Painted Shelters of Cavemen at Lakhudiyar, Almora

After crossing Almora town and driving for approx. 16 km. towards Jageshwar, we came across a signboard of Archaeological Survey of India saying painted cave shelters at Lakhudiyar.

None of the passing vehicles were stopping at this point, however putting aside our hesitation, we decided to move ahead and explore this point.

Situated on the Almora-Barechhina road, along the banks of river Suyal, we were just about to check into the secrets of the Stone Age. It is believed that early man or cave men during the stone age used to dwell inside these cave shelters to protect themselves from animals and weather.

While staying here the cave dwellers have expressed themselves by form of artistic portraits on the walls and roofs of the caves. With colours like white, red and black they have depicted their daily life activities like hunting. Red colour is still very distinctly visible, need to appreciate the composition of these colours which have withstood since stone age.

The main subjects which figure prominently in these paintings are human figures, animals, and trees. Going closer we can make out that Deer, fox and lizards are appearing as animal paintings and human resembling figures are like dancing in a row. Paintings are at a height of 3.75 metres. In one group 34 human forms can be identified while in the other group there are 24.

Lakhudiyar means “One Lakh Caves” and has been acknowledged as the best in terms of illustrated scenes and activities of the primitive men in this region. Such cave shelters are also found in some other locations of Uttarakhand and measure up to such paintings found in other parts of the world.

Spending around 15-20 minutes here visualising the times and lives of early men, we continued our voyage to Jageshwar Dham…