History of India- A Saga Part-2
The Mesolithic Age, Prehistoric Arts
To be continued.....
The Upper
Paleolithic or the Ice Age comes to an end around 9000 B.C. And began a new
stage in Stone Age culture, which is called Mesolithic Age. In this age climate
become warm and dry which brought change about in Fauna and Flora (Fauna is the animal life and Flora is the plant life), change in climate
also made it possible for human to move new areas. Living occupation of human
of this age is similar with Paleolithic Age which are hunting, fishing and food
gathering, but at a later stage they also domesticate animals, which
interrelated with Neolithic culture.
The tools
used by human of the Mesolithic Age are Microlithic (Microlith is a small stone tool usually made of
flint or chert and typically a centimeter or so in length and half a centimeter
wide.). In India Mesolithic Sites found in Bagor in Rajasthan; Sarai Nahar Rai,
Chopani Mando, Mahdaha, and Damdama in Uttar Pradesh; Bhimbetka and Adamgarh in Madhya
Pradesh and South
of Kashmir. Bagor had a distinctive microlithic industry and its inhabitants
subsisted on hutting and pastoralism (Pastoralism
livestock farming or grazing or animal husbandry.).
Earliest evidence of the domestication of animals are found at Adamgarh in
Madhya Pradesh and Bagor in Rajasthan, this could around 5000 B.C. the
cultivation of plants around 7000-6000 B.C. is suggested in Rajasthan.
People of
Upper Paleolithic Age and Mesolithic Age practiced painting. Prehistoric arts
appear at several place of India. The Vindhyan rang, 45KM South of Bhopal, it
has more than 500 painted rock-shelters, distributed in an area of 10 sq km.
Murhana Pahar in Uttar Pradesh, Bhimbetka, Adamgarh, Lakha Juar in Madhya Pradesh.
Kupagallu in Karnataka. Many rock paintings are associated with the Mesolithic
Period. The rock-paintings depict and animal and scenes including both people
and animals. Beside animals and birds, fish have also been depicted in the rock
paintings. The paintings portrayed human beings involved in various activities,
such as dancing, running, hunting, playing games and engaged in battle. The
colors uses in these painting are deep red, green, white and yellow. A painting
of rhinoceros hunting found in the Adhamgarh rock-shelter revels that large numbers
of people join together when they hunt bigger animals.
It is interesting
that on the Northern spurs of Vindhyas in the Belan valley all the three phases
of the Paleolithic followed by Mesolithic and then by the Neolithic have been
found in sequence, and so is the case with the middle part of Narmada valley.
Several areas the Neolithic culture succeeded the Mesolithic culture.
Nice one.... Keep it up
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