The river knows, they say. Like
time she flows without complain, silently observing the rise and fall of civilizations.
Humans share an intimate relation with the rivers. While she quenches the
thirst of humans and provide them with the vital fertile plains, humans make
her immortal through prayers, songs and art. Mangli is one such small river
that flows down the dying Aravalli Hills, seeping and snaking smoothly through
the beautiful town of Bundi. As you stand at the edge of her yellow rocky bank sporadically
covered with short shrubs, you could hear the burble of Mangli as she dance around
and jump over the boulders, occasionally slashing through the sandstones of Vindhyans.
This apparently trivial river have witnessed a lot.
MANGLI RIVER
THE BUFFALOES STARING AT US
Once upon a time, in its hay days, Mangli
was a mighty river that sustained quite a large population of hunters and
gatherers. These ancient admirers of her have left their mark on the banks
inside the small caves that they once called home. Why did they create the rock
arts we probably can never decode. It might have been an early form of writing that contained
important information, may be painting was how they taught their kids, they
might have been summoning the divine or simply appreciating a form of art. Whatever
may have been the motivation, these ancient rock arts are a rare window to the
mind of our hunter ancestors.
RARE WINDOW TO THE MIND OF OUR ANCESTORS
The window was once lost behind the
desert shrubs, ignored, forgotten, and left to rest in peace. Thousands of
years later it managed to find a simple and innocent 8-class pass village bloke,
with a passion for the past, peeping through the bushes. His name is Mr. Om Prakash
Sharma, aka Kukki. Kukki’s hunt for old artifacts like historic coins began in
the late 70's when he met a man who used to sell precious stones in Bundi that
he claimed to have found in the hills. Kukki tried to imitate the man and found
nothing as that man was a sham. As fate would have it, he found something better.
He found ancient coins. When he took his findings to the Delhi National Museum the
experts revealed that his coins are 100 to 700 years old, with one specific one
that was from 4th century BC Mauryan Empire.
THE TEAM WITH MR. KUKKI
It was only after his visit to
National Museum in 1988 that he became interested in archaeology. Since then he
have been crazily looking for more. With a little experience of artifacts he
saw in the museum he found spear-head arrows, hand axes, cleavers, scrapping
tools, bronze and copper age artifacts from mounds in Garada, Bhilwara, Bundi
and other places. The madness turned a sweet-shop owner into an amateur
archaeologist who found over 103 sites, and according to him the longest rock
art site in the world stretching for 35 kms. His first encounter with rock paintings
started only from 12th June 1998. Kukki is in his mid-sixties now, but
even time could not erode his craving for archaeology. In his own words,
“I am richer than Bill Gates. Gates is rich by money, and Kukki is rich by culture. Everyone has at least a bit of money, but Gates do not have a single piece of the precious artifacts I own”.
We met Kukki in an unplanned trip
to the sleepy town of Bundi. Unlike the rock paintings, I found Kukki on
internet. Being a busy man, it is
difficult to get his time during working hours. So, we met in the evening and
had a long chat. He is a very interesting man who can entertain you with
stories for hours. Some of them even have ghosts in it. After a bit of persuasion
he kindly agreed to share his time from a packed day to show us his ‘discovery’.
I, along with my wife and over enthusiastic 7-year daughter started the trek along
the rocky banks of Mangli with Mr. Kukki, looking for the ancient art. How often
you get the opportunity to see the rare rock paintings away from the mad crowd,
with the man who discovered it? It was our lucky day.
BEAUTIFULLY PAINTED BUFFALO IN CAVE NO 23.
The paintings we saw are
of antelopes, tigers, bears, humped bulls/buffalo, dogs, dancing men and women, hunting
scenes, animal traps, various geometric patterns and one specific one that he
claimed to be a giraffe. While the giraffe was not very convincing, the humped
bull/buffalo in site no 23 is my favorite. These paintings are one of the richest I have seen.
The rock paintings are brown or yellow. Unfortunately Indian pre-historic men made paints from hematite and chalcedony and not charcoal, and hence carbon dating is difficult. But, based on Rock tools found here, these sites should be equivalent of Bhimbetka (Paleolithic and Mesolithic). But there is a mix and these sites have been occupied periodically even until recent historic times. A disappointed Kukki tells us with a sigh that only because of the poor choice of paints we cannot claim the oldest rock paintings of the world. He complains how the Indian archaeology is lagging far behind. Kukki’s discoveries are left unguarded and unprotected, only marked with numbers. Probably because it was not discovered by any professional, and thus there is no glory for the babus in wasting their precious time on this. But Kukki is hell bend to protect his findings with his life.
Kukki believes that he was a hunter
and gatherer living here in his past life. That is why the paintings found him.
Despite the threats to his life from mafias who are blasting the hills into the
ground for home building rocks, and along with it Kukki’s passions, he continue
to protect the sites. His biggest threat however comes from innocent local children
and fervent lovers who write their names in the now popular cave paintings. As
he was showing us one of the sites, a group of half-naked local tribal children
gathered around us. When Kukki yelled at them, they giggled, ran and jumped
unto the Mangli River. They were so comfortable with Mangli, as if she was one
of their own. It was their time to bath alongside their pet buffalo who looked
no different from the paintings in the wall. I wondered, if the person who drew
the humped bull in the Chalcolithic period was yelled at for spoiling the Paleolithic
paintings, would there be the site no 23. And, if not for Mr. Kukki's yelling, would these sites survive? May be, the river knows.
TRIBAL CHILDREN BEHIND ME
RELAXING IN THE WATER, JUST LIKE OLD TIMES
Writing and photo copyright belongs to Subhrashis Adhikari.
Written by Subhrashis Adhikari
Author of 5 Questions of the Inquisitive Apes
"Engaging and entertaining, this page-turner is remarkable in its narration and will give you a new perspective on various aspects of life. Wellresearched and heartfelt, the encouraging tone throughout the book tries to motivate towards a happier life." - Times of India
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I EAGER TO SEE ROCK PAINTING OF KUKKI ....
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