dwarka research methodology by sanket patole
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Research Methodology - DWARAKA
07 March 2012
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Mrunali Gothankar C-14 Priyanka Patil C-25 Ruchir Kelkar C-27 Ruchira Paradkar C-28 Sanket Patole C-31 Shameesh Joshi C-34
1. Getting to the Site…
• By Road: Dwarka is on the state highway from Jamnagar to
Dwarka. Direct buses available from Jamnagar and Ahmedabad.
• By Train: Dwarka is a station on the Ahmedabad-Okha broad gauge railway line, with trains connecting it to Jamnagar (137 km), Rajkot (217 km) and Ahmedabad (471 km), and some trains that continue all the way down the coast through Vadodara, Surat, Mumbai, Goa, Karnataka, to the southern tip of India in Kerala.
• By Air: Nearest airport is Jamnagar (137 km.)
2. Dwarka in Gujarat tourism… • Depending on who you are, what you are about to read can seem anything from myth to legend to reality. Turn back the cosmic clock, let your imagination plummet suddenly into 1500 BC, and you may begin to recreate in your mind’s eye, a city of gold – Dwarka • The mesmerizing kingdom of Lord Krishna. Ranchhodrai, as Lord Krishna is affectionately called in Gujarat, came to Dwarka from Mathura to build his new kingdom where he would later spend a significant part of his life. • Located at the western tip of the Saurashtra peninsula, this town enjoys remarkable importance in Hindu lore.
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• It is the only place considered both - one of the four principal holy places (char dham), as well as one of the seven ancient towns (sapta puris) to visit. For this reason, millions of pilgrims and historical scholars have come here over the centuries.
• It is believed that immediately after the death of Lord Krishna and the consequent demise of the Yadav dynasty a massive flood swallowed all of Dwarka and submerged the city of gold to the bottom of the ocean. However, current excavations give us reason to think this myth has a historical basis, as most myths do.
3. Rise of Krishna's Dwarka… • Worshipped as the 8th incarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu, Krishna is believed to have been born sometime between 1500 and 700 BC in Mathura, just south of Delhi in the modern state of Uttar Pradesh. • Krishna killed the oppressive king Kansa, angering his father-in-law Jarasandh. • Jarasandh attacked Krishna's kingdom 17 times in a lengthy war as he tried to avenge the death of his son-in-law. • The people of Mathura, the Yadavs, suffered heavy casualties. Krishna knew that his people would not be able to survive another war with Jarasandh, as the ongoing conflict was not only taking lives but also impacting trade and farming. • Krishna, along with the Yadav dynasty, crossed Gomantak (Girnar Mountain), and arrived at the coast of Saurashtra at a distance of 32 km from Somnath.
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• HE arrived near the present day Okha and established his kingdom on Bet Dwarka.
• It is believed that Samudradev, the lord of the sea, blessed Krishna with a land measuring twelve yojanas (773 square km)
• Vishwakarma, the celestial architect in Hinduism, granted Krishna's wishes and built him his new kingdom.
• This new capital flourished with such wealth and opulence that it was called the City of Gold
• Krishna came to be known as Dwarkadheesh (King of Dwarka).
• Krishna's life goal was to re-establish a kingdom based on the principal of Sat Dharma
• comes from the words dwara, meaning 'door,' and ka, meaning 'Brahma.'
Characteristics of the City… • The city was built by Vishwakarma on the order of Lord Krishna. Land was reclaimed from these near the western shores of Saurashtra. • A city was planned and built here. Dwarka was a planned city, on the banks of Gomati River. • This city was also known as Dvaramati, Dvaravati and Kushsthali. •It had six well- organized sectors, residential and commercial zones, wide roads, plazas, palaces and many public utilities.
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• A hall called "Sudharma Sabha" was built to hold public meetings. The city also boasted having he possession of a good sea harbour. • The city had 700,000 palaces made of gold, silver and other precious stones. Each one of lord Krishna's wive had her own palace. Besides this, the city had beautiful gardens filled with flowers of all seasons and beautiful lakes.
4. Myth or Reality?
• Recent findings indicate that these stories of ancient Dwarka have a historical basis. Thirty copper coins, a foundation of boulders, old structures including a circular one and pottery samples dating back around 1500 BC were excavated. • The recent underwater study on the coastal water of Dwarka conducted by
the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) reveals the existence of a city dated to the 2nd millennium BC.
• The search for the lost city was going on since 1930's. •Explorations between 1983 and 1990 have revealed a township that was built in six sectors along the banks of a river.
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• They have also found a well-fortified township of Dwarka, that extended more than half a mile from the shore. • The foundation of boulders on which the city's walls were erected proves that the land was reclaimed from the sea. • The general layout of the city of Dwarka described in ancient texts corresponds with that of the submerged city discovered by the Marine Archaeology Unit (MAU)
5. Offshore exploration… • Initiated in 1982, Resulted in large semicircle, rectangular, stones, blocks, structure. • Blocks of these have an L-shape cut, in addition to a provision for dowels. • These structures have 2 to 3 courses with a 60 to 80 cm height. • The average size of a block is 95 × 55 × 25 cm. • Exposed portions of the blocks are covered with a thick growth of seaweeds and a pinkish layer of marine growth. • Gujarati scripts, which suggests that the structure may not be very old. • Among 75 stones 34 have a circular upper hole and two lower holes are square or rectangular. • Include Indo-Arabian and ring stone anchors.
