ANANTAPUR: Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is in the process of recognising primitive rock drawings in Chintakunta hillock region of Kadapa district as a national treasure.
Revealing this, historian Dr. Jasti Veeranjaneyulu said he had recently written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about recognising Chintakunta in Kadapa district and Gotti Brolu in Potti Sriramulu Nellore district as national heritage sites. He said the Prime Minister’s Office responded saying the matter has been referred to the Union Ministry of Culture for a thorough examination.
The matter is currently with the Director General of the ASI.
Dr. Veeranjaneyulu explained that the primitive rock drawings are located in Chintakunta village of Muddanur mandal in Kadapa district. Chintakunta got recognition as the first large and prominent Mesolithic (8000–1500 BC) line painting site in South India in 1981.
These line paintings had first been described in detail by an Austrian named Erwin Neumayer in 1993 in his book “Lines on Stone – The Prehistoric Rock Art of India.”
Historian Veeranjaneyulu quoted Erwin as saying that the first prehistoric rock paintings in India had been discovered as early as 1867–68. Thereafter, a complex of rock painting sites had been discovered in “Bhimbhetka” in Madhya Pradesh in 1957.
