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        Prehistoric India: (Bharat)

The Indus Valley Culture (IVC): Technically, the Indus Valley Culture today lies mostly in modern day Pakistan. In its heyday c. 2,000 BC, it ranked alongside the Egyptian and Sumerian cultures in greatness. Noticeably, although there are no significant monumental temple remains found in most other prehistoric civilisations, we have inherited instead, large city complexes, laid out in grids, with common baths, granaries, sewers, metalwork etc, all of which were abandoned several centuries after they were built, ironically believed o be due to severe flooding of the Indus river (Harappa was re-built six times). There is no question that the Indus Valley Civilisation had strong contact with the west as several Indus Valley seals have been found in Sumerian settings, and vica-versa.

 The discovery of an underwater city in the bay of Cambay has put India back on the prehistoric map. Fragments of wood from the site have yielded Radio-carbon dates at over 7,000 B.C. putting into question our whole perception of prehistory. Should this early date be confirmed, it will open a whole new chapter of human development.

The Indian subcontinent, which is effectively separated to the North by the Himalayan mountains, has been a melting pot of continuous cultural activity for thousands of years, influencing the development of numerous later cultures all around the world.

 

Article: (14 Jan, 2013). AFP.

'Indians Broke Australian Isolation 4,000 years ago'

'Ancient Indians migrated to Australia and mixed with Aborigines 4,000 years ago, bringing the dingo's ancestor with them, according to new research that re-evaluates the continent's long isolation before European settlement. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, reported "evidence of substantial gene flow between Indian populations and Australia about 4,000 years ago".       (Quick-link)

 

 

   Prehistoric India:

India was home to the once great Indus Valley civilisation, which included more than a thousand settlements and declined at about 1,700 BC. (1)

Noorbergen (9), tells us that 'In India, dolmens dot the land from Nerbuddha River to Cape Comorin. At the latest count (1977), the Neermul jungle of central India has yielded at least 2,000 of the monuments...and another 2,200 have been located in Dacca'. (9)

Mr.J.Babington in 1823 that discovered the first megaliths of Malabar. The first recorded excavation of megaliths was perhaps done by Capt Meadows Taylor. He had excavated the megaliths of Sorepur in 1853. The oldest megalith in India is in Mangadu in Kerela which has been dated to about 2,890 BP.

(http://megaliths-india.blogspot.com/)

(More about the Indus Valley Civilisation)

 

The 2004 tsunami uncovered an ancient underwater city in the Bay of Cambay.

The island city of Dwarika's construction is recorded in the Mahabharata - along with it's sinking into the sea. It was found only recently by pioneering team led by India's most revered and respected archaeologist Dr S.R. Rao and is heralded as the biggest archaeological find after the discovery of Troy. It was a submerged and lost city on the west coast of India.

The site has yielded artefacts dated at 9,500 BP. (7,500 BC)

Work in peripheral land areas of the Gulf of Cambay like Kathana, Lotal and Motibaur gave evidences of major earthquakes in the Cambay areas in the following period (1) 2780 � 150 years BP, (2) 3983 � 150 BP and (3) 7540 � 130 BP. Herein lies the evidence of the end of the Gulf of Cambay civilization.

In the old major event at about 7,600 BC, the southern metropolis appear to have been thrown down by faulting and the nearby sea appear to have inundated it. Because of this the people appear to have proceeded north in the elevation higher than the sea level and established the 2nd or northern metropolis.

This also got affected by faulting due to earth quakes around 4,000 BP and destroyed by the 2780 � 150 BP EQ, by down throwing the metropolis and sea transgressed the area to completely submerge it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1768109.stm

(Other Underwater Structures)

 

Rama's Bridge.

Space images taken by NASA reveal an ancient bridge in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka.

The recently discovered bridge currently named Adam's Bridge is made of a chain of shoals, stretching  around 30km across the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka. Of interest concerning this formation, although by no means substantiating the argument that it was man-made, is the section of the Indian epic, the 'Ramayana', which mentions a bridge between Rameshwaram (India) and the Sri-Lankan coast, constructed under the supervision of the dynamic and invincible figure of Rama, who is the incarnate of the supreme.

