ROCK ART IN KUMAON HIMALAYA

This is the third book on Rock Art published by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts under the Adi Drsya Programme. This book brings into focus facets of pre-historic Rock Art of Kumaon Himalaya-an area comparatively unknown. An attempt has been made in this work to document and record various sites of Rock Art and rock shelters hitherto unidentified. The materials incorporated in this volume are quit distinctive and definitely new. The rock paintings as noticed in this area show as usual man and nature relationship in a simplistic representation. The most interesting paintings found in Kumaon Region are the dancing scenes, which are in large varieties followed by drumbeating figures, hunters and others. In this book the author discusses the subject matter, the technique, the style and the state of preservation of rock art of the region along with artistic merit and motivation of the artist of prehistoric time in a simple language. Illustrations incorporated in this volume are the water colour reproductions done by the author in the field itself. Illustrations are quite interesting and give an accurate impression of rock art of Central I Himalaya. In addition to the paintings, engravings and petroglyphs found in the Kumaon Region show a very unusual forms and content which are distinctive from the ones found in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh region in upper Himalayas. This book gives an overview of Rock Art research as a whole and its present state in India and abroad. The material incorporated in this monograph will be of great help to the scholars pursuing Rock Art research.