Prehistoric rock engravings on the laterite plateaus of the Konkan coast of western peninsular India, mostly in Maharashtra, the Konkan petroglyphs show human and animal figures and abstract motifs and are dated to the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. They are rare instances of geoglyphs — a type of petroglyph made on horizontal, open rock beds — in the Indian subcontinent, and form the only evidence of human life between the Paleolithic and early historical periods in the Konkan region. 

Sites 

The carvings usually referred to as the Konkan petroglyphs are those found in Maharashtra and Goa, based on their numbers and concentration. Over a thousand carvings have been reported across nearly fifty sites in Maharashtra alone, mostly in the southern districts of Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg; in Goa, Usgalimal (also known as Pansaimol) in the south is the most prolific. The sites of Kasheli, Rundhetali, Devachegothane, Devi Hasol, Barsu, Jambharun, Ukshi, Kudopi, Deood, Pomendi, and Usgalimal — most of which are mentioned in India’s Tentative List for the UNESCO World Heritage status — are prominent for the size, motifs, artistic distinction, and relatively well-preserved state of their carvings. Laterite beds further south on the Konkan coast in Karnataka, and even beyond, in coastal Kerala, also host very similar petroglyphs. 

Discovery and documentation

The carvings are usually found in clusters on the largely unoccupied plateaus — known in Marathi and Konkani as sada — some distance from the closest village. Many key sites have long been known to villagers who lived near them, but only came to the attention of outsiders and scholars from the 1990s on. Others were previously completely unknown, buried under soil and rocks for millennia. The first site that came to the attention of archaeologists was Nivli Phata in Ratnagiri district, Maharashtra, which was accidentally uncovered in 1990 while a road was being widened. Following this discovery, various individuals and groups, including scholars from Pune’s Deccan College, independent historians, and enthusiasts, undertook village-to-village surveys in other parts of Ratnagiri and neighbouring districts to locate and document more petroglyph sites. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, their findings were reported in various Marathi publications. Since 2017, the Maharashtra Directorate of Archaeology and Museums has allocated resources to further document and preserve petroglyph sites in the state.

The petroglyph site in Usgalimal, Goa became known to scholars in 1993 when a team led by Indologist and archaeologist PP Shirodkar was led to the location by inhabitants of the nearby village. In the Udupi district of Karnataka, petroglyphs were first discovered in the 1970s by historian and archaeologist Gururaja Bhat, followed by several explorations in Udupi and the Uttara Kannada district that are still ongoing. Petroglyphs have also been documented in the Kannur and Kasaragod districts of Kerala. 

General features and technique

The petroglyphs vary considerably in their condition, size and complexity across and within sites. They generally show various arrangements of human and animal figures — life-size or larger — and complex abstract compositions; typically discrete pictograms that do not form any recognisable narrative. However, they all suggest a deliberate iconographic layout and artistic skill. At several sites, the arrangement of the figures aligns with the north–south or east–west axes; at the Devachegothane site, an observer standing at the feet of a life-size human carving casts a shadow that aligns exactly with the figure at dusk.

The laterite rock on which these carvings are made is dark on the surface but lighter underneath; accordingly, some of the carved figures are simply light-coloured outlines on the dark rock, while others are more complex arrangements of negative and positive spaces (light and dark shapes) made by abrading wider bands or areas of the rock. The engraving is usually not more than 5 centimetres deep and 3 to 4 centimetres wide, though at some sites it reaches up to 10 centimetres deep. At some sites this appears to have been done using hard stone tools, while at others, metal tools may have been used — possibly suggesting a chronological progression from the Mesolithic to later periods. 

Prominent petroglyphs

Kasheli hosts some of the largest and most numerous rock engravings in India. Among the 126 engravings here is an elephant measuring 13 x 18 metres, with 82 smaller animals carved within and around its outline, including sharks, stingrays, tigers, monkeys, boars, rhinoceroses and peacocks, and various unidentified life forms. The composition has been noted for its exceptional complexity in the broader context of prehistoric Indian rock engravings. As is the case in most Konkan petroglyphs, the animals are rendered simply but quite naturalistically and depicted side-on — for example, with only two of the four legs visible — though both ears are shown and sometimes exaggerated.  

The nearby site of Barsu is also noteworthy for its dense cluster of over 60 engravings. One symmetrical, semi-abstract petroglyph shows a 4 metre tall man flanked by two even larger tigers; some scholars have compared this composition to Harappan seals that show a man between two leaping tigers, holding them by the throats. The forms are largely rectilinear, with the tigers and the man’s upper body rendered in geometric patterns; the man’s hips and legs are curved and relatively naturalistic. Surrounding this scene are carvings of rabbits, fish and peacocks. Other glyphs at Barsu echo the same theme: one simpler composition shows a human figure holding two unidentified animals by the legs on each side of him; another shows a person surrounded by fish of varying sizes, holding what is likely another fish above their head, with curved lines outlining and joining the human and fish figures. Similar compositions of a person with animals also appear at the site at Chave Dewood in Maharashtra and Ariyittapara in Kerala. In Kollur, Karnataka, a set of petroglyphs depict groups of humans hunting boar, deer, and other animals.

