We often come across a question , “ was mahabharat really took place or it was just an imagination”?? In this article I am just trying to present some facts and findings to clarify the doubts. Archeological research is though going on only in a moderate phase to unveil the material evidences of Mahabharata. In Kurukshetra, the scene of the great Mahabharata war, Iron arrows and spearheads have been excavated and dated by thermoluminence to 2,800 B.C.E., the approximate date of the war given within the Mahabharata itself. Marine archaeology has also been utilized in India off the coast of the ancient port city of Dvaraka in Gujarat, uncovering further evidence in support of statements in the Vedic scriptures. An entire submerged city at Dvaraka, the ancient port city of Lord Krishna with its massive fort walls, piers, warfs and jetty has been found in the ocean as described in the Mahabharata and other Vedic literatures. Dr. S. R. Rao, formerly of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and now with the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa.Marine archaeological findings seem to corroborate descriptions in the Mahabharata of Dvaraka as a large, well-fortified and prosperous port city, which was built on land reclaimed from the sea, and later taken back by the sea. Dr. Rao wrote The discovery of the legendary city of Dwaraka which is said to have been founded by Sri Krishna, is an important landmark in the history of India. It has set to rest the doubts expressed by historians about the historicity of Mahabharata and the very existence of Dwaraka city. It has greatly narrowed the gap in Indian history by establishing the continuity of the Indian civilization from the Vedic Age to the present day. Dr. S.R.Rao’s team consisted of expert under-water explorers, trained diver-photographers and experienced archaeologists. The technique of geophysical survey was combined with the use of echo-sounders, mud-penetrators, sub-bottom profilers and under-water metal detectors. This team carried out twelve marine archaeological expeditions between the year 1983 to 1992 AD and articles/antiquities recovered were sent to Physical Research Laboratory for dating. By using thermoluminescence, carbon dating and other modern scientific techniques, artifacts were found to be belonging to the period 15th century BC to 18th century BC. In his great work “The Lost City of Dwarka”, Dr. S.R.Rao has given graphic and scientific details of these discoveries and artifacts. He has concluded that: (i) The land for building the city of Dwarka had been reclaimed from the sea between 16th to 15th century BC and a fortified city was built on boulder packing with outer gateway to the sea and inner gateway to Gomti river. This corroborates the references in the Epic Mahabharata as per which Dwarka city was built by Shri Krishna after reclaiming the land from the sea and it was built only a few years before the Game of Dice in 1493 BC. (ii) The thermoluminescence dating of lustrous Redware Pottery items found during explorations revealed that these were 3520 years old i.e. around 16th-15th century BC. (iii) the most famous rectangular seal with engraved motifs of bull, unicorn and goat found in trench UW6 in the sea bed was dated as belonging to 16th century BC. The seal corroborates the references made in the ancient manuscripts that every citizen of Dwarka was required to carry a mudra (seal) as a mark of identification. 3 animal headed mudra, votive jar and copper bell (IV) a copper bell and a copper lota, brass-items including U-shaped objects with holes at both ends and a bronze bell, all were dated as belonging to 15th century BC. Stone anchors with double holes and triangular prismatic stone anchors recovered from under the sea were similar to the ones found in Lothal excavations belonging to 23rd century BC. (v) A votive jar with seven characters inscribed was found. Reading based on Semitic-Indus-Phonetic value revealed that script is old Indo-Aryan and similar to the other Indus seal inscriptions. The date assigned to this votive jar and inscriptions are 15th-14th century BC. (vi) Three iron nails and a stake, four potsherds and one small bottle of iron were dated 16th-15th century BC indicating limited use of iron. Thus, conclusions arrived at after carrying out these under-water archaeological explorations support and validate the dates arrived at through astronomical calculations. These also prove that the reconstructed city of Dwarka was a prosperous port town and that it was in existence for about 60-70 years in the 15th century BC before being submerged under the sea in the year 1443 BC. Other Archaeological excavations - Most of the cities referred to in Mahabharata e.g.Mathura, Hastinapur, Indraprastha, Kurukshetra and Dwarka were situated in the territories which are at present known as Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, UP, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Extensive excavations carried out in these areas have shown that Indus Civilisation flourished in these areas between 3400-1500 BC. The excavations carried out in Lothal in Gujarat have proved the existence of very advanced civilisation between 2300 BC to 1600 BC. The town was divided into the dock, the arcopolis and the industrial, commercial, residential sectors. Artifacts recovered include gold jewellery and copper utensils. Archaeological surveys at Kalibhangan in Rajasthan have identified the existence of a planned fortified city between 2500-1700 BC. Artifacts excavated include baked bricks, semi precious stones, copper and bronze articles. Photographs taken by American earth-sensing satellite known as Landsat have confirmed that the river Saraswati described in the Rigveda as flowing from the “mountain to the sea” was indeed a great river before 2000 BC. Archaeological explorations on the ancient beds of the Saraswati e.g. at Kunal near Kurukshetra and at Banawali in Punjab have confirmed the existence of highly advanced civilisation during 3400-1500 