| Biswo |
Posted
on 08-Jun-02 05:40 PM
The following incident, happened exactly after 36 years of the (conclusion)
of war of Mahabharata, is often cited in Nepali politics, esp in the
context of the frequent and time-honored internecine feuds of Nepali Congress.
---
Unlike Pandava, Krishna wasn't the king. Ugrasen,killing of whose
son Kamsha had been the most remarkable achievement of the 'cowboy'
twins, Krishna and Balaram,was still the king of Mathura. However,the
whole Yadav clan was the defacto ruler of Mathura. They were proud,
and very unruly.
36 years after the war of Mahabharata, one day,pamperedyoung Yadav scions
went to the jungle where famous yogis like Durbasha, Kanwa, Bishwamitra
etc. were meditating. With utter disrespect, they tried to test the
ability of the Yogis. So, they wrapped Saamba (a young prince) with
clothes so as he looked like a pregnat woman, and took him in front of
the Yogi Durbashaa, and asked him, "Sir, is she gonna give birth to a
son or a daughter?" Their misfortune, Durbasaa, was also the Yogi
known for his unbridled, and very violent rage.
The omniscient Yogi got enraged at the audacity of the boys, and
replied, "She will beget a Musal(an ancient weapon that looks like
another weapon, gadaa, more commonly carried by Hanumaan). And
that will destroy your whole clan." When the boys came back and fearfully
took the clothes off Saamba's body, they indeed found a Musal inside.
The boys got panicked.They reported it to the court of king Ugrasen.The court
decided that the Musal should be grounded to powder, and thrown to a big
river. When they grounded, they couldn't ground a small piece. They threw
that piece to a river too, which was swallowed up by a fish there. The
fish was later caught by a fisherman, who sold that to a bowman near his
house. When the bowman cut the fish, he found the small piece of Musal
which he put at one end of his arrow.Grass as sharp as swords grew in
the place where the Yadavs threw the powder of rest of Musal.
---
A few days later the whole city started to see omens of death. Krishna
then asked all his clansmen to move out to another city, preferably
a sacred one.His clansmen carried with them weapons, wine and their
families. One night, when they stopped for the sojourn, they drank
unconscionably and started a quarrel. In night, with the blindedness
of the wine, they fought with each other. Krishna himself also, in
rage, pulled up the grass (by chance, they were living at the same
swamp where sword-like grasses were grown) and killed a lot of his
own clansmen. Fathers killed sons, sons killed fathers. Balaram
tried to stop the warriors, but couldn't. Sad, he went to the bank
of Sindhu and committed suicide.
In the early morning, after the death of all Yadav but Krishna,
Krishna left the place. He walked all the morning,somehow managed
to reach a Peepal tree, and , fatigued he was, slept there. At
the same time, The bowman was looking for quarry nearby. He saw
the feets of Krishna from distant, and thought it was a game. He
used the arrow which was topped by the Musal remnant to kill the
supposed game.
Before his death, Krishna consoled the sad bowman that his death wasn't
the bowman's fault. Then he invoked a beaurocrat of Mathura, Daruka.
He told Daruka that his beloved city, "Dwarawati", is going to be
submerged in the water in a week. Daruka gives the message to Pandava,
and Arjun rescues people of Dwarawati before its destruction.
---
There is a place in Gujarat, India, where they still excavate beneath the
sea, hoping that beneath somewhere in the sea, there is still some remnant
of this prosperous city of Dwarawati.
--
The exact date of Mahabharata war is debatable. The fifth century scientist,
Aryabhatta, thought it was fought approximately around 3100 BC. The most
recent and more precise assertion of the date was made by Pune based
scientist Dr PV Vartak, who thinks, based on astrological description of
Mahabharata,the first day of the Mahabharata war was 16th October,
5561 BC. The war was fought for 18 days. So the clansmen were massacred
around 5525 BC. In the history of mankind, this story is truly a immemorial
one.
This fact is taken from one article in hindunet.org, and the writer of
Mahabharata, on which the above story is based, is Ved Vyas.
|
| bagmati1 |
Posted
on 08-Jun-02 06:15 PM
More facts about archaeological investigation of city 'DWARAKA' ne submerged nearby Gulf of Kutch
(BBC news service)
Indian civilisation '9,000 years old'
Marine scientists in India say an archaeological site off India's western coast may be up to 9,000 years old.
The revelation comes about 8 months after acoustic images from the sea-bed suggested the presence of built-up structures resembling the ancient Harappan civilisation, which dates back around 4,000 years.
The Harappan civilisation is the oldest in the subcontinent.
Although Palaeolithic sites dating back around 20,000 years have been found on the coast of India's western state of Gujarat before, this is the first time there are indications of man-made structures as old as 9,500 years found deep beneath the sea surface.
Search impeded
Known as the Gulf of Cambay, the area has been subject to a great deal of archaeological interest due to its proximity to another ancient submerged site - Dwaraka - in the nearby Gulf of Kutch.
But investigations in the Cambay region have been made more difficult by strong tidal currents running at around two to three metres per second.
They impede any sustained underwater studies.
Marine scientists led by the Madras-based National Institute of Ocean Technology said they got around this problem by taking acoustic images off the sea-bed and using dredging equipment to extract artefacts.
A second round of investigations was conducted about three months ago.
'Glorious past'
The Indian Minister for Ocean Technology, Murli Manohar Joshi, told journalists the images indicated not only symmetrical man-made structures but also a paleo-river, running for around nine kilometres, on whose banks all the artefacts were discovered.
Carbon dating carried out on one of these artefacts - a block of wood bearing the signs of deep fissures - suggested it had been around since about 7,595 BC.
Mr Joshi said his ministry planned to set up a multi-disciplinary group to look into what this discovery really meant and what relation it might have to other ancient sites in the area.
Critics say the minister, who has been in the eye of a storm recently for attempts to Hinduise school history textbooks, may well be presenting these archaeological discoveries as proof of India's glorious and ancient past.
But others say only further scientific studies can tell whether such a claim can be made at all.
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