Petroglyphs at other sites such as Rundhetali and Devi Hasol are more abstract. The largest carving at Rundhetali is a roughly symmetrical design measuring several metres across. Concentric, roughly circular bands with four lobes and crenellation patterns towards the outside enclose a rectangular motif in the centre that suggests a standing human figure with a square head and open legs. At the periphery there are outline carvings of a jellyfish, fish, and an animal resembling a tiger, and a pair of human legs, broadly abraded in low relief. At Devi Hasol the largest glyph, about 8 metres across, is a square composition whose corners resemble the lobes of the Rundhetali glyph, enclosing multiple smaller shapes made of jagged and curved lines that some scholars have interpreted as snakes. The lines are densely packed to form an intricate and not entirely symmetrical composition. There is a large hole in the centre and three each to the east and west — these are thought to be post holes, perhaps used for erecting tents. 

Rare types of Konkan petroglyphs include the plain, concentric circles at Usgalimal in Goa — interpreted sometimes as a labyrinth or spiral — seen alongside cup marks, grinding grooves and the more common animal figures of deer and peacocks. Notably, a carving of a pair of humped bulls is seen here, as well as in nearby Kudopi, just across the Maharashtra border, and in Karnataka and Kerala; the motif does not appear at sites further north in Maharashtra. Cup marks and spirals are also prominent in the petroglyphs at Avalakki Pare and Buddhana Jeddu in Karnataka. These sites also host deep cupules and grooves arranged in parallel lines, an arrangement that was likely used to play chennemane or alagulimane, a strategic board game still popular in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu today. Kudopi also hosts a rare cluster of carvings — some show human figures possibly arranged in some kind of narrative panel, as well as a script-like carving which has been interpreted as an early form of writing or a mark of the artist.

Significance and implications

The Konkan petroglyphs are a rare type of Indian rock art — most prehistoric rock carvings in the country are on vertical, sheltered surfaces, such as cave walls or boulders, but these petroglyphs are found on large, open-air flat rock beds. They are also the only evidence of prehistoric life in the region between the Paleolithic and early historical periods, proving a continuity of human occupation during this interval of over 20,000 years. The location of the petroglyph sites close to water bodies and the absence of images of domesticated animals, horse riders, metal weapons or any agricultural scenes suggests pre-pastoral communities that relied on hunting, fishing and foraging for sustenance. At a few sites, stone tools and microliths have been found near the petroglyphs, proving that these communities lived nearby. The petroglyphs also provide insight into the ecological history of the region; the carvings of several animals long extinct in the Konkan, such as the rhinoceros and hippopotamus, show first-hand familiarity with these creatures. A large petroglyph of a one-horned rhinoceros at Dewood, for example, is rendered with naturalistic folds in its skin, a correctly proportioned horn and accurately shaped ears. 

The petroglyphs also likely had some sort of ritual or religious significance; many of them still do today. Communities indigenous to the region consider the glyphs their ancestral inheritance and honour them as such. Anthropomorphic figures are often referred to by local communities as gaonrakha (village guardian) and are used as boundary markers; at Pomendi, an arc of five human figures is referred to as panch pandav (five Pandavas), a reference to the five brothers of the Mahabharata. Carvings of footprints at various sites may have been associated with ancestor worship. At other sites, animal sacrifices are offered to the carved figures during ritual observances or festivals; the bull carvings of Kerala and the southern Konkan sites may be suggestive of the importance of the animal in sacrificial rites. Though many of these anthropomorphs appear without any clearly marked sex, several are identifiably mother-goddess figures, resembling other such depictions from prehistory and antiquity — for example, at Chave in Ratnagiri, a petroglyph depicts a squatting figure with a bulging belly, outspread arms, and a deeply gouged hole between the legs. At the Kollur site, a female figure with cup marks near the head and belly has also been interpreted as a sacred symbol. The abstract glyph at Devi Hasol is considered sacred and is part of ritual worship at the local temple for the goddess Aryadurga.

Conservation

Community involvement has been crucial in the effort to preserve the Konkan petroglyphs, though the involvement of laypeople has also led to the loss of archaeological data as they inadvertently clear off layers of soil that may have held undisturbed material evidence of prehistoric cultures. Most petroglyphs have been found on private but unmonitored land, but authorities have avoided directly acquiring the land, instead encouraging landowners to take on the responsibility of monitoring the sites and making them accessible to visitors, with governmental assistance. Community organisations and archaeologists have also collaborated with gram panchayats, or village councils, on awareness campaigns to inform people on how to identify, document and protect petroglyph sites. Key contributions towards the preservation of found sites have been made by the Nisarga Yatri Sanstha, a nonprofit founded in the 2010s by Sudhir Risbud, an electrical engineer and ornithologist from Ratnagiri; their work has been crucial to the preservation of some 70 sites and the discovery of hundreds of glyphs. The organisation also collaborates with the Ratnagiri-based Konkan Geoglyphs and Heritage Research Centre, founded in 2023 with government support to aid further research and documentation.

While some sites have been cordoned off with a perimeter wall with the support of local residents, most of the Konkan petroglyphs are unprotected and have faced threats from vandalism and laterite mining. At several sites, illegal quarrying operations have been carried out very close by, posing a threat not only to known sites but also potentially to undiscovered sites in the surrounding forests and hills. In 2024, archaeologists and residents in Ratnagiri objected to a proposed oil refinery in Barsu — expected to be the world’s largest —  which would destroy petroglyphs in the area. 

In 2023, several Konkan petroglyph sites were included on the UNESCO Tentative List of World Heritage Sites. In 2024, the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Maharashtra designated the Ratnagiri petroglyphs Protected Monuments under the Maharashtra Ancient Monuments and Sites and Remains Act, 1960.