RAS question
The Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh are known for:
Correct answer: (A) Prehistoric cave paintings.
The Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh are known for prehistoric cave paintings dating from the Mesolithic to the historical period.
Explanation
Bhimbetka is best known for prehistoric cave paintings because the site preserves rock art across natural rock shelters. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with paintings from the Mesolithic to the Historic periods, showing hunting scenes, dances and animals in red and white pigments. UNESCO World Heritage Centre describes Bhimbetka as a group of natural rock shelters and specifically links the site to rock paintings that date from the Mesolithic period through to the historical period. That is why the answer is not a later inscriptional, Mughal or Buddhist-text tradition, but prehistoric rock art.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Gupta inscriptions do not match the site's defining evidence, which is rock painting from the Mesolithic to historical period rather than Gupta-period epigraphy.
- (C) Mughal miniatures are a much later court-painting tradition, while Bhimbetka is identified with prehistoric rock paintings in natural shelters.
- (D) Buddhist scriptures are written religious texts, whereas Bhimbetka is known for painted rock-art scenes such as hunting, dances and animals.
Concept
This tests prehistoric art and archaeological evidence in Ancient Indian History. It recurs in RAS because Bhimbetka is a standard example for linking Mesolithic life, rock art and UNESCO heritage.