6. Scientific Techniques used…
• Under the guidance of Dr. Rao, a great marine archaeologist, a team consisting of expert-
• underwater explorers • trained diver-photographers • and archaeologists was formed.
• The technique of geophysical survey was combined with the use of-
•echo-sounders •mud-penetrators •underwater metal detectors.
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• This team carried out 12 marine archaeological expeditions between 1983 to 1992 and articles and antiquities recovered were sent to Physical Research Laboratory for dating. •The artifacts were found to belong to the period between 15th to 18th Century B.C. In his great work, The Lost City of Dwaraka, Dr. Rao has given scientific details of these discoveries and artifacts.
• Second round of excavations in 1979 under S.R. Rao's direction. He found a distinct pottery known as lustrous red ware, which could be more than 3,000 years old.
• The objective of the excavation is to know the antiquity of the site, based on material evidence.
• Students from Gwalior, Lucknow, Pune, Vadodara, Varanasi and Bikaner helped the ASI archaeologists.
7. General Findings…
• The engineers performed some dredging operations there and they pulled up-
• human fossil bones • fossil wood • stone tools • Pieces of pottery and many other things indicating that it indeed was a human habitation site that they had.
• And they were able to do more intensive sonar work there and were able to identify more structures. • They appeared to have been laid out on the bank of a river that had been flowing from the Indian subcontinent out into that area. That river was the
legendary Saraswati river.
• They have done a Radiocarbon testing on a piece of wood from the
underwater site which yielded an age of 9,500 years which would
place it near the end of the last Ice Age.
• There were actually two radiocarbon dates:
• one about 7500 years old and another about 9500 years old
which seemed to be the strongest one.
8. Research team and techniques…
• The work of Shri Z.D.Ansari and Shri M.S.Mate Dr. S.R.Rao “The World Ship Trust Award”
• Dr. S.R.Rao’s team
• By using –
•thermo-luminescence •carbon dating and •other modern scientific techniques
9. Dr. S.R.Rao’s conclusions…
• Building the city of Dwarka
• Lustrous Redware Pottery items
• The most famous rectangular seal
• Mudra (seal) as a mark of identification.
• NIO has carried out onshore and inter-tidal zone explorations and a few trial trenches were laid to trace a proper cultural sequence of Bet Dwarka.
• Proto-historic period which includes seal, two inscriptions, a copper fishhook and late Harappan pottery.
• Offshore explorations near present Bet Dwarka jetty brought to light a number of stone anchors of different types that include triangular, Indo-Arabian and ring stones.
• Onshore and inter-tidal zone explorations have indicated some kind of shoreline shifting around Bet Dwarka Island as a few sites get submerged during high tide.
10. NIO explorations and findings…
11. Documental Research ‘Dwarka in Mahabharat…’
• Every Indian, either living in India or living outside India, knows about the two epics that dominates the Indian psyche and the psyche of the terra firma.
• These epics are the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
• The Mahabharata, originally written by Sage Ved Vyas in Sanskrit, has been translated and adapted into numerous languages and has been set to a variety of interpretations.
• With more than 74,000 verses, long prose passages, and about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahabharata is one of the longest epic poems in the world.
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• The Mahabharata has a tonal length of more than 90,000 verses. Everything about the Mahabharata is huge, from its sprawling length, to the enormous breadth of0 its vision.
• The longest of all epics is like an encyclopedia, world all on its own.
• At its core is the powerful and moving story of the Pandava and Kaurava cousins who ultimately fight the greatest war of all, Kurukshetra.
• But that is not all, the Mahabharata is full of mythic stories, vast time spans of history, detailed geography and a massive body of spiritual teachings.
12. Astronomical findings… • In the Mahabharata references to sequential solar and lunar eclipses as also
references to some celestial observations have been made.
• Dr. R.N.Iyengar, the great scientist of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
examined relevant references.
• Using of Planetarium software.
• He concluded that most of these references were internally consistent and
that the eclipses and celestial observations of Mahabharata belong to the
period 1493 BC - 1443 BC of Indian History.
• In the Mahabharata there are references to three sequential solar eclipses
and to some other planetary positions Sabha Parva (79.29), Bhisma Parva
(3.29),The beginning of the war on Kartika Purnima (Bhisma Parva 3.14 to
3.19)
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• Epic says –
• The first solar eclipse comes in the Sabha Parva.
• There is a reference to the second solar eclipse in the Bhisma Parva.
• Eclipse occurred after 14-15 years of the first solar eclipse
• Reference to the third solar eclipse comes in the Mausala Parva occurring in
the 36th year of the Mahabharata War.
• As per epic 1st and 2nd were visible from Kurukshetra.
• 3rd eclipse was visible from Dwaraka.
Continues… • According to Planetarium software.
• On 19.3.1493 BC there was solar eclipse visible from Kurukshetra.
• After about 15 years, on 1st June, 1478 BC, there was a solar eclipse visible
from Kurukshetra .
• In the 36th year after Mahabharata war in October 1478 BC, a solar eclipse
could be seen from Dwarka on 7.1.1443 BC
• These conclusions have emerged from astronomists’, marine archeologists’
findings, as well as by the historians who have analysed the genealogy
chart of rulers given in Puranas.
