The Greatest Farce of History

By Gopal Chowdhary

The book seeks to analyse the faultlines and subversion in the ancient history of India in the praxis of social domination and systematic marginalization and obliteration of traditional political elites or traditional Kshatriya that social elites (Priestly class or caste) of ancient India achieved, just to maintain their socio-political domination and hegemony. This rather myopic act led to the balkanization of socio-political scape of mediaeval Indiaresulting into subjugation, plunder and foreign invasions and rule for one thousand years.
Through the case study of Krishna and Mahabharata period, the book tries to illuminate the so called Dark Age of the Indian history. Despite the numerous archaeological proves found in the form of Painted Grey Ware (PGW) associated with Mahabharata period and Black Red Ware (BRW) with different shades, associated with Krishna and Yadavas which tally with details of different scriptures and epic, nothing seems to be happening in this regard. This very fact seems to underline the continued saga of subversion and domination that seemed to have been ingrained in the post-Krishna-and-Mahabharata period. Once the deification and mystification of great historical personality and period such as Krishna and Mahabharata was started just to negate the socio-political revolutions ushered into, it seems to have continued and institutionalized.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Mar 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781482819250

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Copyright © 2014 by Gopal Chowdhary.

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CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 1: Prologue

Chapter 2: Indian Historiography: Tool of Domination & Subversion?

Chapter 3: Resituating Krishna in Indian History

Chapter 4: Repositioning Krishna in Historiography: Myth and Mystification of History

Chapter 5: Krishna: Historical Figure and Missing Link of ‘Dark Age’

Chapter 6: Ancient Indian history in the Matrix of Social Domination

Chapter 7: Krishna and State Formation in Ancient India

Chapter 8: Epilogue

General References

Endnotes

PREFACE

The study is the outcome of a moment having transformed into a cathartic momentum of cascading thoughts, insight, and hunches stumbling upon a civilizational subversion, self-inflicted historical perjury and the fabrication thereof. The twinkling of purgative tornado got set in Krishna’s Dwaraka when we had visited there, and was shocked at the collective apathy of India’s teeming billions for a historical personality and period high jacked to the mystical realm.

The guesthouse of Forest Survey of India where we had stayed overlooks the awfully beautiful western sea of Indian Ocean from where the perimeter of submerged City state of Dwaraka, discovered by Shri S. R Rao, the ex-Director of Archaeological Survey of India and the most ardent archaeologist of modern India, starts.  But there was not even a simple two-penny worth of plaque announcing the historicity of Krishna and Mahabharata period. 

The current work is the outcome of that moment having the velocity of typhoon revealing the subversion and blacking out of Krishna and his period, attested archaeologically by the discovery of the submerged city of Dwaraka in 1990s. The subversion and blacking out of this rather seemingly foundational period has been made so hard-rock and research-proof that its spill over has not allowed a sign post announcing Krishna historicity despite the underwater remains of city state begging for the attention and research thereof.  

The study is an attempt to bring to the fore the faultlines and subversions wedged in the Indian history in general and that of the ‘Dark Age’ termed to the period between mid-Second millennium BC and mid-First millennium (1500-500 BC) in particular. It seeks to establish a correlation between the ancient social and political elites, and that of modern ones in terming the period, which appears to be revival of the Great civilization of Harappa and Indus in the form of foundation of City State of Dwaraka and contributions of Mahabharata period, as Dark Age by latter and ‘Kaliyuga’ (Period of irreligiousness) by former.

The work seeks to analyse the faultlines and subversion in the praxis of social domination and systematic marginalization and obliteration of the traditional political elites or traditional Kshatriya that social elites (Priestly class or caste) of the ancient India achieved, just to maintain their socio-political domination and hegemony. This rather myopic act had led to the balkanization of socio-political scape of the mediaeval India resulting into subjugation, plunder and foreign invasions and rule for one thousand years.

Through the case study of Krishna and Mahabharata period, the study tries to illuminate the so called ‘Dark Age’ of the Indian history. Despite the numerous archaeological proves found in the form of Painted Grey Ware (PGW) associated with Mahabharata period and Black Red Ware (BRW) with different shades, associated with Krishna and Yadavas tallying with the details in the different scriptures and epic, the historical scholarship of India has brazenly ignored it.

