Pooja Dunguri - An abode of Pre-Historic Rock Paintings

Contributed by - Mr. Rameswar Naik

Pooja Dunguri is comparatively the bigger one out of all the rocky hills which exist on the border of the Binka-Rampur Tahasils in the district of Subarnapur of Odisha, India. The entire hill complex amid the bushy forest covers an area of about 1500/2000 square meters. Surrounding it there are some tribal villages like Adakasa, Chanabeda, Tangarkarley and Chandali. The forest is on the verge of extinction due to conversion of land for the cultivation. As many as twenty six granite hillocks surround Pooja Dunguri within a range of 100-500 meters. Among them the important ones are Ushakothi, Bagh Dunguri, Kabat Talei etc.

[a rock painting of an animal at Usha Kothi]

More importantly, some of the hillocks of the complex contain paintings executed on rock surfaces. While we come across the faded painting of a small animal at Pooja Dunguri and an enigmatic design at Bagh Dunguri, there is a panel of rock painting at Ushakothi (21 02’90” North and 83 41’98”East). Rock art is a world-wide phenomenon, its antiquity dates back to thirty millennium years when the early man was in the Mesolithic age, leading the life as a hunting-gatherer. He used microliths and in order to express his feelings executed art in the form of painting, engraving the rocks or carving the wood in his rock shelter. Rock art continued to be executed up to the iron-age i.e. 800 BC. We find evidences of Rock art at Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh. Where as in Odisha tribal rock paintings are found in the districts of Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Nuapada and Kalahandi. Western Odisha being the extension of the Chatishgarh and Chotnagpur plains, its geo-morphology and climatic conditions are very much akin to those regions. Ethno-archaeological study reveals that there was penetration of early man dwelling invariably into these parts of country, because of similar climatic conditions.

Puja Dunguri of Subarnapur district is the only rock-art site discovered so far in the undivided district of Balangir. The local name for the paintings here is “Putla Lekha”, which means ‘inscribed idols’. Those pre-historic human beings used to draw the figures of animals, human beings and other geometric patterns with hematite [Fe2o3] sticks which appears in mono-chrome ocher color. These ocher red paintings does not appear on the surface of the rock, but visible only when water is sprinkled on the surface of the rocks. So for all these reasons you need a local expert to guide you to the site. If you venture out on your own, you would never able to discover the place and the rocks carrying these art made with hematite.

[an engraved pattern on the rock]

There are two such marks (1) executed above 12/15 feet above the cult spot in pooja Dunguri. The mark is having an incised hole in the middle. (2) A leaf-like pattern engraved on a cliff-rock at a considerable height at Kabat Talei. Such patterns are also intended to be incised on natural rock formation at various places of the hill-complex. Concentration of rock paintings proves the inhabitation of prehistoric man in this region. You could witness a series of such paintings on the wall and ceiling of Ushakothi, which believed to be a rock shelter. To the extreme left of the panel, a deer-like animal is shown with pegs and harpoons on its body. On the right side of this animal an obscure scene of hunting of an animal by the tribe has been shown. On the extreme right side a dwarfish animal which seems to be a boar has been drawn. A long figure is depicted vertically, which might be that of a monitor lizard. All these figures are drawn on mono-chrome ochre colour. These rock paintings indicates to the hunting by the Mesolithic man. The charred bone pieces of bovine and caprice animals found from the cavities of the rocks along with the cord-impressed clay attest to the fact that once it was the abode of the hunting-gatherer who might have lived as herdsman. Carbon date backing of the relics by the forensic experts is sought to ascertain its antiquity.

[Charred bone pieces]

[Hand stones & ring stones]

These hillocks along with Pooja Dunguri have pre-historic importance. Surface exploration have revealed certain artifacts such as pottery shreds, microliths, ring stones, grinding stone, mullers , charred bone pieces, fragment of bluish-green glass bangle, bronze bangles, cord - impressed lumps of clay, fragments of iron implements and sticks of hematite (geru). It is important to note that almost in each and every hillock traces of engravings are found. They are both geometrical and non-geometrical patterns such as oval, triangular, triangle with a hole, foot mark, sun marks, multiple lines, lines with cut-marks etc. Besides these, there are scoop mark on rock surfaces and big grinding holes on the floor. The size of the scoop range from 1.5 feet in diameter and 1 feet in depth in case of the biggest one to 1-2 inches of the smaller cup-marks. In local terms the cup mark are called “ganjei bata” or “cannabis grinding”. A tunnel to the east of Pooja Dunguri is named Baba Math and is believed as the abode of the mystical sadhus. The cup-marks might have fetched such a name for place as Shadhus are believed to be fond of cannabis.

In the recent past traces of Neolithic and chalcolithic settlements of early men have been found from places like Hikudi, Khambeswaripali, Kumersingha and Nuagad on the river bank of Mahanadi, in the Sonepur-Birmaharajpur region. Discovery of pre-historic paintings and engravings in the hill complex of Pooja Dunguri in the Mahanadi valley further strengthens the fact that there was penetration of early man into this district. An archeological survey of this site will unravel more authentic information about this potentially rich site.

This historian could be contacted at :

rameswarnaik12@rediffmail.com

Cell # 91 94 378 32833

Mr.Rameswar Naik

Reader in History, Barpali College, Barpali - 768029

AT/Po. Barpali-768029, Odisha

The Blogger

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