Rock Art of South India

ABOUT THE BOOK Rock art studies in south India are few and far between. The huge corpus of rock art has not been systematically documented, studied and analyzed. This book fills up the lacuna to a certain extent.

This book constitutes the first comprehensive micro level study of rock art of Andhra Pradesh both at an intra site and inter site levels. In addition, the other rock art traditions of south India particularly of Karnataka and Tamilnadu are also studied from a comparative/ analogical perspective. This is necessary not only to highlight the characteristic and exclusive traits of the rock art of Andhra Pradesh, but also to understand the cultural contacts between various regions reflected in the rock art forms and themes. An attempt has also been made to understand the motives behind the rock depictions in the light of various theories of interpretation.

Although the tradition of rock art is a pan-Indian phenomena since prehistoric times down to the present (in certain tribal pockets of the country) there are glaring differences between the rock art traditions of North India, South India and Andhra Pradesh. These differences manifest in stylistic rendering and use of various forms in rock art. These are highlighted in this work to show that an understanding of regional peculiarities in rock art forms the necessary base for any pan Indian study of rock art.

ABOUT THE AUTHORDr. N. Chandramouli (B. 1961) is presently working as Assistant Professor in the department of Archaeology and Architecture, School of History, Culture and Archaeology, Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University, Srisailam Campus. He got his Post graduate degree in Ancient Indian History and Archaeology (1984) from Nagarjuna University, Guntur, Master of Philosophy degree in Archaeology (1986) from the University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad and Doctorate Degree (1994) from P.S. Telugu University.

He is the Vice-President of Rock Art Society of India, Agra and is a life member of Australian Rock Art Research Association, Canberra, Australia; Indian Society for Prehistoric and quarternary studies, Pune; Indo Pacific Prehistory Association, Australia; Andhra Pradesh History Congress, and South Indian History Congress. He has to his credit 25 published papers on Rock Art, Prehistoric Archaeology and History in various National and international journals.

He has a good field work experience in prehistoric archaeology and discovered a number of Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites in the Nallamalai hills and other parts of Andhra Pradesh besides several rock art sites..

**Contents and Sample Pages**