The Bhimbetka rock shelters are an archaeological World Heritage site located in Raisen District in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The Bhimbetka shelters exhibit the earliest traces of human life in India; a number of analyses suggest that at least some of these shelters were inhabited by man for in excess of 100,000 years. Some of the Stone Age rock paintings found among the Bhimbetka rock shelters are approximately 30,000 years old.
The name Bhimbetka is associated with Bhima, a hero-deity renowned for his immense strength, from the epic Mahabharata.[4] The word Bhimbetka is said to derive from Bhimbaithka, meaning �sitting place of Bhima�.
Bhimbetka was first mentioned in Indian archeological records in 1888 as a Buddhist site, based on information gathered from local adivasis. Later, as V. S. Wakankar was traveling by train to Bhopal he saw some rock formations similar to those he had seen in Spain and France. He visited the area along with a team of archaeologists and discovered several prehistoric rock shelters in 1957. There have been found also the oldest known petroglyphs of the world in 1990 – 1991 – 10 cupules and meandering line which could be up to 150,000 years old.
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