Petroglyphs Are Made in Western and Southern India

Neolithic art in the form of petroglyphs (rock carvings) is made in the coastal Konkan region of present-day Maharashtra, southwestern India, broadly between 10,000 BCE and 3000 BCE. Concentrated mostly in the present-day districts of Ratnagiri and Rajapur, these depict geometric patterns and basic human and animal forms, including large depictions of elephants, hippopotamuses and rhinoceroses. From roughly 3000 BCE to 1000 BCE petroglyphs are made further inland, in sites such as Kupgal, Maski and Piklihal in present-day northern Karnataka. These are, most frequently, images of the zebu or humped cattle (Bos taurus indicus); in Kupgal, the petroglyphs also depict anthropomorphic figures in sexual intercourse.