[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: REQUEST : authenticity of the Mahabharata
Mutt (k777@pacific.net.sg) wrote:
: I'm curious...how much of what is said in the Mahabharata or
: Ramayana can be proven to be historically accurate by archaeologists ?
: ..I am referring to the manner in which items in the bible have been
: verified by science...ie...events...ancient towns...personalities
: has the Indian government sponsored any large scale study?
Quite a number of modern historians agree that there
was a Mahabharata war. The date, if I remember correctly,
is said to be around 5000 BC. I have also heard reports
and read articles, that a lot of studies have been
done on Bheta-Dwaraka, a city, which is submerged in
Arabian Sea. The city was the capital of Lord Krishna,
and the Mahabharata tells us that after the successors
of Krishna took over the city, they destroyed themselves
and the city thru internecine conflict. Physical disaster
later submerged the sea. Modern archeologists have discovered
the remnants of the city.
Coming back to Ramayan, the conventional Indian (Hindu)
thought is that that the era of Shri Ram is the Treta
Yuga. That is several hundred thousand years ago. It is
here, that mist of time takes over, and it is really
difficult to prove or disprove the contention of our
scriptures in this regard. There have also been attempts
to show that Ram has existed, but His time is not as old
as told by our scriptures. Parallel with these attempts,
there have been also attempts to show that the actual
Ayodhya was somewhere in Afghanistan, and Lanka was
a place in MP (or in Orissa according to some). However,
all these theories are pretty controversial, since they
have not been backed up by substantial evidence of
any sort.
--
Nachiketa Tiwari
