Rock paintings- Sethavarai

HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDS :

Settavari is a small village, which is about 15 km west of Kilvalai near Vettavalam in Villupuram District. The paintings are drawn on the rock surface of natural cavern of Ayyanar hill of Settavari.

In this painting,  the drawings of animals are prominent; especially a deer and a fish are depicted in big size. The outlines for these two figures are drawn in red ochre while the inner portion is painted white. The figure of buffalo is drawn completely in red. The form of another buffalo is drawn in thick ochre while the back half is painted showing the bones and other inner organs. There are also figures of a tiger.

One significant scene is found in front of the deer. A small amount of flesh is found fried in the fire with the help of long pole. This scene confirms that the authors of these painting were well aware of eating fried flesh and fish.

Only one human figure is found in this large scene of animals. His nose is also in the same style of the Kilvalai man. But he is found without a dagger. On the basis of the execution of the painting and the style of the figures one can easily assign a date earlier than the Kilvalai paintings i.e., around 1500 BCE.