Bhanpura

Bhanpura (भानपुरा) is a town in Mandsaur district in Madhya Pradesh. It is 127 km from Mandsaur in north-east direction. The Bhanpura town is south of other historically important places Hinglajgarh and Navali in Mandsaur district. It has a museum depicting the popular arts of Mandsaur. Illustrated oil paintings are also found around Bhanpura. At the museum, art from the Gupta era (4th-5th century) to the time of Pratiharas and Parmaras is depicted, and well-sculpted portraits of Uma-Maheshwar, Kartikeya, Vishnu, Gavoi and Nandi are displayed.

Geography

Bhanpura is located at 24°31′N 75°44′E / 24.52°N 75.73°E / 24.52; 75.73. It has an average elevation of 384 metres (1259 feet). As of 2001 India census, Bhanpura had a population of 16,493. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Bhanpura has an average literacy rate of 70%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; with male literacy of 80% and female literacy of 61%. 13% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Origin

Bhanpura (भानपुरा) gets its name from king named Bhaman (भामन). Usha Agarwal writes that this place has been recorded as Bhamanpur (भामनपुर) in one of inscriptions. Bhamanpur later changed to Bhanpura.Bhaman (भामन) is gotra of Jats found in Punjab.

History

Maharaja Yashwantrao Holkar was a strong nationalist and decided to fight with the British single-handedly to drive them out of India. He decided to stay in Bhanpura, to gather a large army, and to manufacture cannons to defeat the British. He was successful to keep the British out of his state but he wanted them out of India. He knew that was impossible without sufficient cannons. He built a factory to manufacture cannons in Bhanpura. He worked day and night and manufactured 200 cannons. He gathered an army of 1 lakh soldiers to attack Culcutta. The stress of the work and the deaths of his nephew Khanderao Holkar (II) on 3rd February 1806 at Shahapura and Kashirao Holkar in 1808 at Bijagad lead to a brain stoke due to which he suddenly died at Bhanpura (Mandsaur, M.P.) on 28 October 1811 (Kartiki Ekadashi) at a young age of 35 years.

A chhatri was constructed on the site of death of Maharaja Yashwantrao Holkar in Bhanpura. The work on Chatri began in 1814 and was completed in 1841. This chhatri houses a marble statue of Maharaja Yashwantrao Holkar. The traces and ruins of factory to manufacture cannons can still be seen in villages Navali and Indragarh near Bhanpura.

Daraki-Chattan Cave survey Bhanpura

Archeological Survey of India took up Daraki-Chattan region as a case for the study of early petroglyphs in India. Daraki-Chattanâ “a rock shelter within the Vindhyan mountains overviewing River Rewaâ” is situated near Bhanpura in district Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh. Daraki-Chattan reveals the hoary past of the extensive rock art in this cave beyond doubt. Excavation at Daraki-Chattan was carried out by Dr Giriraj Kumar (Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra) with technical support from the Archaeological Survey of India (Bhopal Circle). The excavation at Daraki-Chattan revealed immense information on the cultural occupation of the site. The collection of stone artifact assemblage from the excavation undoubtedly reveals that the shelter was occupied by the Acheulian man. Interestingly enough, Bhanpura town, close to the Daraki-Chattan site, and its adjoining area have been continuously under occupation by man of different cultural periods since the Acheulian times. Daraki-Chattan is a local name of a hill near village Bhanpura in the Vindhyans that has a series of rock shelters.

Bhanpura Rock art

Rock painting Bhanpur

In January 2007, the Rock Arts Society of India (RASI) stated that the "longest chain of rock arts in the world" was situated at a site 35 km from Bhanpura. The earliest carvings in the chain are mostly of animals.

The 12-km-long site, with most of its petroglyphs or pre-historic rock carvings intact, has been discovered in Mandsaur district of Malwa region, which is also home to Bhimbetka, the UNESCO world heritage site, 45 km south of Bhopal.

The Rock Arts Society of India (RASI), which knew about the existence of the site for sometime, has now gone official saying the site in the Vindhyan tableland, a plateau lying north of the central part of the Vindhya range, is indeed the "longest chain of rock arts in the world".

"Nowhere in the world has anybody come across such an extensive chain of rock arts with little interruption. What's exciting is most petroglyphs are intact," internationally acclaimed paleontologist and former RASI secretary G L Badam told TOI.

The site is situated inside dense forests, 35 km from Bhanpura town, about 350 km from Bhopal. Earliest carvings in the chain are mostly of animals like rhino, nilgai , bear, panther, elephant, monkey, turtle and crocodile. But there are also pictures of cow, bull, buffalo, pig and horse.

Experts have called the discovery of the Bhanpura rock arts as "an important milestone in the history of anthropology". "The presence of a variety of rituals, processions and fighting scenes goes to prove the continuity of the art and early man's culmination into community living," said Badam.

RASI officials have already pitched for National Park status to the Vindhyan rock-shelters.

Chaturbhujnath Nala Rock Art Shelters

Chaturbhujnath Nala Rock Art Shelters is the the Longest Rock Art Gallery situated in Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary. From the Forest Rest House at Gandhi Sagar Dam as we move about 15 kilometres on metalled roads and some 30 km from Bhanpura the nearest city, a faded sign tells the traveller the rock shelters are 6.5 kilometers to the left.

The Chatrubhujnath Nala forms a pool of water walled in on either side by two long lines of rock shelters. A few trees stand on the edge of the Nala. When we reach the Chatrubhujnath Nala Rock Shelters, we find that the entire Bhanpura region is rich in rock art sites, most of them rock painting sites.

The rock shelters of Chaturbhujnath Nala are quite different from the rock caves of Bhimbaithka. Here one can barely stand straight before the paintings. One has to bend low, crawl on all fours and at times even lie on one’s stomach to get a proper view of the drawings.

The surface of the paintings is uneven in colour and texture. The colour of the paintings, which is mostly red comes in varying shades: some bright, others a faded maroon. the subjects, there are human beings and plenty of animals. One can identify the wild elephants, bisons, tigers, leopards, monkeys, snakes, different species of birds, rhinos, beer, water animals, foxes, cows, bullocks as well as the camels.The familiar sight of a camel caravan in the deserts of Rajasthan are right their on the walls of Chaturbhujnath Nala rock shelters. The people, usually men, are sometmes stick figures, at others two triangles linked by straight lines, with clothes and without. There are only outlines of human beings as well as solid figures. These paintings made thousands and thousands of years before the Christian era are speedy, tell stories and have drama in them. There are events from their daily lives together with exotic geometric patterns. Most of the paintings are in shades of red, although one does see the occasional yellow and white.

It is here in Chatrbhujnath Nala that we have clear evidence that domestication of cattle started with humpless wild cattles; archaeological evidence indicates perhaps around 6000 to 5000 BCE. One of the shelters they had found a picture of a wild horse being hunted by men, this was the first of its kind in the history of Indian rock art.

The Chaturbhujnath Nala Rock Art Gallery was discovered by Ramesh Pancholi and is maintained by the state's Forest Department. It is being quite well looked after by the Archaeological Survey of India, Bhopal Circle.

External links

• Bhanpura on Google satellite map
• Daraki-Chattan Cave, Madhya Pradesh, Indragarh Hill, Tehsil Bhanpura, district Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh
• Blog on Madhya Pradesh Untold by S. Urmila Majumdar

References

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