BC. Artifacts excavated include silver jewellery and articles made of copper and bronze. Taken as a whole archaeological excavations establish the continuous evolution of Sindhu-Saraswati civilisation between 3400-1500 BC culminating in the Mahabharata period. The inhabitants of all the excavated places had similar ethnic features, spoke similar languages, followed similar religious rites which were vedic in nature, knew about horse and rice, had advanced knowledge of mathematics, made extensive use of copper and had discovered the use of iron. These discoveries match with the details in the Epic as also with the belief of the historians that the use of iron was discovered in India in 16th century BC. The War of Mahabharata acted as a watershed, putting an end to the ‘copper age’ and ushering in the ‘iron age’ in 15th century BC. Archaeological excavations thus support the conclusion that Mahabharata War was fought in 1478 BC. Apart from Dvaraka, more than thirty-five sites in North India have yielded archaeological evidence and have been identified as ancient cities described in the Mahabharatha. Copper utensils, iron, seals, gold & silver ornaments, terracotta discs and painted grey ware pottery have all been found in these sites. Scientific dating of these artifacts corresponds to the non-aryan-invasion model of Indian antiquity. Dr. S. Kalyanaraman, the director of the Chennai based Saraswati River Research Centre, says that the historicity of the events described in Ramayana and Mahabharata is validated by two evidences: one is based on tradition and the other is based on jyotisha, or planetary configurations and other celestial events narrated along with mundane events described in those epics, which may be called sky epigraphs. The aspect of celestial epigraph, or planetary positions described in these epics, particularly in Mahabharata, undoubtedly shows that the said epics do mention the dates of events described therein. Mahabharata alone there are 150 instances where worldly events are mentioned along with the planetary positions in the sky. And, in addition to that, other astronomical events such as occurrence of an eclipse, or appearance of a comet, or rare events like shower of meteorites have been mentioned. A few of such examples may be mentioned below The Udyoga Parva of Mahabharata narrates that, just before the War, Lord Krishna, in His final peace mission, went to Hastinapur in the month of Kartika. He set out on the day when moon was at the asterism Revati. On His way to Hastinapur, Krishna took rest for a day at a place called Brikasthala, and on that day the moon was at the asterism Bharani. The day on which Duryodhana turned down each and every effort of Lord Krishna to make peace and made the war inevitable, the moon was resting at the asterism Pushya. And the Lord left Hastinapura with Karna, on the day when the moon was yet to reach the asterism Uttara Phalguni. As mentioned above, Karna accompanied Him to some distance to see Him off and he then described to the Lord the positions of planets in the sky and expressed his apprehension that such a planetary configuration stood for very bad omen: such as large scale loss of life and drenching of blood. Vyasadeva narrated all these planetary positions in as many as sixteen verses as if someone was describing it after visualizing them in the sky. It is also well known that during the War, Lord Balarama went on a pilgrimage to holy places along the banks of the River Saraswati and Mahabharata describes the position of the moon during the entire course of pilgrimage. For example, He set out on the day when the moon was at the asterism Pushya and returned on the day when the moon was at the asterism Shravana. The Mahabharata also mentions the occurrence of a solar eclipse at the asterism Jyestha and a lunar eclipse at the asterism Krittika, just before the beginning of the War. It also mentions the appearance of a comet at the asterism Pushya, on the 8th day of the bright half of the month of Magha, when Bhishma died. On that day the moon was at the asterism Rohini and it was the day of Winter Solstice. The day on which Ghatotkacha, son of Bhima, died, the moon appeared at the horizon at 2.00 a.m. The epic also mentions the occurrence of a very rare astronomical event that took place prior to the War: three eclipses, two lunar and a solar, within a lunar month of 27 days. There is also another continuing tradition in this country that says that the beginning of the present Kali Yuga, Kurukshetra War, death of Lord Krishna and coronation of Emperor Yudhishthira were contemporary events. Famous astronomer Aryabhatta in his celebrated work Aryabhatiyam had accepted the said tradition and used the word “Bharatapurvam” in the said work very often and scholars agree that he used the word to refer to such events that occurred before the Mahabharata War. In 1991, Dr. D. Abhayankar and Dr. Ballabh of the Osmania University calculated that the present Kali Yuga began on 7th February, 3104 B.C. But it is now well accepted by the both Eastern and the Western scholars that the present Kali Yuga began on the midnight of 17th and 18th February, 3102 B.C. And hence it can roughly be said that the Mahabharata War took place nearly 5000 years ago from now. In 2003, a two day seminar was held on 5th and 6th January, in Bangalore, on “The Date of Mahabharata War: Based on Astronomical Data Using Planetarium Software”, and a few of the eminent researchers who submitted papers were (1) Dr. S. Balakrishna of NASA, USA; (2) Dr. B. N. Narahari Achar, Department of Physics, Memphis University, USA; (3) Dr. R. N. Iyengar, Department of Civil Engineering, IISc, Bangalore; (4) Dr. S. Kalyanaraman, Saraswati River Research Centre, Chennai and so on. These scientists agree that there does not exist any contradiction between any two descriptions of planetary configurations given in the Mahabharata.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 20:01:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015