The Edakkal caves are two natural caves at a remote location in sultan bathery in the

Wayanad district Wayanad () is a district in the north-east of the Indian state of Kerala, with its administrative headquarters at the municipality of Kalpetta. It is the only plateau in Kerala. The Wayanad Plateau forms a continuation of the Mysore Plateau, ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. They lie above sea level on Ambukutty Mala, near an ancient trade route connecting the high mountains of

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

to the ports of the

Malabar Coast The Malabar Coast () is the southwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. It generally refers to the West Coast of India, western coastline of India stretching from Konkan to Kanyakumari. Geographically, it comprises one of the wettest regio ...

. Inside the caves are paintings believed to date to at least 6,000 BCE, from the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

man, indicating the presence of a prehistoric settlement in this region. The

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

carvings of Edakkal are rare and are the only known examples from

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

besides those of Shenthurini,

Kollam Kollam (;), is an ancient seaport and the List of cities and towns in Kerala, fourth largest city in the Indian state of Kerala. Located on the southern tip of the Malabar Coast of the Arabian Sea, the city is on the banks of Ashtamudi Lake ...

, also in Kerala. The cave paintings of Shenthurini (Shendurney) forests in Kerala are of the Mesolithic era (middle stone-age).

Petroglyphs

These are not technically caves, but rather a cleft,

rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-graben ...

or rock shelter approximately by , a

fissure A fissure is a long, narrow crack opening along the surface of Earth. The term is derived from the Latin word , which means 'cleft' or 'crack'. Fissures emerge in Earth's crust, on ice sheets and glaciers, and on volcanoes. Ground fissure A ...

caused by a piece of rock splitting away from the main body. On one side of the cleft is a rock weighing several tons that covers the cleft to form the 'roof' of the cave. The carvings are of human and animal figures, tools used by humans and of symbols yet to be deciphered, suggesting the presence of a prehistoric settlement. The

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s inside the cave are of at least three types. The oldest may date back to over 8,000 years. Evidence suggests that the Edakkal caves were inhabited several times at different points in history. The caves were discovered by Fred Fawcett, a police official of the erstwhile Malabar state in 1890, who immediately recognised their anthropological and historical importance. He wrote an article about them, attracting the attention of scholars.

Probable links with Indus valley civilization

The caves contain drawings that range over periods from the

as early as 6,000 BC to 1,000 BCE. The youngest group of paintings have been in the news for a possible connection to the

Indus Valley civilization The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE ...

. Historian Raghava Varier of the ''Kerala State Archaeology Department'' identified a depiction as "man with jar cup" that is the most distinct motif of the Indus valley civilization. The finding, made in September 2009, indicates that the Harappan civilization was active in the region. The "a man with jar cup" symbol from Edakkal seems to be more similar to the Indus motif than those already known from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Mr. Varier said "The discovery of the symbols are akin to that of the Harappan civilization having predominantly Dravidian culture and testimony to the fact that cultural diffusion could take place. It is wrong to presume that the Indus culture disappeared into thin air." Iravatham Mahadevan, a scholar of the

Indus valley The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans- Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northwest through the disp ...

and Tamil-Brahmi scripts said the findings were very significant, calling it a "major discovery".

Image gallery

File:Edakkal Stone Age Carving.jpg,

drawings File:Petroglyphs in Edakkal Caves.jpg,

Petroglyphs A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

dating back to about 6000 BC File:Ambukuthi mala.jpg, Light shining through Edakkal caves File:View from the Edakkal caves.jpg, View of surroundings from Edakkal caves. File:Edakkal, Wayanad, Kerala, India. (4649462247).jpg, Going up the caves File:Kadamba inscription from Kerala.jpg, Prakrit Grantha inscription of Kadamba ruler Vishnuvarman (-6th century CE) from Edakkal (northern Kerala)

Notes

External links

On a history trail
* Cave biology (biospeleology) in India.
Kerala Trourism
{{Navbox prehistoric caves Archaeological cultures in Indiaa Caves of Kerala Caves containing pictograms in India History of Kerala Archaeological sites in Kerala Ancient India Monuments of National Importance in Kerala Geography of Wayanad district Tourist attractions in Wayanad district

Petroglyphs

Probable links with Indus valley civilization

See also

Image gallery

Notes

External links