The Glimpses of Life in the Pre-Historic Rock Paintings of Kerala

It is an established fact that pre-historic or old Stone Age people were continuously looking in search of food and habitation sites. Kerala too is not an exception as far as prehistoric sites are related. It is a geographically isolated site which is guarded by Western Ghats and several perennial rivers that provided a conducive environment for prehistoric human beings to survive and flourish. The notion regarding the antiquity of the Kerala pre-historic life was limited till last few decades. But subsequently new studies have revealed a lot of evidences regarding the lives of pre-historic men. It gives wide evidences that starts from lower Palaeolithic and goes beyond Neolithic to Iron Age. Therefore, this article focuses on the life of the pre-historic people and their ways to survive in challenging geographical terrain of Kerala with special references to the sites of the Western Ghats. This is an attempt to show that there are evidences of cultural continuity and wider habitation in pre historic Kerala. The sites are found all over spread in this region as contrast to previous notion of “cultural isolation”