The bovid hunters of Kushavati culture
Posted by: Navhind Times May 10, 2015 in Panorama
PRO of former CM of Maharashtra Satish Lalit who discovered the Kudopi petroglyphs informed me that a new coffee table book on ‘Rock Art of Konkan in the Context of Global Rock Art’ by former director of Goa archives and well known historian Prakashchandra Shirodkar, now residing at Bengaluru, would be released soon.Thanks to Shirodkar, the Kushavati rock art site surrounded by mining area was notified as a protected monument by the state government. Subsequently the new director of Goa archives, Shankar Kamat Mhamai and Ponda-based architect Kamalakar Sadhale also took a lot of interest in its conservation.
A crude replica of the rock art gallery is displayed in front of Goa Museum at EDC Pato Plaza. Goa’s
prehistory comes alive in the Zuari River basin with firm evidence of the Kushavati polymorphic rock art gallery. It’s a distinct creation of hunter-food-gather shamanistic society, which I had recognised as Kushavati Culture in 1993.Every year, in the month of May, I recall the discovery
made by our small team on May 9, 1993 on the banks of Kushavati River, a tributary which meets the Zuari River past Chandor. This newspaper had carried my report the following day. In 1990, the former MLA of Rivona, late Ranu Prabhudessai had mentioned about ‘Goravarakhnyachim chitram’ at a site close to his house to me, which I could not visit. In a study excursion of the now defunct Goa University Nature Club to archaeological sites of Quepem during November 1992, advocate Vallabh Ganwas Dessai suggested that we could visit the place on the river bank. But it was already late and the road was bad.
Horticulturist Kalidas Sawaikar who owns a farm near the site also knew about its antiquity. Tamil Indologist Chakravarty and cultural historian Anant Ramkrishna Shenavi Dhume had guessed its
archaeological importance in 1980s, but it was on May 9, 1993 that we recognised it as rock art. The
carvings, when we stepped on them, were barely discernible. P P Shirodkar then sent his driver to Rivona market get a box of chalks to mark the outlines of the petroglyphs.The labyrinth, which is now fully exposed, was hidden below a layer of 75 centimetres of river sediment and a tree was growing next to it thus showing the antiquity of the site. What was known for ages as
carvings on the rocky red lateritic bank of Kushavati River made by local cowherds was finally determined as a gallery of unique petroglyphs. In a sense it was a rediscovery and a new interpretation. On three occasions I had documented the petroglyphs for a scientific classification.As I look back after 22 years, what strikes me today is the violent hunting nature of these nomads. The
predominance of the bovid zoomorphs – mainly Indian bison or Bos gaurus and Zebu, the now extinct wild Indian bull, prove what their material world was obsessed with. It was hunger and food. The shaman has carved his graphical signature in the form of a bison horn motif to establish his authority. It’s a calendar with solar and lunar symbols and 12 vertical slits. This signature comes very close to the standard bearer seal found in the Indus civilization and the carved Bronze staff found in Mohenjo-daro. The bovid hunters had camped along the Kushavati River, taking advantage of its strategic location. The site is located in a bowl-shaped valley towards the southeast and is surrounded by small hillocks. Herds of Indian bison, while crossing the river, were trapped, ambushed and speared by the skilled hunters. They were also expert butchers. They used Quartz blades and took artistic delight in showing the anatomy of their kill as revealed by what are known as some ‘X-Ray’ petroglyphs, which reveal internal organs of their prey. A gaur weighs almost a metric ton and it was adequate meat supply for the nomadic camp. They kept a count of seasons or kills by making permanent cup marks or cupules, which are numerous on the site, distributed in a complex pattern. The rock art gallery has proto Dravidian symbols like bisected ovals, which can be later followed at Harappa and Indus valley.The complex spiritual world of the Kushavati hunter-food gatherer shamanistic culture connected itself to all the past and contemporary cultures with a single global rock art motif – the Labyrinth which the Swedish scholar on the subject, John Kraft, Västerås, Sweden, called India’s most ancient labyrinth petroglyph. Rock art studies need a scientific approach as demonstrated at http://www.labyrinthos.net/index.html. The Kushavati labyrinth tells a lot about the trapping and hunting strategies of Goa’s prehistoric bovid hunters. It should come as a pleasant culture shock to Goans that their own labyrinth predates the legend of Cretan Minotaur kept in an identical labyrinth at Knossos.
