Dwarka and the Mahabharata

Author: Arvind Gupta


Every Amerindian, either living in India or living exterior India, knows near the two epics that dominates the Amerindian psyche and the spirit of the terra firma. These epics are the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The Mahabharata has exercised a persisting and pervasive touch on the Amerindian mind for millennia. The Mahabharata, originally inscribed by Salvia Ved Vyas in Sanskrit, has been translated and adapted into numerous languages and has been set to a variety of interpretations. Dating rearward to "unlikely oldness", it is plant an extant move in the life of the Soldier masses. With author than 74,000 verses, retentive prose passages, and some 1.8 cardinal texts in gross, the Mahabharata is one of the longest epos poems in the domain. The Mahabharata has a whole length of author than 90,000 verses.

Everything about the Mahabharata is vast, from its extended length, to the large breadth of its vision. The longest of all epics is equivalent an cyclopedia, a humans all on its own. At its nucleus is the strong and agitated tale of the Pandava and Kaurava cousins who finally advertise the superior war of all, Kurukshetra. But that is not all; the Mahabharata is complete of mythical stories, vast reading spans of account, elaborated geographics and a monolithic body of sacred teachings.

The author of the monolithic heroic is Rishi Vyas, who, according to the matter itself, spent figure life creating it, rising every period, and working on it every day. His abode was Vyas Gufa, a explore tall in the Chain, which is solace visited today by travelers on their way to Mansarovar.

In Mahabharata Musal Parva, the Dwarka is mentioned as state gradually swallowed by the ocean. Krishna had forewarned the residents of Dwarka to abandon the city before the sea underwater it. The Sabha Parva gives a elaborated declare of Avatar's embellish from Mathura with his masses to Dwaraka to dodging unceasing attacks of Jarasandh's on Mathura and reserve the lives of its subjects. For this ground, Avatar is also celebrated as RANCHHOR (one who runs gone from the battle-field). Dr. SR Rao and his team in 1984-88 (Leatherneck Anthropology Organization) undertook a comprehensive activity of this municipality along the coast of Gujarat where the Dwarikadeesh temple stands now, and finally they succeeded in unearthing the ruins of this underwater metropolis off the State coast.

The foremost archaeological excavations at Dwarka were done by the Deccan College, Pune and the Section of Archaeology, Government of State, in 1963 low the substance of H.D. Sankalia. It revealed artifacts galore centuries old.

Marine Anthropology Object (MAU) jointly by the Mortal Create of Oceanography and the Archaeological Sight of Bharat. Low the message of Dr. Rao, a enthusiastic leatherneck anthropologist, a group consisting of practiced underwater explorers, trained diver-photographers and archaeologists was botuliform. The model of geophysical scrutiny was hyphenated with the use of echo-sounders, mud-penetrators, sub-bottom profilers and underwater metal detectors. This squad carried out 12 man archeological expeditions between 1983 to 1992 and articles and antiquities recovered were transmitted to Energetic Search Laboratory for dating. By using thermo-luminescence, copy dating and opposite contemporary technological techniques, the artifacts were saved to belong to the phase between 15th to 18th century B.C. In his major transform, The Damned Port of Dwarka, Dr. Rao has assumption technological information of these discoveries and artifacts.

Between 1983 to 1990, the well-fortified township of Dwarka was observed, extending author than half knot from the shore. The township was stacked in six sectors along the banks of a river. The support of boulders on which the municipality's walls were erected proves that the elevation was saved from the sea. The unspecialized layout of the metropolis of Dwarka described in ancient texts agrees with that of the submersed municipality revealed by the MAU.

The ASI conducted a support shape of excavations in 1979 low S.R. Rao's message. He open a definite clayware identified as lustrous red ware, which could be statesman than 3,000 ages old. Supported on the results of these excavations, the hunting for the drowned port in the Mount Sea began in 1981. Scientists and archaeologists hump continually worked on the parcel for 20 years.

The UAW began excavations at Dwarka again from Jan 2007. Dr. Tripathi said: "To take the antiquity of the computer in a holistic form, excavations are beingness conducted simultaneously both on field [fine to the Dwarakadhish tabernacle] and subsurface so that finds from both the places can be co-related and analyzed scientifically."

The lens of the excavation is to know the oldness of the position, based on material information. In the offshore dig, the ASI's trained underwater archaeologists and the different of the Navy searched the submerged structural remains. The finds were studied and referenced.

On arrive, the dig is existence done in the forecourt of the Dwarakadhish temple. Students from Gwalior, Metropolis, Pune, Vadodara, Varanasi and Bikaner are helping ASI archaeologists. In the forecourt, old structures including a bill one mortal been launch. A slender store of 30 metal coins was revealed.

"Within the departed few months, the engineers began few dredging operations there and they pulled up manlike fossil clappers, fossil conductor, kill tools, pieces of pottery and umpteen added things that indicated that it indeed was a hominid habitation parcel that they had. And they were fit to do author modifier sonar work there and were competent to set much structures. They appeared to mortal been laid out on the cant of a river that had been travel from the Soldier subcontinent out into that expanse. ( That river was the unreal saraswati river ) According to the interestingness releases, they eff done a carbon testing on a instance of club from the underwater place that is now relinquishment an age of 9,500 geezerhood which would area it left the end of the net Joshi ( Murli Manohar Joshi was the Soldier Minister for Ocean Bailiwick then ). Mahabharata was then a realism and it was not a faucet and rescript account concocted by Ved Vyas.

Ved Vyas also described the city of Dwarka in enthusiastic details. The poets described Dwarka as a city so metallic that it drops its glowing on the ocean for miles around it. Dwar way door, and Dwarka is a municipality of many doors or a gateway. It was an island, engaged to the mainland by galore bridges, and legend says that Krishna asked Vishwakarman, the designer of the gods to flesh him a municipality many beautiful than any before it.