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Sunday, May 25, 2008
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The tale that these palms tell

T.S. Subramanian

Hoary rock art surprises from Kerala’s Idukki district

— Photo: P. Manivannan

IMPRINT FROM THE PAST: Painted human palms in Idukki district.

CHENNAI: A rock art site with a series of paintings shaped like the human palm done in red ochre has been discovered at Vaimalaigugai (‘the cave that looks like an open mouth’) near Alampetty village of Maraiyur panchayat in Kerala’s Idukki district. Experts say palms are usually painted to indicate someone was there.

The discovery was made on May 17 by K.T. Gandhirajan, an explorer who specialises in art history; K. Natarajan, Lecturer, Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai; P. Manivannan, Senior Designer, The Hindu, and a group of students of the college.

Mr. Gandhirajan estimated that the palms might be dated to 5,000 years ago.

The group also discovered two dolmens the previous day in a jungle near a tribal village called Kizhpunachi, about 35 km from Udumalpet, in Coimbatore district. Both the dolmens are double-chambered. One has collapsed.

In rock art done by pre-historic human beings, the palm has been drawn in three different ways. One is to keep the palm on the rock surface and outline the fingers with red ochre or white kaolin. The second method is to dip the palm in red ochre and impress the entire palm on the cave wall. In both methods, the palm looks realistic.

The third is to paint a palm in red ochre, as at Vaimalaigugai, or white kaolin. “The shape is that of the palm. But the fingers have not been painted with a sense of verisimilitude. The artist has shown some fingers in a folded manner. Some fingers look like broken ones. Perhaps the artist was experimenting,” said Mr. Gandhirajan.

There were two groups of palms at Vaimalaigugai, one on the left side of the cave wall and another in the middle. These were painted at different points of time, he added. Ten feet away on the same wall are paintings in red ochre of geometric designs, human figures, deer hunters and unidentified images.

Rock paintings had earlier been discovered at Ezhthu Gugai, Attala and Kovilkadavu in Marayur and they attract tourists. There is a profusion of paintings at Attala and Ezhuthu Gugai.

The drawing of the palm is a common device in rock art. There is a recurrence of the palm in the paintings at Settavarai in Villupuram district and Vellarikombai in the Nilgiris district. Figures of palms are found in rock art sites in Andhra Pradesh including at Budhagavi, Ramachandrapuram and Keithavaram.

The two dolmens were discovered near Kizhpunachi in Coimbatore district. Made of granite slabs, they belonged to the megalithic period, erected some 3,000 years ago.

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