Chaturbhujnath Nala Rock Art Shelters
Chaturbhujnath Nala Rock Art Shelters is the Longest Rock Art Gallery situated in Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary near Bhanpura in mandsaur district in Madhya Pradesh. From the Forest Rest House at Gandhi Sagar Dam as we move about 15 kilometres on metalled roads and some 30 km from Bhanpura the nearest city, a faded sign tells the traveller the rock shelters are 6.5 kilometres to the left.
The Chatrubhujnath Nala forms a pool of water walled in on either side by two long lines of rock shelters. A few trees stand on the edge of the Nala. When we reach the Chatrubhujnath Nala Rock Shelters, we find that the entire Bhanpura region is rich in rock art sites, most of them rock painting sites.
The rock shelters of Chaturbhujnath Nala are quite different from the rock caves of Bhimbaithka. Here one can barely stand straight before the paintings. One has to bend low, crawl on all fours and at times even lie on one’s stomach to get a proper view of the drawings.
The surface of the paintings is uneven in colour and texture. The colour of the paintings, which is mostly red comes in varying shades: some bright, others a faded maroon. The subjects of paintings are human beings and plenty of animals. One can identify the wild elephants, bisons, tigers, leopards, monkeys, snakes, different species of birds, rhinos, beer, water animals, foxes, cows, bullocks as well as the camels. The familiar sight of a camel caravan in the deserts of Rajasthan are right their on the walls of Chaturbhujnath Nala rock shelters. The people, usually men, are sometimes stick figures, at others two triangles linked by straight lines, with clothes and without. There are only outlines of human beings as well as solid figures. These paintings made thousands and thousands of years before the Christian era are speedy, tell stories and have drama in them. There are events from their daily lives together with exotic geometric patterns. Most of the paintings are in shades of red, although one does see the occasional yellow and white.
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