(Historical references on Rama's Bridge)
 

Ancient Indian Texts:

The Rig Veda (Rg Veda):

The Rig Veda is the oldest Indian text and one of the oldest surviving in the world. (3) The collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns were collected over the span of a few hundred years and are counted amongst the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism known as the Vedas. Although they are often quoted as having been written in the second millennium B.C. by western academics, there is no actual proof of this and there are strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the early Iranian Avesta, deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times. It is suggested by Asian scholars that they may date as far back at 7,000 B.C. (3) an idea supported by recent discoveries in the Gulf of Cambay.

Astronomy and the Rig Veda: It is claimed that the Rig Veda is primarily concerned with astronomical information from which the following can be determined:

Rig Veda astronomers were aware of the spherical nature of the Earth.

Descriptions of auroral displays demonstrate that they had visited latitudes as far north as 80.

References to the 'twin Asvins' as either 'morning stars' or 'evening stars' which sometimes move 'by a path that leads aright' and at times 'by a path that leads direct' (1.139.4) are apparently descriptions of the retrograde movements of Mercury and Venus.

Incredibly, the Rig Veda (and Mahabharata) talk about a cosmic cycle called 'Brahma's Day', a period of time consisting of 4,320,000,000 years, (4) in relation to an expanding and retracting universe. (smaller versions of this figure, that is 4,320,000 years constitute a great age which is subdivided into four 'Yuga's'. Interestimgly, such a period of time is also found in the lore of the Sumerians. (3)

 

The Mahabharata and Ramayana:

The two great epics of Indian history. The stories they tell are inter-twinned with mythology, but it is suspected that there might be basis for fact somewhere, as is common with many strong localised myths.

The events of the Ramayana occur before the Mahabharata. They concern the adventures of lord Rama. Rama is the son of King Dasaratha, but he is also an incarnation of the god Vishnu, born in human form to do battle with the demon lord Ravana.

When was the Mahabharata Written?

In the Mahabharata references to sequential solar and lunar eclipses and references to some celestial observations have been made. Dr. R. N. Iyengar, of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore examined the relevant references and searched for compatible dates by making use of planetarium software (PVIS and EZC). 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.

(Reference: Indian Journal of History of Science/38.2/2003/77-115).

The Indian researcher B. G. Sidharth (3), has calculated both the time and place that the great war of the Mahabarata took place: He has based his findings on the description of a lunar eclipse in the text, which suggests that the battle took place somewhere just above the 35� in the eastern parts of China (Xixiang province) on 24th June 1311 B.C. It has subsequently been revealed by archaeological evidence that on this very spot and during the 2nd millennium B.C. there lived an Indo-European people conjectured to be the Tocharians, the Tush�ras of the Mahabharata.

The events of the Ramayana take place in the Treta Yuga, when the world is young and only somewhat corrupted. The events of the Mahabharata however,  take place much later at the end of the Dwapara Yuga, when the world is far more grim and corrupt than in Rama's times. The violent and tragic events at the end of the Mahabharata mark the end of the Dwapara Yuga and the beginning of the Kali Yuga, the worst age which we find ourselves in today.

(Ancient Texts Homepage - Includes the complete Hindu texts)

 

 

 

 

The Ashoka pillar - Delhi.

 

India - The 'Iron Pillar of Delhi' (Photo, left), in the courtyard of Qutub Minar in Delhi. It is a column of Cast Iron weighing approx. 6 tons and standing 23ft 8 inches high, with a diameter of 16 inches. The column had stood in the temple of Mutra, capped with 'Garuda', an image of a bird incarnation of the God Vishnu. Muslim invaders later destroyed the 'Garuda' and tore the column from its original setting, re-erecting it in Delhi in the 11th century AD. It bears an inscription of an epitaph to King Chandraupta II, who died in 413AD. The bar shows some weathering, but unusually little rust. (9)

(Other examples of ancient Metallurgy)

 

 

 

The Hindu 'Vimana's':

The Indian sacred scriptures make numerous references to flight. Incredibly, the most ancient and sacred texts discuss high speed manoeuvres, invisibility, and even a flight to the moon.

The Hindu Samaranga Sutadhara contains 230 stanzas that are devoted to flight. It describes in detail, every possible aspect of flying.  The International Academy off Sanskrit Research in Mysore, India, conducted a study of the ancient texts and published its findings in a book called 'Aeronautics, a manuscript From the Prehistoric Past'. The following are a few translated excerpts from the text:

'The aircraft which can go by its own force like a bird - on the earth or water or through the air - is called a Vimana. That which can travel in the sky from place to place is called a Vimana by the sage of old.'

