Rock art is, perhaps, among the earliest examples of mankind’s creative ability and efforts at communication. An exhibition that opened at the Hill Palace Museum at Tripunithura on Friday gives visitors a glimpse of fascinating prehistoric rock art images from all over the world.
The exhibition, organised by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Centre for Heritage Studies, and Union Christian College, Aluva, features a collection of over 100 photographs of petroglyphs, which are images carved or pecked onto rock, and pictographs, which are painted images. Hundreds of students and art and history enthusiasts visited the exhibition on the first day. The exhibition is an attempt to introduce prehistoric rock art to students and the public.
The exhibition looks at the different kinds of rock art all over the world, including those created before 10,000 years. While some of the images are of simple drawings consisting of a few lines, others are more ornate. They depict everything from hunting processes, good and evil spirits, masks, human figures, geometrical designs, and even stencils of the human hand.
“Pre-historic rock art is the earliest, most powerful, most enchanting cultural expression of man’s humanity. It is the universal language of man before he created script and before he created the Vedas and the Bible,” eminent historian M.G.S. Narayanan said. “In Edakkal, we have giant size human figures with elaborate head dress engraved in a stylized manner. The head dress resembles that of Theyyam figures of North Malabar,” Mr. Narayanan said in a synopsis to his lecture on Rock Art of Kerala. A lecture by K. Krishnan will be held at the CHS auditorium at Hill Palace at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
