Posted on 08/27/2010 8:00:01 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
"The sea, which had been beating against the shores, suddenly broke the boundary that was imposed on it by nature. The sea rushed into the city. It coursed through the streets of the beautiful city. The sea covered up everything in the city. Arjuna saw the beautiful buildings becoming submerged one by one. He took a last look at the mansion of Krishna. In a matter of a few moments it was all over. The sea had now become as placid as a lake. There was no trace of the beautiful city, which had been the favourite haunt of all the Pandavas. Dwarka was just a name; just a memory." -- Mausala Parva, Mahabharata.
Does this account from the ancient Indian epic have a true historical core? Did Lord Krishna, indeed the favourite Indian deity, walk the streets of ancient Dwarka? Did Krishna, considered the Lord of the universe by a billion Hindus, rule the Yaduvanshi clan thousands of years ago?
Using archaeological, scriptural, literary and astronomical data, scholars and scientists are coming round to the view that Krishna was definitely a historical character.
The Rosetta stone, or the key, to the Krishna story is Dwarka. The strongest archaeological support comes from the structures discovered in the late 1980s under the seabed off the coast of modern Dwarka in Gujarat by a team of archaeologists and divers led by Dr S.R. Rao, one of India's most respected archaeologists. An emeritus scientist at the marine archaeology unit of the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, Rao has excavated a large number of Harappan sites, including the port city of Lothal in Gujarat.
(Excerpt) Read more at indianweekender.co.nz ...
Amazon has Ganguli’s. I highly recommend it. I’ve read Kamala Subramaniyam’s and two others, and Ganguli’s is so much better - about 5 times the size, plus extremely accurate translation - it can’t compare. The language is a bit archaic but you get used to it quickly.
:’D
When they gave up pestering people in airports as well as their vow of poverty, they took to charging people to come see them and make them participate. Kinda like Gallagher Live, but with comedy.
Thanks little jeremiah!
Accurate translations from Sanskrit are very important to me. Sanskrit words can have many meanings according to context and this can drastically alter how it is translated. People who are familiar with the spirit of the text and what was commonly understood at that time make all the difference. As well, of course, being good Sanskritists, which I am not! I understand quite a lot of words when transliterated in English but cannot read text and grammar? ha!
It’s gotten really expensive!
This one’s cheaper but it’s hard to tell if it’s complete:
The other entries seem to just be single volumes of one Parva or parts of Parvas.
I’ve seen them from obscure outfits that sell books from India much cheaper but then you wait forever and wonder if it’ll ever arrive.
You may read Ganguli’s translation online http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/maha/index.htm (in Sanskrit as well)
I did see that but bought the books, I think for $140. I can’t handle reading that much on computer, I like books in my hands.
Ganguly was a devout Hindu and wanted the Mahabharat accurately translated for not only the English speaking world but for the many Hindus who cannot read Sanskrit.
LOL! I loved that strip.
I think these same guys are in “Crimes and Misdemeanors”.
you are right — the Mahabharata is too detailed to not be describing an actual war that took place on the plains of India over Hastinapur (Delhi)
which strip IS that?
Sometimes the person will be little more than a minor warchief, and other times you have someone who was, in his time, considered a diety or near diety.
It's the same with cities. Right up until the time the first Sumerian cunuiform tablets were discovered buried in the mud researchers were writing elaborate books about how Sumer was FICTIONAL. I think they've given that up, but there's a crowd who like to discredit the Sumerian stories!
Dwarka appears to have been "resurrected" as a real place, and with today's technology researchers will be hauling up evidence of the civilization there.
I never doubted the place existed, but I suspect it was a bit more compact than is usually imagined. BTW, Cleopatra's Alexandria in Egypt suffered a similar fate but it was rediscovered about a decade ago.
yeah, a lot smaller than imagined! Google Mahabharata Indian television and you see something else , more Bollywood!
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