S'ri Krishna as a historical reality, MBh as sheet-anchor of Bharatiya Itihaasa

"S.Kalyanaraman" <kalyan97 wrote:

 

Perhaps, the shortest distance

> between Dholavira and Lothal was through the Nal sarovar link of

> Gulf of Khambat with the tip of Little Rann of Kutch; possibly,

this

> was the ancient course of the river Sarasvati referred to in 200

> s'lokas of MBh s'alya parvan.

 

October 5, 2005

Where is Krishna's Dwaraka?

Filed under: Archaeology — palmleaf @ 8:19 pm

During the time of the Harappan Civilization, a major enterprise was

the shell industry located in Bet Dwaraka, an island located 30 km

north of Dwaraka. This artefact making industry was more popular

than both ivory and bone and recent excavations have revealed that

the industry was bigger than previously assumed.

 

 

"The presence of cut and unfinished pieces and waste pieces on the

island tells us that this was an industry site," Gaur said. The NIO

team found fragments of bangles, beads, a seal and unfinished ladles

from the Bet Dwaraka site.

 

While archaeologists have suspected that the shell artefacts for the

Indus people came from the Gulf of Kutch, only one site for an

ancient shell industry had been identified 15 years ago — Nageshwar,

a Harappan site on the Gujarat coast. The studies by the NIO

scientists on Bet Dwarka, conducted during 2000-01, show that the

island's shell-industry might have been one of the largest

enterprises of its time.

 

In a report in the latest issue of the journal Current Science,

scientists have documented similarities between the shells at Bet

Dwarka and artefacts recovered from Harappan sites. A unique late

Harappan seal constructed out of a conch shell with a short-horned

bull, a unicorn and goat engraved on it found during underwater

excavation near the island is similar to a seal recovered from

Mohenjodaro.[Hint of Harappa shell industry]

 

When we mention Dwaraka, we have to talk about Krishna. Marine

Archaeologist S R Rao found evidence of a city under the sea in

Dwaraka and since some of the specifications matched the description

of Dwaraka mentioned in Harivamsha, a prologue of Mahabharata, some

people concluded that it was Krishna's Dwaraka.

 

Not so fast, says a scientist at ISRO. Krishna's Dwaraka was not in

Jamnagar, but in Junagad according to Dr P S Thakker and also there

nine sites in Gujarat which claim to be Krishna's Dwaraka.

 

A senior scientist with the ISRO's space application centre, Dr P S

Thakker, who has worked on this project, said, What is interesting

is that ISRO's findings corroborate what is mentioned in the vedas

and other ancient Hindu scriptures about the geographical location

of Dwaraka but contradicts what the archaeologists and modern

historians say about the present Dwarka which they claim is in

Jamnagar district of Gujarat.

 

Though the study was done by the ISRO four years back it was

confined to abstract papers on a dusty shelf.

 

Satellite images can pinpoint things that are not visible to the

naked eye. For example, it can indicate the presence of ruins of a

city which has been long buried under the soil.[Lord Krishna's

Dwarka not in Jamnagar but in Junagadh: ISRO]

 

But then what about the city which S R Rao discovered?

 

However, Mr Thakker claims this unknown feature of a city discovered

by Dr Rao could be any other city settled after he said that the

study of the satellite data perfectly matches with the description

given in Tri Shasthi Shlaka Purush Charta (history of 63 outstanding

personalities) written by Hemchandrachary, a distinguished Jain muni

of the 11th century who has given a geographical description of Lord

Krishna's Dwarka built by kuber at Lord Indra's behest.

 

Mr Thakker said the presence of Navda village in the vicinity (which

means boat) and milollite limestone found in the vicinity of Girnar

in Junagadh suggested the presence of a sea in this area.

 

Thus it seems that Lord Vasudev's dwarka which was submerged in the

sea as well and the Dwarka of Lord Krishna were located in Junagadh

district near Prabhash Kshetra. Excavation and further study is

required to get more scientific information on Dwarka, he added.

[Lord Krishna's Dwarka not in Jamnagar but in Junagadh: ISRO]

 

Here is the connection from the two stories. The sea shell sites

excavated in Bet Dwaraka are 3800 years taking it back to around

1800 B.C which was the declining phase of the Harappan Civilization.

According to Dr. Takker, Lord Vasudeva's Dwaraka submerged in the

Arabian Sea about 3500 years back, i.e 1500 B.C. Interesting times

in Gujarat, it must have been.

 

http://palmleaf.wordpress.com/2005/10/05/where-is-krishnas-dwaraka/

 

Lord Krishna's Dwarka not in Jamnagar but in Junagadh: ISRO

PTI Ahmedabad Oct 4: Giving a totally new twist to the location of

Lord Krishna's birthplace Dwarka, satellite pictures taken by the

Indian Space Research Organisation have indicated that Dwarka did

not exist in Jamnagar, as the historians believe, but in Junagadh

district of Gujarat.

 

A senior scientist with the ISRO's space application centre, Dr P S

Thakker, who has worked on this project, said, "What is interesting

is that ISRO's findings corroborate what is mentioned in the vedas

and other ancient Hindu scriptures about the geographical location

of Dwaraka but contradicts what the archaeologists and modern

historians say about the present Dwarka which they claim is in

Jamnagar district of Gujarat."

