Are the events of Mahabharat historic facts ?

[Guest guest]

Last time I visited Kuruksetra I was told that the redness of the soil in

the purported battle area has been analyzed as being quite possibly due to

massive bloodshed there some thousands of years ago. Sorry, this is hearsay;

I can't point to a scientific study.

 

As regards lack of remains, until anyone actually searches, who can say?

Probably if a dig is made artifacts will be found, as for instance the

striking remains of submerged ancient Dvaraka were found when scientific

investigation was made.

[Guest guest]

achintya, "Bhakti Vikasa Swami"

<Bhakti.Vikasa.Swami@p...> wrote:

> Last time I visited Kuruksetra I was told that the redness of the

soil in

> the purported battle area has been analyzed as being quite possibly

due to

> massive bloodshed there some thousands of years ago. Sorry, this is

hearsay;

> I can't point to a scientific study.

 

I don't even see how such a thing can be maintained. The redness of

blood is due to oxygenated hemoglobin. Even though spilled on the

ground, the molecules will eventually break up and produce a very

different color. There is no way redness of soil can persist unless

some supernatural cause allowed for it to do so.

 

> As regards lack of remains, until anyone actually searches, who can

say?

> Probably if a dig is made artifacts will be found, as for instance

the

> striking remains of submerged ancient Dvaraka were found when

scientific

> investigation was made.

 

I didn't get a chance to respond to Aravind's earlier comment, that

historical remains ought to be out there somewhere, to substantiate

the historicity of Puraanic stories. He brought up dinosaur fossils

as an example. But most dinosaur skeletons are reconstructed from

incomplete fossil remains, so this is not a very good example for

skeptics to bring up. Furthermore, less than 1% of the fossil record

has actually been unearthed. Thus, there might be some hope of

finding things that occurred 5,000 years ago, but there would be

little or no hope of finding anything from 1-2 million years ago.

 

Bottom line: skeptics can't hang their hat on the absence of

historical remains, since finding historical remains is a difficult

business under any circumstance. Truth is always true regardless of

what evidence is present to support it. The skeptics cannot say that

the Puraanic histories are untrue pending historical evidence; all

they can say if they wish to remain objective is that there is a

paucity of historical evidence outside of the Puraanas/Itihaasas

themselves.

[Guest guest]

> Last time I visited Kuruksetra I was told that the redness of the soil in

> the purported battle area has been analyzed as being quite possibly due to

> massive bloodshed there some thousands of years ago. Sorry, this is

hearsay;

> I can't point to a scientific study.

>

> As regards lack of remains, until anyone actually searches, who can say?

> Probably if a dig is made artifacts will be found, as for instance the

> striking remains of submerged ancient Dvaraka were found when scientific

> investigation was made.

> Bhakti Vikasa Swami

 

Perhaps some perspective may be gained from another military camp site of

more recent history. During the American Revolutinary War, General George

Washington had a winter camp for his army at a place called Valley Forge.

Although most people may be unfamiliar with it, Valley Forge is a famous

place in American history. Due to a lack of proper clothes, poor shelter,

and frigid weather, thousands died from exposure and disease. To date,

however, not a single human remain has been excavated from Valley Forge.

They have found things like buttons, gun parts, and camp ground related

items, but no human remains. This was not a battle ground but a winter camp

site. As the Maharaja has suggested, perhaps with some sytematic

excavation, artifacts may be found. There would presumably have been camp

grounds in the environs surrounding Kurukshetra as well adn if I recall

correctly Prabhupada makes a reference to the opposing soldiers mixing in

the evenings following a days battle. It would be useful to know what work

has already been done by Indian (or British) archeaologists in this regard.

The larger issue of whether or not any serious systematic search has been

done on the Puranic sites as a whole.

 

ys, Santiparayana dasa