REVOLUTION IN INDOLOGY PART I

Evidence of Mahabharata from Outside the Indian Subcontinent

by

Narayan Joshi,Ph.D.

Introduction

Ramayana and Mahabharata have special place in the hearts of Indian people. The fabric of Hindu culture is woven with characters and values of heroes from these two epics. Among all heroes Rama and Krishna are worshipped by Indian people with loving hearts. Both epics were recited by people with devotion years after years. Stories of heroes from these two epics were retold thousands of times for character building of children in homes and schools. Almost all Indian people believed in the incidents described in these epics as having actually taken place in prehistoric times. Hence they are part of the ancient Indian history in the Hindu or Indian psyche regardless of their historicity. However there are Indian and alien scholars who believe otherwise.

Mahabharata is Mythology

If alien scholars dismiss Mahabharata as mythology, it is not a surprise. What surprises most Indians is that Indian scholars also accept alien views and dismiss Mahabharata as mythology. I offer one example. In January 2001, Dr. Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate economist, in annual conference of Indian History Congress at Alipur Campus of the University of Calcutta, while addressing delegates, said that Ramayana and Mahabharata do not have any historical value. These two epics are simply mythology and nothing but poets’ fancy. He also said that neither Rama nor Krishna was a historical personality and both of them were simply mythological.

These scholars are engaged in simply guesswork without giving us any concrete evidence. Some of them present us few names of rivers from Afghanistan and others talk superficially about Hindu Vedas and Iranian Avesta. Most of the information of these scholars is based on the theory of Aryan invasion (diluted to migration recently) promoted by alien (foreign) scholars in order to demote or discredit the ancient Indian antiquities. Discovery of Indo-European family of languages by Europeans and Anglo-Saxon (British) people, and their occupation
of India coincided and it was in the great interest of British rulers of India to rewrite the ancient history of India to suit their political agenda.

Archaeology of the Subcontinent

Archaeological discoveries from India and Pakistan in the past 100 years are not of any great help in proving historicity of Mahabharata. There are diverse opinions about the decipherment of Indus script. Moreover thousands of samples of script found in excavations were taken outside of the subcontinent by alien researchers. Many Indian scholars of diverse background like medical, engineering, sciences, and humanities have some knowledge of astronomy and astrology. Due to their interest in Mahabharata they also have tried to fix the year of Mahabharata war. Many of them arrived at the date somewhere between 3200 BC and 3000 BC. To the best of my knowledge nothing that old pointing to Mahabharata has been discovered in the soil of the subcontinent during archaeological excavations except those pointing to what is now called the Indus-Sarasvati civilization. But it has its own problem about decipherment of Indus script to the satisfaction of both indigenous and foreign scholars. Certainly pottery pieces that old are always found but would that be enough to prove that Hastinapur and Indraprastha were somewhere in north India?

Five Cities Claimed by Pandava Brothers

People of India are proud of Hastinapur and Indraprastha, which were world capitals according to some of them. Although no concrete archaeological evidence so far came forward for their existence in north India, north Indians are eager to show their locations somewhere in Uttar Pradesha or Harayana. They even claim that five villages claimed by five Pandava brothers were Sonapat, Marpata, Panipat, Indapat and one more in the same area. However, the names of five cities (not villages) claimed by five Pandava brothers were Indraprastha, Avisthala, Vrikasthala, Varanavata and Makandi (capital of the south Panchala of the king Drupada) as per Mahabharata. In short, general belief of people may be different from actual references in the epic. This happens because the original Mahabharata is in Sanskrit and very few people nowadays have knowledge of Sanskrit, nor time and patience to read the epic in detail. Many read short stories from Mahabharata. Scholars differ again on different editions of the epic. Some of them claim that there are many interpolations in the epic over the known Indian history of 2500 years.

Indian Dried-up Sarasvati River

To my questions about the population that was extant in the rest of the world when Mahabharata war was fought in India and about the existence of Indo-European language family, some Indian scholars reply saying, “In the ancient prehistoric times Indians pushed their brothers beyond Khyber Pass based upon the story of children (Anu, Druhyu, Yadu and Puru) of Yayati.” So they are not interested to know anything outside of India in order to understand Mahabharata history. Recently patriotic Indians are happy with discovery of dried-up Sarasvati River in Rajasthan area. Now their resolve not to look outside of India is even fortified by the book of a western scholar promoting the dried-up Sarasvati River of the subcontinent. But I have a different problem. I found Sarasvati outside of India. Not one but many Sarasvatis outside of the subcontinent.

Unsatisfied with the present research I decided to perform my own research of the epic. There was a second reason for this. My research in Phonemic symbolism (Varnavada) was telling me that Sanskrit is a special language. But alien scholars of Indo-European language family are firm believers that Sanskrit was developed in Indian subcontinent from the mixture of language of invading Aryans and indigenous linguistic elements. Due to similarities between Vedas and Avesta some of them believe that Sanskrit was brought to India from ancient Iran. So I decided to go into the ancient history of countries immediately west of Pakistan, namely Afghanistan and Iran.

Sarasvati of Afghanistan

I found river Sarasvati in Afghanistan, not one but seven Sarasvatis. It was a psychologically troublesome discovery because I was a great believer of Triveni Sangama of Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvati in north India. Not only I found Sarasvati outside of India but also I found Ganga and Yamuna outside of India. At this stage my mind started oscillating with thoughts;- did Indian River names went outside or outside river names came to India? Where is the truth? The proponents of “Out of India” theory will support the first possibility while the proponents of “Aryan invasion theory” will support the second possibility. In order to find the truth destiny took me to the ancient history of all countries outside of India in my research in the past 28 years. It changed me completely. Now in front of my eyes the whole Mahabharata unfolded not only over north India but also over the whole Eurasian continental landmass.

Prehistoric Europeans Show Asian Features

The news article appeared in August 7, 2007 issue of daily Beaumont Enterprise, USA. In the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the international team of researchers reported that Asians appear to have played a larger part in the settlements of Europe than did Africans. The team led by Maria Martinon-Torres of the National Center for the Investigation of Human Evolution, in Burgos, Spain, reached that conclusion after analyzing more than 5000 fossil teeth from early hominins, an early form of human predecessors. After studying ancient teeth from Africa, Asia and Europe, the researchers report that early European populations had more Asian features than African ones.

Brown Masters of White Europe

Donald A. Mackenzie in his book on India reviews the problem of Aryan origin. He suggested that there existed brown masters of the white European population in prehistoric Europe. The migration of the cremating people through Europe was westward, southward and northward. If the ancient people did migrate from Asia to Europe in prehistoric times why did they go to Europe? Did circumstances force them to move or they were surrounding their enemies? Here comes my research on Mahabharata. Where did the war take place--- in India or in Samanta Panchaka? And where was the Samanta Panchaka?

What will you find in my book?

You will find that the epic war was a global conflict. You will find many nations of the epic spread over Eurasian landmass. You will find Ladies’ kingdom of the epic outside of the subcontinent. You will find Indra’s Nandanavana outside of India. You will find Mahabharata dynasties ruling the countries outside of the subcontinent in the known history. You will find Indian River names given to European rivers. The book will raise many new questions in your mind. Where were Dvaita-vana, Kaamada-vana, Kaamyakavana, Khaandava-vana and Khaandava-prastha whose capital was Indraprastha? Please look forward to reading my book-"Evidence of Mahabharata from Outside of India."

N. R. Joshi.