In 2011 when I was planning my Hampi trip itinerary, I had read Anu Shankar's excellent blog about her visit to Hampi. It was here that I was introduced to Prehistoric cave paintings at Anegundi dating 3000 to 5000 yrs called Onake Kindi. During that trip when we hired a car for exploring Anegundi , the driver cum guide initially denied knowing this place. On my persistence he had "remembered" this place and took us there. After that trip the hard drive of my laptop crashed and I lost all the photographs of that trip .
So in December 2016 I got another oppurtunity to visit Hampi as a 3 day trip. As I was wondering how to locate Onake Kindi, I happened to visit the ASI office near Zenana Enclosure in Hampi. I was here searching for a book on Alexander Greenlaw's 1856 photographs of Hampi. This book which was being sold at almost all outlets at Hampi in 2011, was hard to find now
Luckily this ASI office had the book and during the conversation, I mentioned to the incharge officer that we wanted to visit Anegundi the next day in search of Onake Kindi. He didnt know its whereabouts but suggested that we take a govt bus from hampi to reach Talwar Ghatta and cross the Tungabhadra river by boat to reach Anegundi which would save time and money. Travelling to Anegundi by road would take around 35 km and autodrivers demand around a 1000 rs for a day trip to Anegundi.
I found the geolocation of onake kindi in a blog (15°22'09.8"N 76°28'35.2"E)
So armed with google maps, on 28.12.16 Dad and me boarded the local bus at Hospet bus stand at
8 am with Talwar Ghatta as the last stop. This bus plies to this destination every 2 hours. Ticket costs around Rs. 20 per person. At Talwar Ghatta a motor boat took us across the river onto the other bank which was just 2 minutes away. Ride cost Rs. 10 per person.
At Anegundi we bargained with Pasha the auto driver to take us to Onake Kindi and Anegundi fort. Luckily he knew where it was . From the main road we have to walk through a farm land and arrive at a locked gate ( since it is a private property).The person in charge is generally available here and has the key. On this occasion he had to go back home to get the key and we had to wait for a while. Meanwhile a family from Mumbai were brought here by guide Shivanand. He was surprised to see us since this place is not well known. He went back to get the key from the incharge person and returned in 15 minutes.
There are paintings in 2 caves which are on opposite sides of the area. These are dated to be around 5000 years old.
CAVE 1:
Leopards are known to live in these caves. Caution is warranted .
CAVE 2:
These paintings denote the daily life of our ancestors. showing horses, bulls, snakes, dogs and hunting. The above painting intrigues me. The animals look different from what we have around us today. Was it due to lack of skill of the painter or did the animals actually look different back then? 5000 years is a long time after all.
Another aspect to the question is this. Was our civilisation primitive 5000 years ago or was it advanced as our epics say? Mahabharata war has been estimated to have happened in 3107 BCE, roughly around this time. Does that mean these paintings are even older? Leaves a lot of unanswered questions.
The paintings look faded since the last time i visited them 5 years ago. With no conservation in place since this is a private property, these paintings may soon fade out.
After we came back to the auto, Pasha showed us 2 more paintings located on the hills near the road.
Anegundi also has megalithic burial sites at Hirebenakal and Moreyara Mane at Elu Guddada Saalu. Its next on my list of places to visit.
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