This very fact seems to underline the continued saga of subversion and domination that have been ingrained in the Krishna-and-Mahabharata period. Once started, the deification and mystification of the great historical personality and period such as Krishna and Mahabharata just to negate the socio-political revolutions ushered into, it seems to have continued and institutionalized since then.

The book seeks to explore some of these faultlines and subversions that Indian history in general and ancient history in particular has been subjected to. Moreover, it seems to be continued, still propelling the hurtled, myopic and staggered progression of the history.

The author is thankful to S. R Rao, Romila Thapar, Sharma, Basham, Childe and others historians for quotations, references and the insight.

Sincere thanks are owed to Romila Thapar for providing insight and impetus for undertaking such off the beat study. Of course indirectly and without meeting her, despite her being the Professor Emeritus of my Alma metier-JNU. And, like Eklavya I have been learning from her unmatched enlightening scholarship. But like Guru Drona, she would never ask for my seemingly unscholarly thumb as I am not the student-child of the official history.   

The study is dedicated to Krishna and the traditional political class or caste—Kshatriya  in general and Yadavas in particular but for whose marginalization and obliteration We as Nation would not have suffered the unprecedented humiliation and pang of guilt arising out of the subjugation, internal and external aggression and plunder, foreign rule and invasion on invitation.

Finally I am thankful to the seemingly non-history of the Indian History, the insurgents, the subalterns and one thousand years of foreign rule and the resultant mayhem, genocide and plunder of our fellow Indians whose plight we still have not been able to ameliorate of.

And ultimately to my alma metier—JNU, my Papa who for the first time introduced me to the glory and history of Krishna and Yadavas, my Ma who like our Bharata Mata has been suffering for us, and my wife, son and daughter who have been going along with me on the all study tours in the make-belief of holiday outings for four years and have been bearing the long faces, the gloom and anger that have been gripping my other self in the course of such arduous and treacherous research.

And to the Partridge Penguin but for that the study would not have seen the light of day. 

Lastly but not the least to Shashi Kant, research scholar of Delhi University and Tanu Parashar, research scholar of Centre for Historical Studies, JNU for helping me to come out from the Arjun moment of my Mahabharata war!

CHAPTER 1

Prologue

.The objective and hypothesis of the study is to bring to the fore many faultlines, distortions and subversions ingrained in the ancient Indian history, particularly that of the Krishna and the Mahabharata period and the so-called ‘Black period’. The period seems to be the second foundational after that of the Indus and Harappa civilization, to the all the civilizational developments and the progression of the Indian civilization in particular and that of the world in general.

Methodology and Sources

As the subject matter pertains to the ancient period and a personality obtaining variegated attentions, controversies, interpolations and subversion, the study applies the explorative, the formulative, the analytical, the critical, the interpretative and the descriptive methods. The approach of the study is multi-disciplinary utilising the tools and techniques of the Anthropology, the Geology, the Sociology, the Political science, the Psychology, the Physical sciences, the Environmental studies, the Archaeology, the Marine archaeology, the art, the literature, deconstruction, migration, the settlement Geography, the ethics, the philosophy, communication theory, philology, Comparative literature, including that of the History.

As the study is the ex-post-facto reading of the ancient epoch, it is based primarily on the secondary sources. Nevertheless, all the possible efforts have been made to tap the Primary sources as well. The study tours have been undertaken to the places associated with the Mahabharata and the Krishna period: Mathura, Dwaraka, Vrindavan, Hastinapur, Purana Quila of New Delhi, Gokul, Badrinath, Rajgir, Gopalpur, Puri, Mithila, Avantipura and Haripura (J &K), Prabhas Khsetra, Veraval, Bhalaka, Okha, and Bet Dwaraka (Gujarat), Chamba, Dharamshala and Manali (HP). A lot of data and information have been gathered, processed and collated with the study.

The data and the materials collected from the Shri Krishna Museum, Kurukshetra; National Archives, New Delhi; Mathura Museums, Mathura., Patna Museum, Dharamshala Museum and Chamba Museum (H.P.) have been factored in the study. The excavation reports of the various archaeological expeditions such as Mathura, Purana Quila, Dwaraka, Hastinapur, Atranjikhera and the likewise have been analysed, scrutinized and put to the critical evaluation, and the conclusion arrived therein have been used for making the study authentic.

