An India more ancient than Ancient India

There is an India more ancient than recorded history, more hoary than recorded time. This pre-history era of the Indian sub-continent has been opening up to the world only the past 70 years or so.

Its monuments are at Mahenjo Daro, Harappa, Dholavira, Lothal and many other archaeological sites scattered on the Indian subcontinent. Archaeologists agree that these ‘recovered’ cities were well planned and had a high degree of sanitation at a time when the world was thought to have been near the end of the Neolithic Age.

The above sites and recently discovered cities beneath the waves off the coast Gujarat and Tamil Nadu attest to a civilisation of such a high standard that it was only rivalled by western civilisations just a thousand years ago, offering this delicious tit bit that Asia was at least 2000 years more advanced than Europe of that time.

Western dating practices place some of these finds around 3500 BCE, with 2500 – 1900 BCE as the height of this civilisation. Originally known as the Indus Valley civilisation it is now called the Harappan civilisation as cities lost in time are discovered outside of this valley on the subcontinent.

The datings, carbon and otherwise, makes the Indian subcontinent civilisation a contemporary of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilisations. Yet, each decade of research throws up datings that push the start of this civilisation further back in the annals of time.

With such findings, our Indian mythology is getting validated. There existed a civilisation on the subcontinent that far surpassed any of its time, that went back into time immemorial (for the West at least). Only by studying Indian mythology can a picture of the civilisation be somehow composed. Archaeological science will not presently validate this civilisation as anything more than its interpretation of the Bronze Age.

Indian scholars are putting the Mahabharata and the existence of Krishna into the timeframe of what is called the Harappan civilisation. Indian scholars now generally agree that Krishna passed away on January 23, 3102 BCE. This date was arrived at by comparing and relating ancient documents’ time frames with the Gregorian calendar. Any reading of the mythology surrounding Krishna tells us of the advances in that civilisation, of the level of knowledge demonstrated and the achievements of a culture steeped in art, architecture and technology.

Even if we take away the somewhat astonishing episodes of weaponry demonstrated during the Mahabharata war,  the level of advancement remains incredible. Vehicles that fly tops the list: what technology was available to the ‘Harappan civilisation’ to allow for such a vehicle to exist? The ‘vimana’ references are peppered throughout both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. A whole school of thought existed around this technology, and still does.

Another amazing Indian text the Agastya Samhita gives the precise directions for constructing electrical batteries:

"Place a well-cleaned copper plate in an earthenware vessel. Cover it first by copper sulfate and then moist sawdust. After that put a mercury-amalgamated-zinc sheet on top of an energy known by the twin name of Mitra-Varuna. Water will be split by this current into Pranavayu and Udanavayu. A chain of one hundred jars is said to give a very active and effective force." Agastya Samhita (the Indian Princes' Library).

Leaving aside the technology from our mythology, the genealogy and the time frames of the yugas appear to correspond well with Harappan Civilisation. The Dwapar Yuga ends with Krishna’s death (or Parikchit’s death, depending on whom you are talking). Krishna’s royal line continues down to the Mauryan kings of the middle ages, 138 generations, noted and listed by Indian historians and harking back to 3000 BC.

The trend has been to talk of Ancient India as being pre-Moghul (16th century and after): the time of Asoka, Harshavardhan, Guptas, Chauhans, going right back to the time of the Greeks in India.

In the South the kingdoms of Pandyans, Cholas, Cheras, Kadambas, Western Gangas, Pallavas, Vijayanagar and Chalukyas dominated in this so-called ancient times.

In the great timeframe of cyclic Indian yugas, this so-called ancient India is really pretty modern. The ancient India that existed pre-3000 BC and maybe all the way up to 30,000 BCE is only accounted for in our mythology.

The discovery of the sunken city off the Gujarat coast could easily be Krishna’s Dwarka, which sank at his death. What of the sunken city off the Tamil Nadu coast? It is a very interesting “fill in the gaps” that reveals to us what a great civilisation we had, and are heading towards if we get it right. The past, in our case, is the blueprint for our future.

To be continued: Part II – A language as yet undeciphered: The text of Harappa that baffles linguists.

* Nalinesh Arun is a former Fiji journalist who lived in India for many years and is now based in Christchurch