Lakhudiyār

The painted Mesolithic rock-shelters on the Suyal river in Almora district, Kumaon, Uttarakhand, in the Himalayan foothills. The 'Lakhu Udyar' (meaning cave of a hundred thousand) contains Mesolithic to Chalcolithic paintings of human figures, dancing scenes, hunting with bows and arrows and animals in black, white and red pigment on dolomite walls. Lakhudiyar sits in the same Himalayan foothills as the Nanda Devi processional landscape, suggesting continuity of human presence across the hills from the Mesolithic to the medieval period. Discovered 1968, excavated by M.P. Joshi.