Posted by: Navhind Times May 10, 2015 in Panorama
PRO of former CM of Maharashtra Satish Lalit who discovered the Kudopi petroglyphs informed me that a new coffee table book on ‘Rock Art of Konkan in the Context of Global Rock Art’ by former director of Goa archives and well known historian Prakashchandra Shirodkar, now residing at Bengaluru, would be released soon.Thanks to Shirodkar, the Kushavati rock art site surrounded by mining area was notified as a protected monument by the state government. Subsequently the new director of Goa archives, Shankar Kamat Mhamai and Ponda-based architect Kamalakar Sadhale also took a lot of interest in its conservation.
A crude replica of the rock art gallery is displayed in front of Goa Museum at EDC Pato Plaza. Goa’s
prehistory comes alive in the Zuari River basin with firm evidence of the Kushavati polymorphic rock art gallery. It’s a distinct creation of hunter-food-gather shamanistic society, which I had recognised as Kushavati Culture in 1993.Every year, in the month of May, I recall the discovery
made by our small team on May 9, 1993 on the banks of Kushavati River, a tributary which meets the Zuari River past Chandor. This newspaper had carried my report the following day. In 1990, the former MLA of Rivona, late Ranu Prabhudessai had mentioned about ‘Goravarakhnyachim chitram’ at a site close to his house to me, which I could not visit. In a study excursion of the now defunct Goa University Nature Club to archaeological sites of Quepem during November 1992, advocate Vallabh Ganwas Dessai suggested that we could visit the place on the river bank. But it was already late and the road was bad.
Horticulturist Kalidas Sawaikar who owns a farm near the site also knew about its antiquity. Tamil Indologist Chakravarty and cultural historian Anant Ramkrishna Shenavi Dhume had guessed its
archaeological importance in 1980s, but it was on May 9, 1993 that we recognised it as rock art. The
carvings, when we stepped on them, were barely discernible. P P Shirodkar then sent his driver to Rivona market get a box of chalks to mark the outlines of the petroglyphs.The labyrinth, which is now fully exposed, was hidden below a layer of 75 centimetres of river sediment and a tree was growing next to it thus showing the antiquity of the site. What was known for ages as
carvings on the rocky red lateritic bank of Kushavati River made by local cowherds was finally determined as a gallery of unique petroglyphs. In a sense it was a rediscovery and a new interpretation. On three occasions I had documented the petroglyphs for a scientific classification.As I look back after 22 years, what strikes me today is the violent hunting nature of these nomads. The
predominance of the bovid zoomorphs – mainly Indian bison or Bos gaurus and Zebu, the now extinct wild Indian bull, prove what their material world was obsessed with. It was hunger and food. The shaman has carved his graphical signature in the form of a bison horn motif to establish his authority. It’s a calendar with solar and lunar symbols and 12 vertical slits. This signature comes very close to the standard bearer seal found in the Indus civilization and the carved Bronze staff found in Mohenjo-daro. The bovid hunters had camped along the Kushavati River, taking advantage of its strategic location. The site is located in a bowl-shaped valley towards the southeast and is surrounded by small hillocks. Herds of Indian bison, while crossing the river, were trapped, ambushed and speared by the skilled hunters. They were also expert butchers. They used Quartz blades and took artistic delight in showing the anatomy of their kill as revealed by what are known as some ‘X-Ray’ petroglyphs, which reveal internal organs of their prey. A gaur weighs almost a metric ton and it was adequate meat supply for the nomadic camp. They kept a count of seasons or kills by making permanent cup marks or cupules, which are numerous on the site, distributed in a complex pattern. The rock art gallery has proto Dravidian symbols like bisected ovals, which can be later followed at Harappa and Indus valley.The complex spiritual world of the Kushavati hunter-food gatherer shamanistic culture connected itself to all the past and contemporary cultures with a single global rock art motif – the Labyrinth which the Swedish scholar on the subject, John Kraft, Västerås, Sweden, called India’s most ancient labyrinth petroglyph. Rock art studies need a scientific approach as demonstrated at http://www.labyrinthos.net/index.html. The Kushavati labyrinth tells a lot about the trapping and hunting strategies of Goa’s prehistoric bovid hunters. It should come as a pleasant culture shock to Goans that their own labyrinth predates the legend of Cretan Minotaur kept in an identical labyrinth at Knossos.
