INTERPRETING THE

LABYRINTH
PETROGLYPH OF GOA
BY
Dr. NANDKUMAR KAMAT
GOA UNIVERSITY

Paper presented at the local history seminar, Dir of Archives and

Archaeology, Govt of Goa and Dept of History, GU, 2005
ASIAN ROCK ART STUDIES
ARE RELATIVELY NEW AS
COMPARED TO THE REST
OF THE WORLD AND THE
PETROGLYPHS
POLYMORPHY IN VARIOUS
REGIONS HAVE
TREMENDOUS
SIMILARITY
THE ROCK ART OF GOA IS AN
INTEGRAL PART OF THE
RICH INDIAN ROCK ART
TRADITIONS. THE GOAN
ROCK ART SITES ALWAYS
EXISTED BUT WERE (RE)
DISCOVERED IN 1993….WITH
PANASAIMOL SITE….TO
BEGIN WITH….>>>>>>>
 THE GOA LABYRINTH
PETROGLYPH WAS PARTLY
BURIED UNDER A SEDIMENT
DEPOSIT OF THOUSANDS OF
YEARS
 THE FULL VIEW OF
LABYRINTH SHOWING THE
THREE CENTRAL CUPULES
OR OCULAR FORMS
 LABYRINTHS ARE GLOBAL
• “Throughout the world there exists a symbol - a
series of concentric lines, carefully connected.
This symbol and its family of derivatives has been
traced back over 3500 years; it occurs in different
cultures, at different points in time, in places as
diverse as Peru, Arizona, Iceland, Scandinavia,
Crete, Egypt, India and Sumatra. The lines of
contact between these widely spaced bursts of
labyrinth consciousness are difficult to trace, its
origins remain mysterious. “(SAWARD, 2003)
HUNDREDS OF LABYRINTH
FORMS HAVE BEEN FOUND
IN THE WORLD ACROSS
CONTINENTS AND
CULTURES
 THE LABYRINTH
ENCLOSES SPACE
USING A LINE WHICH
CREATES A PATH
ENDING AT THE
CENTRE FROM A
SINGLE ENTRANCE
POINT
 THE GOAN LABYRINTH
FORM SHOWS A BROAD
TYPOLOGICAL HOMOLOGY
WITH THE NEATLY ETCHED
CRETAN COIN
 IMAGE ANALYSIS OF
LABYRINTH PETROGLYPH
OF GOA WITH THE FORM
FOUND ON CREATAN COIN
WAS PERFORMED USING
SCION IMAGE
PROCESSING SOFTWARE
 SURFACE PLOT GIVES
SURFACE CONTOURS,
SMOOTHNESS OF THE LINE
& ITS’ DEPTH-A POLISHED
FORM LIKE A COIN WOULD
GIVE A SYMMETRICAL
PATTERN
 SURFACE PLOT OF A
LABYRINTH ON MEDIUM
LIKE A ROCK WOULD
PRODUCE SOME
ROUGHNESS BUT WOULD
ALSO SHOW DEPTH OF
LINE AND HEIGHT OF
RIDGES
 A COLLAGE OF PROCESSED
IMAGES OF GOAN LABYRINTH
AND THE CRETAN FORM SHOWS A
DEGREE OF HOMOLOGY
INDICATING A HIDDEN STYLISTIC
CONNECTION, PROBABLY OF
MEDITERANEAN ORIGIN
(THESE ARE ONLY PRELIMINARY RESULTS)
 UNDERSTANDING THE
ORIGIN OF LABYRINTH
• J.D. Lewis-Williams and T.A. Dowson
(1988) in their article 'The Signs of All
Times' propose a neurobridge backwards
in time to the Upper Palaeolithic by
which we can gain insight into the nature
of the origins of art.
 LABYRINTH IS AN
ENTOPTIC FORM PROBABLY
CREATED UNDER A
SHAMANISTIC TRANCE
STATE OR LATER
 THE LABYRINTH IS A
VISION!
• In the signs of Upper Palaeolithic art Lewis-
Williams and Dowson see entoptic phenomena
very similar to those produced by people in altered
states of consciousness today. 'Entoptic' is derived
from the Greek for 'within vision', that is,
anywhere within the optic system between and
including the eye itself and the cortex where
signals from the optic nerve are interpreted
(Lewis-Williams and Dowson, 1988).
 WHAT ARE ENTOPTIC
PATTERNS?
• Entoptics are geometric patterns whose
origins are in the nervous system itself,
whereas hallucinations are iconic and
