Rock paintings are a real evidence of the knowledge of aesthetics of prehistoric people

Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya

organized a Museum Popular Lecture. In which Prof Sadasiba Pradhan, Former Professor of Ancient Indian History, Culture & Archaeology, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar (Odisha) delivered a lecture on ‘Interpreting Rock Art : An Ethno-archaeological Perspective’. Prof. (Dr.) Sadasiba Pradhan told that, one of the characteristic features of rock art world over is the large assemblage of non-thematic and non-figurative abstract

symbols

and motifs juxtaposed with animal and human forms. These symbols are both geometric and non-geometric and are so bewildering that no definite name or meaning could be given to these forms. They include a host of parallel vertical or horizontal lines or wavy lines within or without a geometric format; criss-cross, zigzags, grids, curvy linears, bisected

triangles

or triangles with a shallow depression (cupule) at the center resembling vulvas; honeycombs, rhomboids, harpoons, denticulate, diamond chains, spirals, concentric circles, series of dots, cupules, palm, foot, paws and so forth. It appears as if there is an overwhelming richness in the invention of symbols and men’s desire for creating such symbols in prehistoric time was inexhaustible.