The Hindu
Udupi, Dec 6: Lecturer in the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology at Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty College, Shirva, T. Murgeshi and his team have found unique rock engravings at Buddhana Jeddu near Neralakatte in Kundapur taluk of Udupi district.
A press release issued by Mr. Murgeshi here on Thursday said that in the course of exploration at Buddhana Jeddu near Karkunje village for tracing Buddhist remains, he and his team noticed a few engravings at Bhimana Paare. Bhimana Paare, a grazing area of Buddhana Jeddu, is located in a reserve forest.
Three expeditions
The engravings were partially exposed because of erosion of the overlaying deposit. The team conducted three expeditions in three different seasons in the last few months and found more than 10 engravings.
The engravings are of three animals (cattle), three human figures, an embryo, abstract geometrical designs, cup marks and footprints.
Mr. Murgeshi said he had informed professor at the Pondicherry University Rajan and retired professor and well-known historian of the State A. Sundara about the engravings.
Dr. Rajan had identified them as petroglyphs after seeing the first set of pictures.
Dr. Sundara found them to be “important” and “comparatively significant”, the release said.
The geometrical design comprising spirals of a particular pattern was the most attention grabbing and, perhaps, unique.
It was comparable to a similar design of the Mesolithic period from Russia, he added.
First of its kind
Mr. Murgeshi said the Buddhana Jeddu rock art site was the first of its kind in Karnataka where engravings were found on surface-level stone. He termed the discovery of the site “very significant and unique”.
Mr. Murgeshi’s team included lecturer in history at Milagres College, Kallianpur, Prashanth Shetty; research scholar at Rashtrakavi Govinda Pai Samshodhana Kendra, Udupi, Jayarama Shettigar; field explorer of Kamala Bai High School, Udupi, Sridhar Bhat; and artists of Kalamandir College of Art, Udupi, Raghavendra Amin and Naveen.
The team was supported by a local resident Nagesh Poojary, Karkunje Gram Panchayat member Manjunath Poojary and forest guard of the area Shekar Poojary, the release added.