarkal, Jain monuments and rock art. Normally rock art depicts animals, human beings and their culture, important rituals, their habits, the relation between them with the animals, etc,. We can find such rock art in caves in various parts of the world. The rock paintings are normally in white and red ochre colours. As per the research, the red ochre paintings are more than 10 thousand years old, while the white colour is about 2000 to 3000 years old.

  

This small hill at Mathakadiputhur is a part of the Western Ghats. This small hill has 3 to 4  caves or rock shelters with such rock art paintings. தேன்வரந்தை குகை ஓவியங்கள் (Thenvaranthai Cave Paintings), near Kallapuram / Mathakadiputhur.

This rock art is in an open natural cave or rock shelter measuring approximately 150 feet in length with an opening of about 25 to 30 feet in height.  This rock shelter has a group of white colour (A combination of minerals like lime and vegetable colours )  rock art depicting men, women and elephants. In one group people are gathered for rituals. In another group people with children go with a goat for a ritual function. Some of the hand paintings are also there to show the strength of the group. One group of art shows the capturing of elephants and taming for domestic purposes. We could see some of the paintings are less skilled, which means they are a little older than the others. As per the archaeologists these paintings are 2000 to 3000 years old and the shelter was continuously used for more than 1000 years.

LOCATION OF THE CAVE: CLICK HERE 

---OM SHIVAYA NAMA---