The folklores, the folktales and the collective memory as internalized by the generation after generation and passed onto the succeeding one have also been utilized for gathering the information and obtaining insight of the period and the personality. Moreover, D. D Kosambi’s unique mechanism of ‘present social layers’ giving enough idea of the remote past have been applied with the interesting and the shocking facts tumbling out of our pulverized past.

In addition to these, the brahamanical and other literatures such as ShrimadbhagvatGita, Bhagavat Puran, Vayu, Garur Puran, Mahabharata, Manu Smirti have been deconstructed and the materials thus obtained have been factored into the study.

Literature Review

There is no dearth of the literature relating to the Mahabharata and the Krishna period, albeit with the motif of mystifying and making them happening in the circular time. In fact, almost all the brahamanical and the non-brahamanical literatures seem to have been transcript or put down in the written format with the sole aim of transposing the Krishna and the Mahabharata period to the mythical realm.

There is one book—Yugandhar by Shivaji Savant, which seems to be viewing Krishna and the Mahabharata period as historical one but with the apology to the God. Moreover, the writer has put disclaimer that it is the fiction work for obvious reason. Yugant by Karve has also some critical and the analytical historical inputs, though it appears to be the sociological interpretation of the epical rendition of the Mahabharata.

The scores of the Puran or what is called as the itihas-Puran and the Upanishad have some historical themes but it has been subverted as the ethical, the religious or the mythical one. The deconstructions of these provide the historicity of the Krishna and the Mahabharata period throwing some light on Dark Period as well.

Moreover, score of the literary, the non-literary, the monographs, the sociological and the anthropological history of the different castes such as J N Yadav’s Hisotry of Yadavas, A H Bingley’s The History of Rajputs, the histories and studies of Ahirs, Jat, Gujjar, Brahmins, Jaina and Budhist Texts, ancient foreign travellers and ambassadors’ accounts, memoirs, Acharya Chatursen literature on the republican era or the Gana-Sangha period before its conquest by the monarchy and later on by the imperial monarch have some or the other themes, the undercurrents, and the latent references to the period being discussed. These all have some streaks of the historicity of the period being discussed.

The theme relating to the historicity of the Krishna & the Mahabharata period or that of the so called ‘black period’ seems to be permeating the epic Mahabharata, Pauranic literature, Upanishad, Gita, other brahamanical and non-brahamanical literature but it has been subverted, pulverized and mystified, turning them into the myths and the legend or what Wheeler et la has commented, ‘a vehicle of brahamanical teachings’.

The study seeks just to chaff out these subversions, brazen attempts of the pulverization and the mystification of the bardic text when it was converted into the written format at the beginning of new millennium AD. It seeks just to remove the cobweb of the subversion, the pulverization and the mystification woven around the socio-political history of the ancient India.

In spite of the discovery of the large city-state of Dwaraka under the water off the Arabian Sea in Dwaraka in Gujarat in 1992 by S. R Rao imparting the historicity to the Krishna period and his foundational contribution to the humankind¹, in the opinions of the Indian historians and historiography, this does not support the grandeur and civilizational development as mentioned in the Mahabharata and other scriptures. Notwithstanding the textual and non-textual, archaeological, philogical, folklores and other non-conventional sources substantiate the historicity and the grandeur of the Mahabharata and the Krishna period. And even if Krishna and his period has been termed as tribal and more mythical than real by arm-chaired and myopic historians, he and his age appears to be summing up the hitherto civilizational developments and cultural milestones, right from Pre-Indus period, Mitanni, Harappa and Indus civilization. Krishna and Mahabharata period is the continuation of historical process started much before the Harappa and the Indus civilization².

Even before the breakthrough Dwaraka findings, the city-state of Dwaraka³, founded by Krishna and the Yadavas, had been put to the excavation in 1962-63, confirming the historicity of Krishna. ‘The period I indicated the use of iron and fine pottery some of which was also painted… . The excavation thus threw light on the theory concerning the submergence of Dwaraka.’⁴

After that Dwaraka was left for the two decades, and in 1979-80 the excavation was resumed which further reinforced the historicity of the Dwaraka and Krishna. ‘The Cultural sequence of Dwaraka as suggested by structural and ceramic evidence found in the excavation shows that there was evidence of habitation in fifteen-fourteenth century BC as lustrous Red Ware and Late Harappan wares were found. The second Dwaraka was inhabited around 900 BC (?), it was confirmed by house floors, thin black-on-red ware. Further, the alternative layers of sand and habitation debris made it clear that during the first millennium BC, the township was destroyed more than once by the storm waters⁵."

