Place · painted gorge · India
Chaturbhujnāth Nālā
The Chambal-valley gorge in Bhainsrorgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, Chittorgarh district, Rajasthan, with kilometres of continuously painted rock face — one of the densest concentrations of prehistoric rock art known anywhere in the subcontinent. Over 15,000 figures spanning from Mesolithic through early Historic have been documented. The paintings include elephants, rhinos, deer, battle scenes, chariots and dancing figures across layered chronological levels. Discovered by G.L. Badam in the 1970s. The gorge's seasonal inaccessibility (reached only in the dry season from Kota) has kept most of the panels unvandalised and in their original state.
- Function
- Landscape & environmental change
- Tradition
- Archaeological record
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 24.470, 75.500 (approximate)
Connections (1)
- AnalogueKonkan geoglyphs
The Konkan geoglyphs were identified only in the last fifteen years and the Chambal gorge at Chaturbhujnath Nala was surveyed only from the 1970s, which is a fair measure of how much Indian rock art is still unrecorded. Both are essentially unprotected: one is on open laterite plateau under development pressure, the other is periodically under a reservoir.
On these journeys
Sources
Chaturbhujnath Nala rock art — Bradshaw Foundation
Open Chaturbhujnāth Nālā in the repository →