By Shobha Rao Smilemaker

Mar 27: There is something about untouched territory that keeps calling my soul...yes I like to travel before dawn and reach a new place along with the first sun rays of the morning. Just me and my local taxi driver rambling through a mud track in the middle of a dense forest. My office colleague refused to accompany me, because she felt safer with crowds, while I felt that being connected to mother nature at dawn is one of the safest feelings in the world.

We reached the ancient cave of Bikramkhol in Banjari village area. This rock shelter is just around 115 feet in length and 27 feet in height. I could imagine how tough life must have been at the beginning of human civilization! A natural crescent shaped rock shelter like this must have been the ideal place for humans to be protected from the wild animals of the jungle.

I saw some big holes in the ground, which was probably used by them to pound grains. I also saw many small circular holes dug in the wall from where they could have suspended things like weapons.

The board at the entrance was very informative. The inscribed pictographic writing in this sandstone rock shelter is supposed to be visible in a section of 35 feet by 7 feet and was discovered by an educated Sadhu called Swami Jnanananda. Later professionals like K.P Jayswal thoroughly examined the characters and propounded that the Vikramkhol cave writings belonged to period that was intermediary between the Mohenjodaro script and the Brahmi script, with some figures still retaining their original Brahmi forms!

Later researchers have shown that it is from the ancient Brahmi script that the Phoenician script and the European script were derived. According to Professor P.K. Behera of the department of history of Sambalpur University these inscriptions were said to be from the Mesolithic period, between 3000 BC and 4000 BC.
A close examination revealed the depiction of various geometric and weird characters like paintings of animals too. In this context, the yogimatha script, Indus Vally Scripts, Vikramkhol script and Brahmi script can be taken as a gradual development of the Indian script

The writings were first painted is red ochre, before being incised. This red colour is used in other pre-historic caves found in India.

Though Bikramkhol lacks basic facilities, it has been declared a tourist spot with helpful Google access through the forests. It is more of historians, researchers or epigraphists who come here, yet without a guide, it was very difficult for me to decipher the writings. I was appalled to see such a historical site being neglected in its upkeep. The inscriptions were fading out or damaged by vandals. Activities of coal mines and industries in surrounding hills, put environmental pressure on this prehistoric archaeological site.

We lost our way for sometime as we tried to come out of the dense forests on mud tracks! We finally reached the road where there were 2 seperate boards saying that we were at the Belpahar and the Sundergarh forest range! We visited the small Manikeswari Temple at Grindola. And I actually ate some tasty street food along with driver watching the nearby village children starting their day towards their school.

We all have come a long way since our forefathers wrote on the cave walls. I imagined with a smile how the different writing script that we take for granted today, must have evolved over the centuries!

Shobha Rao Smilemaker has a vision of living in a world where people use their ability to find and make smiles in any situation. She is a lawyer by qualification, a soft skills trainer by passion, a motivational speaker, a freelance journalist, a bestselling author, an avid traveler and founder of 'Smilemakers Trainings'. She can be contacted at www.shobhasmilemaker.com.