Posted on 06/28/2015 3:09:23 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The defunct underwater wing of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is set for a revival with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the government keen to establish the scientific veracity of Dwarka, the mythological submerged capital of Lord Krishna's kingdom, and the Rama Setu, a set of limestone shoals believed to date back to the Ramayana...
"The National Institute of Oceanography has the expertise. They will be training our fleet of young divers," said Dr RS Fonia, ASI joint director general.
The ministry of culture, the nodal ministry for ASI, is also looking at options to bring on board international experts from the field of ocean archaeology. "The government wants to clear all doubts and settle all debates about the existence of Dwarka and Rama Setu. The two sites will be a part of the Rama Circuit and the Krishna Circuit being proposed by ministry of tourism," said an official of the ministry. Besides the Rama and Krishna, developing tourism around Lord Buddha and Sufi shrines are also in the pipeline.
Both Dwarka and Rama Setu have a deep connect with Hindu mythology. While the submerged city of Dwarka in the west is believed by some to be the lost city of Krishna, Rama Setu, or Adam's Bridge, the limestone shoals from Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu to the northern coast of Sri Lanka, is taken by a section of Hindu devotees to be the bridge that Rama crossed to bring Sita back from the clutches of the demon king Ravana. With one site recalling the Mahabharata and the other the Ramayana, the RSS would like to make them part of the Rama, Krishna circuits being developed by the ministry of tourism.
(Excerpt) Read more at dnaindia.com ...
In before the nut jobs.
“Interestingly, the ASI currently does not have any expertise to conduct underwater excavations. Though a department exists on paper, ASI has neither the required equipment nor the skill-sets to excavate deep in the sea.”
We, the untrained, without equipment, who only exist on paper, plan to do the impossible, before our ink dissolves in the sea, destroying us.
I would especially like to see a good exploration of Dwarka be done.
Meant to add, as much as I would like to believe, I pretty certain that Rama Setu is just another “Bimini highway” on a larger scale. Before sea level rise, it probably was used by humans; they may have even left their mark, but...
The southern basin of the Dead Sea is gone now (the water level has dropped), but in the 1950s it was still submerged, though shallow. The strait was ‘bridged’ by a submerged ridgeline, and there was (in the 1950s) some diving being done to search for the Cities of the Plain. There was evidence of a roadway, actual paved road, that had been built along that ridge at some long-ago time when the waters were lower as they are today.
The Giant’s Causeway is a natural volcanic formation that exists on the coasts of N Ireland and Scotland; it was attributed to Fingal (Finn, etc). I’m not sure the columns are continuous, if they aren’t that would be curious. I’d be surprised if stodgy old gradualists in the UK have ever researched that. :’)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant%27s_Causeway
http://www.google.com/search?q=giant%27s+causeway+in++scotland
http://www.google.com/search?q=Rama+Setu
I remember reading those at the time, but the lion & reliefs are much too recent to have anything to do with the mythological events, by a factor of at least 10.
Unfortunately, the first links no longer connect to the stories; just Red Nova’s web site, which is only an ad for their computer services business.
Yeah, they are 7th c. There are more at the Dwarka keyword. :’)
Thank you many muches.
This sort of thing is fascinating.
I haven’t gone re-reading yet to brush up so help a fella out a bit, please.
This sunken city is the same one that’s associated with the Indus Valley civ?
(want to make sure I’m re-reading on the proper sunk city).
The Indus Valley, that’s mostly in Pakistan, this here is near the southern tip of India.
here’s the other one (s/b cambay, not cambray, oh well):
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/gulfofcambray/index
there’s still another (at least one more) in the Bay of Bengal.
Hey, whatever gets the research funded . . .
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