The archaeological proof of Mahabharata, Krishna and Yadavas as political class having wide areas under their influence has been established with correlation of Painted Grey Ware (PGW) and Black-Red Ware (BRW) with details in the Pauranic literatures, other literary and non-literary sources. The PGW has been identified with Mahabharata and post-Mahabharata period, and BRW with Krishna and Yadavas, notwithstanding the persisting and self-defying doubts, reservations, and other as usual ifs & buts.

The geographical distribution of the BRW with its painted, plain, stripped versions pertains to Saurashtra, Kutch, along Aravalli Hills, with a base in the Banas Valley, Ahar, Ganga-Yamuna Doab, later Atranjikhera, and Noh. The second direction in which BRW appears to have travelled was along the Narmada Valley and into Malwa and Central India, largely following the river valley and later going eastward to Bihar, middle Ganga valley and ultimately to eastern Ganga valley (Navdatoli, Eran, Mahisdal and Chirand). The further southward extension of BRW via the West Coast and through Vidarbha seems to have occurred late. The BRW therefore essentially skirts round the Ganga-Yamuna Doab and the substantial concentration of this culture occurs in Kutch, Kathiawar and in the districts of Udaipur, Bhilwara, Bharatpur, Indore, Bhind, Ghazipur, Mirzapur and Varansi.⁶ This vast geographical extent of Krishna and Yadavas lineage tally with Puranic literature⁷, and present settlement patterns of Yadavas in these areas further reinforce and authenticate it clearly.

Even before it, the famous archaeologist and former Director General of Archaeological Survey of India found Painted Grey Ware (PGW) and Black & Red Ware (BRW) with painted, plain, or interspersed with it in the score of sites and places relating to Mahabharata and Krishna as mentioned in Puranic, literary and non-literary sources.

The period between the end of Indus (c. 1500 BC and the beginning of historical period (c 600 BC) was formerly regarded as ‘Dark Ages’ of India. B. B. Lal undertook exploration of the sites referred in ancient Indian texts, such as Hastinapur, Mathura, Kurukshetra, Indraparstha. He published a paper highlighting the importance of Painted Grey Ware (PGW).⁸ Afterwards, a methodical excavation was commenced at Hastinapur during 1950-52 resulting in the identity of what is known as PGW culture⁹.

"Consequently the explorations have led to the discovery of as many as 650 sites of this culture. While the main concentration of sites is in the Indian Punjab, Haryana, North-eastern Rajasthan and Upper Ganges-Jamuna basin in Uttar Pradesh, the occurrence of some sites has been reported from as far as Lakhiyo Pir in Sindh (the related material is in Central Antiquity Section, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi).¹⁰ And it was also found in Harappa, southern Punjab in Pakistan.¹¹ Sites along the dry bed of the Ghaggar in the Bahawalpur region of Pakistan have already been referred and also Ravi-Jhelum Valleys of Pakistan Punjab since the Gharinda near the Indo-Pakistan border has yielded it.¹² Sravasti¹³ in Uttar Pradesh is the eastern most boundary of the PGW. Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh is the southernmost site where like Sravasti these have not been found independently¹⁴. The finding of PGW in Thapli in Himalayas on the bank of Alaknanda in the Tehiri district of Uttarakhnad has broadened the horizon of this culture tallying with what has been mentioned in ancient literature"¹⁵.

To bring into sharper focus the extent of distribution of PGW culture, it may be pointed from Lakhio Pir in Sind to Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, about 900 km, a span which compares with that of Indus Civilization. There is another very interesting features from survey undertaken by M. R Mughal in Bahawalpur¹⁶. He discovered fourteen sites in Bahawalpur and out of these seven ranges between 1.1ha that is considered as normal range of the sites. Moreover, there are three sites having run of less than 1 ha, other three range between 3 and 4 ha. However, it is worth mentioning that that only one of these 14 sites has the range of 13.7 ha. This points to the emergence of a chief town amidst the smaller villages that later led to emergence of local ‘capitals’.¹⁷

