First rock art evidence in Mangalore City
Mangaluru: The rock art refers to both paintings and petroglyphs. They were unquestionable cognitive evidence of illiterate societies. A pair of human footprints were found on a natural stone boulder near Bolura Panne Koteda Babbu Swamy Shrine. The footprints were about one foot in length and half an inch in depth. The people strongly believed that they were the sacred footprints of Babbu Swamy, says Prof Murugeshi T. Associate professor (Rtd), Ancient History and Archaeology, MSRS College, Shirva in his press release here today.
Buddhanajeddu is a very important rock art site in Coastal Karnataka, which was discovered by me in 2009. On this site, more than twenty footprints were discovered. But, they were about half foot and less than half a foot in length and also belonged to the first or second century A.D. Moreover, Buddhanajeddu footprints were created on the laterite surface, whereas in Mangalore, they were found on a stone boulder. In Buddhanajeddu we have pottery evidence and stone tools of the Neolithic period. However, the site under study has no relative evidence. Bolura footprints might have been created in the first or second century A.D., which makes us rethink the origin of the Babbu Swamy legend.
Archaeology of Babbu Swamy was launched very recently in association with Minchinabavi Kordabbu Trust (R), Padubidri. As a part of this project, we visited the site of Bolura. My sincere thanks to the trust president Vamana Salian, Trustee Ramesh U, G. Sunder Gujjarabettu, B.P. Narayana Nejar, Anand Elluru, and All members of Koteda Babbu Swamy temple of Bolura.
