VELUDHARAN TEMPLES VISIT : Dindigul District

Thursday 9 May 2024

Chakkilichi Parai Rock Arts, A part of தேன்வரந்தை குகை பாறை ஓவியங்கள் / Thenvaranthai Cave Paintings, Palani region, Dindigul District Tamil Nadu.

The visit to this Chakkilichi Parai Rock Arts, was a part of Visit to Rock arts, in Natural caves, in Dindigul District near Palani on 3^rd April 2024. Thanks to Thenkongu Sathasivam, who took us ( Mrs. Sakthi Prakash and Mr. Srinivasan ) to this Rock arts Caves.

Normally rock art depicts the animals, human beings and their culture, important rituals, their habits, relation with the animals, etc,. We could find such rock arts in caves of various parts of the world. The rock paintings normally in white, red and Black ochre colours. As per the research and the red ochre paintings are more than 10 thousand years old, while the white colour is about 2000 to 3000 years old.

This Chakkilichi Parai Rock Arts are on a small hill, on the back side of the Thenvaranthai Caves – தேன்வரந்தை குகை பாறை ஓவியங்கள் ( Thenvaranthai Cave Paintings ), near Kallapuram / Mathakadiputhur. This Chakkilichi Parai Rock Arts are in two natural open caves of which one is on the Ground level.

These rock shelters has the group of white colour ( Combination of minerals like lime and vegetable colours ) rock arts depicting men, women, elephants, Tiger, snake, etc. In one group people are gathered for a rituals. In another group of art shows the capturing of elephant and taming for domestic purposes. We could see some of the paintings are less skilled, which means they are little older than the others. Some of the arts are painted with thin lines, ( like using brushes ). Some of the painting are with white ochre and out lines are drawn with black. In addition to this some arts are done with black ochre, like trishul, Men, etc,. The speciality of this Rock art is with numbers of dots. As per the experts, these dots may denotes the trees.

Black ochre border arts

Similar painting are also seen in the second cave. In this the surface is not uniform, many pits are found on the surfaces. Rock arts are drawn in these Kuzhi / குழி / pit areas too. As per the archaeologists these paintings are 2000 to 3000 years old and the shelter was continuously uses for more than 1000 years.