Indian Rock Art and Its Global Context

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The photographs on Indian Rock Art are mostly from the Archive of Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya. Photographic work had been undertaken by Naval Jaiswal, Assistant Curator, Devendra Kumar Jain, Assistant Keeper and Ravi Shrivas, Senior Photographer, in the IGRMS. The photographs of Kumaon Himalayas and Manipur have been taken from the Archive of Indira Gandhi National Centre of Arts, New Delhi. Photographs of several regions are contributed by individual scholars engaged in the study and documentation of rock art. The names of the scholars are: Shankar Tiwari, Bhopal; V. H. Sonawane, Vadodara; Giriraj Kumar, RASI, Agra, Rakesh Tewari, Lucknow; P. P. Shirodkar, Goa; Pradeep Shukla, Sagar and Maheshwari, Hoshangabad. Our gratitudes are due to all of them. Thanks are also due to G. Jayaprakasan, K. Seshadri, Santosh Pandey and Rachna Mathur for Scanning/typesetting the script and to Pratibha Nigam and her staff for library assistance.

Prehistoric rock art represents by far the largest body of evidence we possess of humanity's artistic, cognitive and cultural beginnings. It occurs in most countries of the world, having served as an almost universal expression and communication of human thought since the dawn of humanity. Through its relative permanence, rock art has profoundly influenced the beliefs and artistic conventions of subsequent societies to the present day; it is an integral part of humanity's collective memory. It is one of our greatest surviving art treasures.