The Bhimbetka rock shelters compose an archaeological site and 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; its Stone Age rock paintings are approximately 9,000 years old.

The name Bhimbetika comes from the mythological association of the place with Bhima, one of the Pandavas, the five sons of king Pandu and the queens Kunti and Madri in the Hindu epic Mahabharata.

The cave paintings at Bhimbetka are archeological and anthropological treasures as they document the lives of prehistoric cave men from the Paleolithic/ Stone Age. Thus, these came paintings are the primitive written communication system through which communities and generations documented and shared their history. Some of these cave paintings date back to 12,000 years and are at least as old as the prehistoric cave paintings found in Pyrenees on the southwest France-Spain border.

The paintings have been sketched on the walls of the caves with natural white and red dyes. Some walls, with varying intensity of the dyes, suggest that the caves were inhabited by generations of cavemen who documented their daily outings and life experiences for others to see and remember.

The cave paintings at Bhimbetka depict men as stick figures. The cave paintings also abound in animal figures especially wild buffalos, bisons, deers, tigers, bears and elephants. The common scenes painted on the walls of the rock shelters include hunting scenes, ceremonies, communal activities such as dancing, religious rites and burials etc. Details of tools used to hunt, the danger that a wild animal could pose, the intricacies of childbirth have been laid bare on the cave walls for all to see, follow and admire. These very paintings depict life as lead by the cavemen in details that would have been otherwise lost to the world.