The prehistoric concentric circles and other rock art of Sopore in Kashmir.

by Abhishek Mishra

THE CONCENTRIC CIRCLES AND OTHER ROCK ART OF SOPORE. KASHMIR

In a visit to a village called Bomai in Sopore tentatively 60 kms from Srinagar in Kashmir I suddenly came across this mysterious panel of petroglyphs. The panel made of volcanic rock measured about 1 x 1 meter. The engraved rock art comprises of a few human and animal figures but what fascinated me most were the five concentric circles of varied sizes.

Three circles of which the middle one is of a larger size can be seen to have been sculpted in a linear fashion in an alignment. The two circles on it either side are of different sizes and so are their distances. Two other concentric circles of varied sizes are placed a little further left and are in an alignment too with the largest circle of the middle.

The Concentric Circles

Various interpretations of the concentric circles have originated from different scholars. One opinion is that these art form are probably depicting meteorites crashing on to the earth at some prehistoric times of which the prehistoric humanity were witness to which they had later sculpted on the stone. The three lakes of Kashmir such as the Dal, Manasbal and Wular believed to have been created by meteorite collision too are in a straight line. According to them the petroglyphs of the circles probable evince the same meteorite crash that created these lakes.

However one can also see that the three linear concentric circles may represent the Orion also.

Human and animal engravings

Whatever be it the meaning of such circles are yet to be deciphered. Whether the human and the animal art forms were create at the same time as that of the concentric circles or were they done at some different period by different people one really does not know.