5,000-year-old treasure in the Nilgiris

More than 300 images are etched on the cliff-face along the Kotagiri slopes

Tucked away along the Kotagiri slopes, overlooking the confluence of the Moyar and the Bhavani, is one of the most remarkable and enigmatic rock art sites in south India. The Karikiyoor rock paintings — a series of over 300 images etched on the side of the cliff-face — are believed to be more than 5,000-years old. They are just one of a series of cave and rock paintings that have been rediscovered across the Nilgiris in recent decades.

“Karikiyoor is probably one of the biggest rock art sites in India. A variety of subjects are depicted in great detail — the communities that lived in the area at that time, the wildlife they witnessed and their relationships with them, as well as the battles with other communities, making their way up the hills,” said K.T. Gandhirajan, a rock art expert.

Mr. Gandhirajan said the images were added over a period of hundreds, possibly thousands, of years. “Though no scientific dating has been done on the site itself, the images depict a gradual shift from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in the initial drawings to a pastoral and, eventually, a settled agrarian lifestyle in the later drawings.”

The shift could indicate the rock art site itself was added onto by different groups at different stages in its history, anthropologists believe.

While Karikiyoor is the largest of the rock art sites in the Nilgiris, there are other smaller cave painting sites, mostly hidden deep inside reserve forests, according to Kannan Ramaiah, a naturalist documenting rock art and cave paintings in the district.

Mr. Ramaiah said James Wilkinson Breeks, a civil servant who lived in the 19 th Century and author of An Account of the Primitive Tribes and Monuments of the Nilagiris [sic]’, records 18 distinct rock art sites. “Unfortunately, much of the knowledge of these sites seems to have been lost even to indigenous communities, many of which said the elders who had known where these sites were located have either died or have forgotten the locations,” said Mr. Ramaiah.

He has documented 10 sites, and is trying to find the others mentioned in Breeks’ records before they are lost forever. “In Karikiyoor, vandals have defaced some of the rock art, painting political and religious symbols on the images. Unless the other sites are found, documented and protected, the same fate could await them,” he said.