culturally determined and may be
experienced in all senses (aural, visual,
tactile, olfactory and synesthetic) not just
the visual.
 THE SIX ENTOPTIC FORMS
• The six entoptic forms which Lewis-
Williams and Dowson (1988) see in
common with Upper Palaeolithic art and
contemporary research into drug induced
visions are the grid, parallel lines, dots,
zigzag lines, nested catenary curves, and
filigrees (thin meandering lines
 HOW THESE FORMS
MANIFEST?
• These basic forms manifest according to six principles:
• replication , that is, the entoptic itself ,
• fragmentation , or broken down, (example: a ladder like
form is a fragment of a grid );
• integration , where two or more forms combine (example:
a zigzag grid);
• superpositioning , where one form appears atop another;
• juxtapositioning , where forms appear next to one another;
• reduplication , or multiples; and rotation
ENTOPTIC FORMS ARE PRODUCED BY
PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS
• While many things may contribute to altered states
(psychoactive drugs, sensory deprivation, fatigue,
intense concentration, migraine, hyperventilation,
rhythmic movement, schizophrenia, brain damage,
intense emotion, stress, food and water
deprivation, withdrawal from alcohol, advanced
syphilis, crystal gazing, fever, etc. (Lewis-
Williams and Dowson, 1988; Asaad and Shapiro,
1986; Siegel, 1977)), Lewis-Williams and
Dowson (1988) focus primarily on those induced
by psychoactive drugs.
 CONVERTING ENTOPTIC
PHENOMENA INTO ART
• According to Lewis-Williams and Dowson (1988)
the actual translation of experienced entoptics and
hallucinations into art would have come about
initially as people in altered states of
consciousness literally 'traced' the images they
were experiencing on the wall. They note that
such images might have been well placed for this
since often they are localized on walls and ceilings
like projections, and they would not be creating
something new, but "touching and marking what
was already there"
THE PREHISTORIC STRESS RELIEF
THROUGH ROCK ART?
• The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung found that
psychologically stressed clients would sometimes
spontaneously draw mandalas (circular patterns
with a clearly defined centre), and he considered
the use of art important in psychotherapy. He
didn't refer to it or consider it art, but 'active-
imagination' in the case of conscious imagery, and
'amplification' in the case of dreams (Jung, 1959).
Could art have been a collective response to a
stress greater than had ever occurred since we
became bipedal?
 LABYRINTHS ARE
BECOMING A NEW AGE
CULT
• THE ROOTS OF THE FASCINATION
WITH THE LABYRINTH FORM MAY
LIE IN OUR PREHISTORIC PAST.
CONSIDERING THE UNIQUE VALUE
OF GOA’S LABYRINTH PETROGLYPH
IT NEEDS CONSERVATION,
PROTECTION AND PROMOTION
 MAY BE THE LABYRINTH
TELLS US THE MYSTERY
OF LIFE AND DEATH-A
SINGLE ENTRY AND THEN
THE FINAL DEAD END
EVERYONE IS DESTINED
TO WALK THE LABYRINTH
OF LIFE….
 THANK YOU
FOR ENJOYING THIS
PRESENTATION
WHICH IS
PART OF MY
FORTHCOMING BOOK
“ECOLOICAL HISTORY OF
GOA”
HAVE A NICE DAY!