Ezhuthala Cave With Prehistoric Paintings In Kerala’s Sandalwood Forests In India

| March 23, 2015 | Archaeology News | No Comments

MessageToEagle.com – Ancient dolmens and rock paintings in Marayur date back to the Stone Age and India’s Marayur region is strongly related to a Stone Age civilization as old as 10,000 BC.

The Marayur-Chinnar forest belt of Kerala, the second largest concentration of cave paintings in south India is also a unique place of large-scale dolmen-building.

As per isolated studies conducted so far, There are 21 documented cave paintings of red ochre in this Kerala-Tamil Nadu region, according to a senior official of the Kerala Forest Department.
Unfortunately, this rock art is ruined. It faded over the years and the sandy rocks are highly prone to degeneration, due to the absence of scientific preservation and protection.

kerala cave paintings
Rock art in the Marayur-Chinnar forest belt. Rock art: Superimposed cave paintings that used pigments made of kaolin, claimed to have been discovered by an archaeological investigator in the Manjapetty-Anjunadu valley of Idukki district. They depict human and anthropomorphic figures and dances. – Photo: The Hindu

The rock paintings are located in the eastern slope of the Western Ghats, at Marayur and Chinnar at around 3,000 metres above sea level and a new methods of protection are needed to save them.

The first cave painting in Marayur was identified in Ezhuthala Madi on the Tamil Nadu border by Padmanabhan Thampi as part of his research paper in 1974. In 2009-10, archaeological researchers Benny Kurien and Dhanushkody documented the paintings in Ezhuthala, where the largest number of paintings was identified.

kerala cave paintings
The Ezhuthala cave, inside forests in the Marayur sandalwood division, has one of the four cave paintings in the Great Migration Corridor with human and animal motifs. Credit: Giji K. Raman

The Ezhuthala cave is situated inside forests in the Marayur sandalwood division and has one of the four cave paintings in the Great Migration Corridor with human and animal motifs in a single cave.
“Normal weathering, in addition to percolation of water during the rainy season, is posing a threat. At present, visitors are not permitted to see the cave paintings,” according to an official of the sandalwood division.

Dolmens in Kerala
Dolmens of Marayur and Kerala’s natural sandalwood forests.

Studies have found as many as 50 caves that are important for their prehistoric dwellings. Human and goat motifs reflect a cultural link.

The Ezhuthala cave has not been a subject of serious study by the ASI despite it being part of the second largest conglomerate of prehistoric cave paintings in south India.

There was evidence of prolonged habitation there during early prehistoric period. The paintings are in megalithic and mesolithic styles, dominated by natural and abstract in red ochre.

Both petroglyphs and pictographs were found in the Marayur-Chinnar belt and this prehistoric rock art is in need of immediate attention.
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