Titled "Art for Art's Sake, Memory Store or Early Historic Sense: An Introduction to the Rock Art of the Eastern Vindhyan Fringe", this talk walks us through the earliest reports of rock art in this area, the current research findings on the distribution and antiquity of the art as well as the narratives and designs that were depicted in them
About the Speaker:
Prof. Ajay Pratap took his B.A (Hons.) in History from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, an M.A. in Ancient Indian History and Archaeology, from the Deccan College, Pune University, and an MPhil and PhD from the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge.
Since 2004, he has taught Ancient Indian History, Tribal History of India, History of Ancient Science, Technology and Medicine, and Research Methodology, at the Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences, Banaras Hindu University.
He has conducted two research projects, and authored several research papers, four books, and two edited volumes. His monographs include “The Hoe and the Axe: Ethnohistory of Shifting Cultivation in Eastern India” in the year 2000 published by Oxford University Press, Delhi, “Indigenous Archaeology in India: Prospects for an Archaeology of the Subaltern”, “Rock Art of the Vindhyas. An Archaeological Survey” and "Ideas and Images: A Historical Interpretation of Eastern Vindhyan Rock Art, India” all published by Archaeopress, Oxford.
He has carried out field explorations in the Rajmahal Hills (1981-84), and the Eastern Vindhyas (2009-2024), to document shifting cultivation, and rock art, respectively.