'The body must be strong and durable and built of a light wood [Lagha-daru], shaped like a bird in flight with wings outstretched [mahavinhanga]. Within it must be placed the mercury engine, with its heating apparatus made of iron underneath'.

'In the larger craft [Daru-vimana], because it is built heavier, [alaghu], four strong containers of mercurymust be built into the interior. When these are heated by controlled fire from the iron containers, the Vimana possesses thunder power through the mercury. The iron engine must have properly welded joints to be filled with mercury, and when the fire is conducted to the upper parts, it develops power with the roar of a lion. By means of the energy latent in mercury, the driving whirlwind is set in motion, and the traveller sitting inside the Vimana may travel in the air, to such a distance as to look like a pearl in the sky'.(2)

(Other examples of ancient flight)

 

 

Allahabad, India - Formerly called Prayag, and listed in the Mahabharata as the last and most important of 270 ancient holy places. Prayag was considered the mythical creation point of the universe. The chief cult shrines at Prayag stood on an island with a shrine to the primordial serpent who protected the eternal tree (seen by Hsuan Tsang in 644). A goddess-shrine was recently found south of Allahabad that dates to 11,000 BC, along with Mesolithic cave paintings of a dancing shaman with horned head-dress, bangles and a trident, closely resembling Shiva. (1)

Allahabad is an ancient Earth navel, and is still witness to one of the greatest concentrations of humans in the world.

(More about Earth Navels)

 

 

Rock-cut Temples:

Ellora Temple. One of the finest granite temples in India.

 

 

(Right) Vittala temple in Hampi: The wheels actually move.

 

 

 

 

 

(Left) Kailasa Rock cut Temple. One of several in the region.

 

 

 

Maize (Corn) in India.?

The images above suggest so... alternatives on a postcard..!!

 

Article: March, 2008: Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaobotany.

'Investigation of botanical remains from an ancient site, Tokwa in Uttar Pradesh, has brought to light the agriculture- based subsistence economy during the Neolithic culture (3rd-2nd millennium BC). An important find among the botanical remains is the seeds of South American custard apple, regarded to have been introduced by the Portuguese in the 16th century. The remains of custard apple as fruit coat and seeds have also been recorded from other sites in the Indian archaeological context, during the Kushana Period (AD 100-300) in Punjab and Early Iron Age (1300-700 BC). The factual remains of custard apple, along with other stray finds discussed in the text, favour a group of specialists, supporting with diverse arguments, the reasoning of Asian - American contacts, before the discovery of America by Columbus in 1498'.

(Link to Article)

 

A similar object appears commonly in Mesopotamian art.

(More about Sumeria)

 

 

Sphinx's in India: 'Purushamriga's'

At the Temple of  Chidambaram on a raised platform, two sphinxes are sitting on either side of a grand doorway, guarding the entrance of an ancient temple. They are known to the worshippers and the priests as the divine beings that ward off evil and remove sins. A mysterious smile adorns their human faces, which are surrounded by full lion's mane. One is male, the other is female, and as a faithful couple they have been seated in this way side by side for many centuries. According to this temple's tradition, they dissolve the negative vibrations of all who look at them as they enter the temple.

This Sphinx of India is also playing a role in various legends and mythologies. Some of these mythologies are part of local traditions and describe the purushamriga as the founder of that particular temple, or as otherwise playing a role in its tradition. But they are also found in particular episodes of the great Indian epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana. And also in some of the Puranas. Thus there is a legend recounting the purushamriga as one of the characters involved with the legendary events surrounding the birth of Tamasa Manu, one of the earlier Manus or human ancestors. When the sons of Lord Rama and Sita leave the ashram of Vasishtha to go in search of their father, they meet the purushamriga on the way. The depiction of the purushamriga as a devotee worshipping the Shiva Linga refers to an episode from the Mahabharata that is well known in the South of India.

(More about Sphinx's)

(Indus Valley Civilisation)

 

 

References:

1). Michael Wood. In Search of the First Civilisations. 1992. BBC Books.
2) Peter Lancaster Brown. 'Megaliths, Myths and Men'. 1977. Book Club Associates.
3). B. G. Sidharth. The Celestial Key to the Vedas. 1999. Inner Traditions Publ.
4). See Dimmit and VAN Buitenen, Classical Hindu Mythology, for a review of this figure.
9). Rene Noorbergen. Secrets of the Lost Races. 1977. New English Library.

 

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