 

Though the study was done by the ISRO four years back it was

confined to abstract papers on a dusty shelf.

 

Satellite images can pinpoint things that are not visible to the

naked eye. For example, it can indicate the presence of ruins of a

city which has been long buried under the soil.

 

Mr Thakker said that there are nine sites in Gujarat which claim to

be the original Dwarka.

 

Those sites are: the town of modern Dwarka in Jamnagar district, Mul

Dwarka near Kodinar in Junagadh district, Muli in Surendranagar

district, Panch Dwaraka near Vankaner in Rajkot district, Bet Dwarka

in Jamnagar district near Okha and a city believed to be submerged

in the great Rann of Kutch.

 

Another site which also claims to be Dwarka is Jima Durga in

Junagadh district. Descriptions of Lord Krishna's Dwarka mentions

the presence of rivers, forests, mountains, gardens having colourful

flowers in its environs. But the present-day Dwarka, which exists in

Jamnagar, doesn't match with the descriptions found in literature

but what matches perfectly are the satellite images which were taken

of Junagadh district, Mr Thakker added.

 

He said the available literature indicates existence of two

different Dwarkas at two different periods. One Dwarka was that of

Lord Vasudeva and the other was that of Lord Krishna's.

 

Lord Vasudev's Dwarka, which was submerged in the Arabian Sea about

3500 years ago, and Lord Krishna's Dwarka were both located in

Junagadh district near Prabhash Kshetra, according to Mr Thakker.

 

In 1988, the sixth marine archaeological expedition of the National

institute of Oceanography, Goa led by Dr S R Rao, emeritus

scientist, had discovered hitherto unknown features of a city in

Jamnagar which Dr Rao had claimed to be Lord Krishna's Dwarka.

 

The expedition carried out by Dr Rao had come across inner and outer

gateways of the proto-historic port city flanked by circular

bastions built of massive blocks of sandstone.

 

>From the inner gateway, a flight of steps led to the Gomati river

the submerged channel of which has been traced over a length of 1.5

km in the seabed.

 

However, Mr Thakker claims this unknown feature of a city discovered

by Dr Rao could be any other city settled after he said that the

study of the satellite data perfectly matches with the description

given in Tri Shasthi Shlaka Purush Charta (history of 63 outstanding

personalities) written by Hemchandrachary, a distinguished Jain muni

of the 11th century who has given a geographical description of Lord

Krishna's Dwarka built by kuber at Lord Indra's behest.

 

Mr Thakker said the presence of Navda village in the vicinity (which

means boat) and milollite limestone found in the vicinity of Girnar

in Junagadh suggested the presence of a sea in this area.

 

"Thus it seems that Lord Vasudev's dwarka which was submerged in the

sea as well and the Dwarka of Lord Krishna were located in Junagadh

district near Prabhash Kshetra. Excavation and further study is

required to get more scientific information on Dwarka," he added.

 

http://www.sulekha.com/news/nhc.aspx?cid=435807

 

Hint of Harappa shell industry

G.S. MUDUR

 

Boats line up off the Bet Dwarka coast.

New Delhi. Oct. 1: Excavations on Bet Dwarka island in the Gulf of

Kutch have revealed the remains of an ancient shell industry that

might have provided artefacts to the Indus Valley civilisation,

marine archaeologists have said.

 

A collection of some 3,000 shells, strewn across a southeastern tip

of Bet Dwarka, suggests that the island hosted a big shell industry

during the late Harappan period, archaeologists at the National

Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Goa have said.

 

Some of the excavated sites on the island are 3,800 years old and

correspond to the late Harappan period. The shells probably

represent an artefact-making industry for Indus settlements, NIO

archaeologist Aniruddh Gaur said. Marine shells appeared to be more

popular than ivory or bone — two other contemporary raw materials

for artefacts and ornaments — in the Indus Valley.

 

Excavations in the past have turned up bangles, beads, ladles and

feeding cups among various shell-based artefacts at Harappan sites,

including Lothal, Mohenjodaro, Nageshwar, Surkotada and Rangpur.

 

"The presence of cut and unfinished pieces and waste pieces on the

island tells us that this was an industry site," Gaur said. The NIO

team found fragments of bangles, beads, a seal and unfinished ladles

from the Bet Dwarka site.

 

While archaeologists have suspected that the shell artefacts for the

Indus people came from the Gulf of Kutch, only one site for an

ancient shell industry had been identified 15 years ago — Nageshwar,

a Harappan site on the Gujarat coast. The studies by the NIO

scientists on Bet Dwarka, conducted during 2000-01, show that the

island's shell-industry might have been one of the largest

enterprises of its time.

 

In a report in the latest issue of the journal Current Science,

scientists have documented similarities between the shells at Bet

Dwarka and artefacts recovered from Harappan sites. A unique late

Harappan seal constructed out of a conch shell with a short-horned

bull, a unicorn and goat engraved on it found during underwater

excavation near the island is similar to a seal recovered from

Mohenjodaro.

 

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051002/asp/nation/story_5310178.asp

 

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