Bhimbetaka Rock Shelter are an archaeological site situated in the Raisen District near Abdullaganj town and inside the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary near Bhopal city of Madhya Pradesh, a state in India. This site exhibits the earliest traces of human life on the Indian Subcontinent and the beginning of the Indian Stone Age, Bhimbetaka Rock Shelter site was declared as World Heritage site in 2003.

The name Bhimbetaka is related with Bhima, a hero-deity of the epic Mahabharata, so Bhimbetaka means sitting place of Bhima. Whole area of Bhimbetaka is covered by dense vegetation and rich Flora & Fauna forest. Rock shelterwere discovered in 1957 there are more than 750 such shelters, of which 243 are in the Bhimbetka group and 178 in the Lakha Juar group. Archaeological studies revealed a continuous sequence of Stone Age cultures (from the late Acheulian to the late Mesolithic), as well as the world’s oldest stone walls and floors. At least some of the shelters were inhabited by Homo erectus over 100,000 years ago. The rock shelters and caves of Bhimbetka have a large number of old paintings which are considered to be 30,000 years old, but some of the geometric figures date to as recently as the medieval period. The colours used are vegetable colours and drawings were generally made deep inside a niche or on inner walls.

The paintings also includes painting of a man holding a trident-like staff and dancing named,“Nataraj” by Dr. Wakankar, most of the paintings in this shelter and the Archaeological Survey of India uses chemicals and wax to preserve them.