If one puts together the ‘time’ and ‘space’ factors, it would seem to indicate a fair amount of concordance between the three periods of Vedic literature as propounded by Max Muller—Rig Vedic, the late Vedic and Sutras (Velit I-III) and Painted Grey Ware (PGW I-III). Indeed, it would be too much to expect more than that, for literary changes need not necessarily keep full pace with changes in the material and vice-versa… . to recapitulate, people in both Velit I and Velit II were essentially at rural stage and so were those in PGW I and II. It is only towards the Velit III that the signs of urbanization became discernible and the same is situation towards the end of PGW III. In the Velit I and II the houses were made of wattle-and-daub as were the houses in PGW I and II. While no data are available regarding the cereals of PGW I, those of PGW II, namely rice, wheat and barley compare well with cereals of Velit II.¹⁸

The horse, making its appearance from Velit I, occurs in PGW I (Bhagwanpura) and PGW II (Hastinapur and Atranjikhera). Knowledge of iron in Velit I is doubtful, neither has PGW I yielded any iron so far (Bhagwanpura, Dadheri, etc ). Iron occurs in Velit II as well as in PG II. Likewise glass referred to in Velit II, is also found in PGW II. Writing seems to have been unknown to Velit I and II as it was in PGW I and II. It is only towards the end of Velit III that knowledge of writing is indicated. More or less the same may be the position towards the end of PGW III¹⁹.

Despite these archaeological proves, literary and non-literary as well as settlement patterns, it is said that the society of Krishna and Mahabharata period was pastoral and tribal! ‘The formulation of the notion of karma was gradual and trapped a range of ideas emanating from the societies settled in the Ganga valley. Mention has been made of tribal origin but this is too vague an entity’²⁰. How could a tribal or pastoral society deliver such a highly philosophical and positivist or rather seemingly postmodern discourse in unseemingly ancient period, treatise like Geeta and Mahabharata²¹ presenting a high calibre discourse on ethics, warfare, life, statecraft, morality, rights of kings and people, etc, interpolations and additions apart?

The society could not be termed as pastoral or nomadic, the cow herding was one of economic stations, there was trade link between Dwaraka and foreign lands, and it was one of the main reasons for the prosperity and immense wealth of Dwaraka.²² There has been sea bound and overland trade as many ports in western part of the country off the Gujarat coast attest to the fact. Beside it, many stone anchors²³ found during underwater archaeological expedition by S. R Rao attest to the maritime trade and industry. The embossed image of Krishna found on the coins of Greek city-state also gives the indication of wide range of foreign relations including trade²⁴. Moreover, the type of weapons, its sophistication and light and swift chariots denote a sort of industry and commerce.

Either the term such as the pastoral and tribal society should be redefined or at least should be freed from the constraints of western concept and framework. The term nomadic and pastoral society has been borrowed from western historians used for dubbing the nomadic tribes living in the central Asia and Prairie of Europe. The comparison with Krishna and Mahabharata period smacks of contempt and some sort of conspiracy, and it is akin to terming Krishna a mere ‘Gwala (Cow herder). It seems to be continuation of the contempt and the silent hatred that the Indian society had for Krishna and Yadavas from the hey days of the Mahabharata period.

It is quite natural for ‘the historian that the archaeological co-relation may pose a dilemma. If the material culture of the epic is co-related with the earlier PGW culture with which the narrative section of the epic seem to agree to a large extent, then the date of these sections can be placed between the mid-second and mid-first millennia BC, but the culture will have to be described as pre-urban, transitional between pastoralism and an agrarian economy and probably supporting tribal chiefships on the edge of change to state forms and monarchical systems.²⁵

There is no doubt that ‘archaeological correlation’ is a challenge for the historians, more so if it is related to the ancient period. The historical mismatch and contradiction is always encountered while dealing with such period and personality that has been appropriated by the vested interests. If one goes for the historical evidence without looking into the merit of their veracity, the intent and interest of those behind the interpretation of evidence, the cooking up of evidence, or the selective use of the evidence or half-hearted evidence gathering, botched up expeditions, or the use of open-ended evidences or the blind acceptance or rejection of the textual evidences, etc., then co-relation becomes quite difficult.

What could be done when ‘even after finding of clear-cut evidence of historicity of Krishna period in wake of archaeological discovery of submerged Dwaraka, which correlates, with textual and non-textual, literary and non-literary mention of that period, there is no taker for this, not to mention hordes of archaeological, literary, non-literary and philological proves?

