India is one of the three countries having the richest treasures of rock art in the world; other two are Australia and South Africa. A lot of developments have been made in Rock Art Discipline globally during the last twenty-five years, and India played a crucial role in this development, especially in the study of the Pleistocene art through the EIP Project. Hence, there was a strong need of a book which can give a comprehensive picture of Indian rock art in the light of the latest developments in rock art research in India.

The present book is an attempt to present Prehistoric Indian rock art with its irresistible beauty and glamour in the light of the latest developments in a scientific way. It presents an outline of how rock art research began and developed in this country. The facts presented and hypotheses proposed on the basis of available evidence can be checked and tested by future researches.

There is another important dimension to this issue, the protection and preservation of rock art, which has become such a major concern around the world. The efforts become more effective if the rock art scholars are able to take the support of the general mass. Hence, the book has been presented in such a way that it will not only be useful for rock art specialists but can also meet the general queries and aspirations of the enthusiasts and amateurs who want to know and visit the superbly rich and beautiful Indian rock art. It helps both of them: the specialist to appreciate the importance of public communication and to learn how to achieve it; and the layperson by making overly complex hypotheses and ideas readily accessible. It also highlights the mesmerising beauty of the rock art sites which are great attractions for the persons, especially the youth having adventurous spirit and creative mind.

About the Author

Professor Giriraj Kumar (b. 1953) is a leading Rock Art scientist, having a long experience of research in various fields of the rock art, prehistory and Indian culture since 1997. For him rock art is a medium to understand the truth of life. Prof. Kumar was honoured as the President of IFRAO from 2004 to 2006 and invited to share his research experiences by IFRAO, UNESCO and other international organisations. He has organised many national and international conferences on rock art and chaired several symposia in many countries. He is one of the members of the editorial board of the international refereed journal and founding editor of Purakala, the journal of Rock Art Society of India since 1990.

He has been the Indian Director of the high profile EIP Project (since 2000), a joint venture by Indo-Australian scientists to establish the antiquity of early Indian petroglyphs to Lower Palaeolithic. He along with Ram Krishna has carried out the extensive replication work, a form of scientific study, currently gaining prominence in several other countries as well. His work is the most advanced in the world, the only instance of international Indian leadership in the field of Rock Art Science. He has discovered many rock art sites, Stone Age, Chalcolithic and ostrich eggshell sites in Central India. He has 80 research papers published in different national and international journals to his credit.

Prof. Kumar, founding Secretary General of Rock Art Society of India (RASI), is presently (since 1985) serving as a Professor in the Faculty of Arts, Dayalbagh Educational Institute in Agra.