CHIEFTAIN SHELTER

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 25/03/2016

A very shallow and fenced-in rock shelter that contains rock art (cave paintings) depicting a battle scene with two chieftains on horses (PACHMARHI GUIDE MAP 1996). SITUATION: On the track to –>Bania Beri (KUSCH 1996: 16) and on the northern side of Marodeo Pahar, a hill north-west of –>Pachmarhi. The »Chieftain's Cave« (GHATE, R circa 2000 s.a.) is perhaps the only shelter to reach which requires no climbing. It is reached by a path turning off the old Piparya road about half a kilometre beyond Amba Mai Temple. A jeep can go along this track for about 1 km. At this point one should leave the track, »bear right, and make for a small conical hill. One shelter, the paintings of which are practically obliterated, is at the base of a twelve metre rock near the top of the hill (on the north east side). The Chieftain's Cave, with a mass of well preserved paintings, is a short distance round the hill beyond the first« (GHATE, R circa 2000 s.a.). ROCK ART: Chieftain Shelter got »its name from a battle scene with a welter of soldiers and weapons and two opposing 'chieftains' mounted on caparisoned horses. On the right is an interesting picture of two women and a child sitting in a hut hung with pots and bows and a quiver of arrows« (GHATE, R circa 2000 s.a.).