Then there is a question of inference from the historical evidence, which can be determined by the subjectivity.²⁶ Even though the material culture of epic—Mahabharata—tally with the earlier PWG culture, the culture of that period has been termed as pastoral and pre-agricultural. What is the reason for that? The contradiction between grandeur and majesticity of the textual evidence and the remains that were found in 1952 archaeological excavation in Hastinapur and Indraparstha, does not exist in 1992 Dwaraka expedition that has removed whatever contradiction and so called mismatch existed. Nevertheless, do our historians take into account the alluvial soil or the humid atmosphere or the incessant flooding of the area that might have destroyed the historical evidence such as the iron artefacts or the flooding and humidity might have rendered these indicators of material culture look like that of pre-agricultural or the pastoral or the tribal culture, or the wilful destruction of evidence as happened during mediaeval period?

Due to this perceived contradiction, this period has been left out from the recorded history terming it as the so-called ‘dark period’. The tribal culture or ‘the edge of tribal chieftainship’ is again debatable. Can a tribal culture produce such sophisticated discourse on the statecraft, war, monism and monotheism as propounded by Krishna or tribal chieftainship execute such a sophisticated war strategy which have found pride of place in the war manuals of the second largest army of the world or famous war doctrines of modern times?²⁷ Could a tribal society and warring chieftains indulge in the principled and ethical warfare where clear rules of engagement and the right of no-combatants and civilians were adhered to? Could they be termed tribal when modern war, for example the First and Second World War surpassed in savagery, brutal violation of the civilian and non-combatant rights?²⁸

Can a modern day war strategist formulate the strategies for numerous asymmetrical wars that Krishna won three thousand years back or can they even dare to plan? Can a pre-agricultural or pastoral economy produce such weapons as Spiral disc (Sudarshan chakra) or swift and high tech Chariots? Can a tribal culture give rise to Gana-Sangh system or Republican credo as found in the conduct of Yadavas and others, and which later in, around 500 BC developed into full-fledged gana-sangha system or the Republican or Ganrajya in North Bihar, Eastern UP and Central India?²⁹ Can a tribal culture give rise to many social, cultural and religious ethos, customs and practices, which are still being followed? Can a tribal culture or the pre-urban society engage in the inland and the overseas trade? The prosperity of Dwaraka and other Kingdoms attest to this fact, apart from port, jetty, anchors, etc found in the underwater expedition of Krishna’s submerged City state of Dwaraka³⁰.

However, our historiography and historians paint a picture that seem to be subserving the colonial interest or the vested interests of the Indian society or trying to be in sync with the western history commencing from 400-600 BC. It may be possible they might have been shying away from attesting to these facts as their western education, attitude and peer pressure and their aspiration for recognition in the western world might have prevented them from seeing through these evidences. Moreover, oral tradition and stories of Krishna and Mahabharata, the places like Mathura, Gokul, Dwaraka, Puri, Badrinath, Gopalpur, Kurukshetra and various other places related to this period attest to the historicity of Krishna and epic period. They are everywhere: at home, in the mind, in the collective psyche, in the culture, art, polity, society, and yet they are nowhere in the history books. There is no place for Krishna and Mahabharata period in the Indian historiography, whatever place they have found is only in the footnotes and the parenthesis of history books.

Despite all interpolations and additions, the textual and non-textual evidences attest the splendour and prodigy of the ancient heritage. Particularly after the findings of the remains of meticulously built City State of Dwaraka by S.R. Rao in 1992, who served the Archaeological Survey of India for over 32 years, and is the discoverer of a large number of Harappan sites, including the port city of Lothal in Gujarat, there should be no doubt about the historicity of Krishna and Mahabharata period. The mystification of Krishna and Mahabharata period is the reason behind the ‘mismatch’ between what has been described in the literatures and archaeological evidence gathered from Hastinapur and Dwaraka³¹.

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 at rest the doubts expressed by historians about the historicity of Mahabharata and the very existence of Davaraka city. It has greatly narrowed the gap of Indian history by establishing the continuity of the Indian civilization from the Vedic age to the present day. The discovery has also shed welcome light on second urbanization in the so-called ‘Dark age’, on the resuscitation of dharma, on the resumption of maritime trade, and use of Sanskrit language and modified Indus script³².

It was expected that after this finding there would be rather paradigm shift in the Indian historiography leading to the re-write of Indian history in the same manner as the finding of Indus civilization did in 1920s.