Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India

encyclopedia

ARCHAEOLOGY

The contact between India and Bahrain goes back to Harappan

times. A circular Bahrain seal was found at Lothal and rectangular

Indus seals with Indus animal, motifs and script are found in Bah-

rain, Failaka and Mesopotamia. The

Harivamsa

(Bhavishya

Parva

) refers to the use of the seal

(mudra)

for identifying the citi-

zens of Dwaraka when the city was attacked by Salva, king of

Saubha. To ensure that only genuine residents entered the city,

each citizen had to carry a seal and it was the duty of the guard to

check it. It may be recalled here that seals were issued by guilds,

kings and monasteries in the early historical period also.

An earthen votive jar found in the intertidal zone of Bet Dwar-

aka is another antiquity of great significance. The inscription on it

is in the Late Harappan phonetic script evolved from the Late Indus

Valley cursive writing. It is written from left to right while the

Indus inscriptions are from right to left. The characters are similar

to Semitic alphabets of the 15th-14th century B.C. which were used

by Early Canaanite and Phoenician scribes as well as by those at

Lothal. It is now possible to trace the Semitic alphabetic script to

the Indus script. The Bet Dwaraka inscription reads

Mahaha

(mahha) gacha (kaccha) shah-pa

(fig:28) conveying the sense

“sea

(mahakaccha)

lord

(Shah)

protect

(pa).

Since the last 3 signs

resemble signs for ya ja and sa respectively in Brahmi script of the

3rd century B.C. the inscription provides a link between the Indus

Valley script and Asokan Brahmi. It also confirms that the worship

of the Sea God referred to in ancient texts was in vogue at Dwar-

aka. The Bet Dwaraka inscription suggests that an offering was

made to the Sea God by one who sought his protection.

The presence of some of the earthenwares such as the perfo-

rated jar and beaker indicate the existence of a township prior to the

building of a town in the Mahabharata period. In fact the

Ma-

habharata

makes a reference to Kusasthali built in the pre-epic

period. This settlement is assigned to pre-I period of Bet Dwaraka.

A coppersmith’s stone mould which was used for casting spear-

heads and iron stakes to which the epic makes a reference are

found. The technique of forging of iron nails and stakes also points

to the fact that iron technology was in its initial stage. It is essential

to remember while fixing the date of the Bharata War and the foun-

dation of Dwaraka city that iron weapons were used for the first

time in the Bharata War. The earliest date of iron so far known in

India is 1500 B.C. at Gufkrol in Kashmir.

The 3 holed stone anchors found in Dwaraka waters (fig:43)

are reminiscent of the anchors which were in use in Syria arid

Cyprus in the 14th-12th centuries B.C. Dwaraka must have been a

major port in the 15th-16th century B.C. as indicated by the pottery

dated by TL method to 3520 years Before Present. Among other

important findings are the Lustrous Red Ware bowl, the dish-on-

stand etc in Bet Dwaraka Waleri. The cultural sequence of Bet

Dwaraka and Dwaraka taken together cover three occupational

phases namely Period Pre-I, Period I and Period - II. Period Pre-I

is datable to 17th-16th century B.C., Period -I to 16th-15th century

B.C. and Period II to 3rd century B.C. to 5th century A.D.

All the evidence from Dwaraka and Bet Dwaraka was placed

before the experts attending the First, Second and Third confer-

ences on Marine Archaeology of Indian Ocean countries held at

Jamnagar near Dwaraka 1987, at Bangalore in 1990 and at Dhar-

wad in 1992. They were of the view that archaeological and

oceanographic evidences corroborate the

Mahabharata

tradition

regarding the submergence of a port city which could be dated 1500

B.C. The epic has recorded many historical events. Among them

the founding and submergence of Dwaraka, the use of seal (mudra)

and iron stakes etc. are well-established by underwater excava-

tion.

The present exploration has yielded data useful for eustatic

studies also. The net rise in sea level near Dwaraka where fort

walls and bastions are

in situ

in the sea bed is 10m during the last

3500 years. Obviously the city must have been built when the sea

level was 10m lower than at present. Reclamation of the sea for

building Dwaraka city has been referred to in the

Mahabharata

which is also corroborated by the construction of protection walls

on dry boulder foundation in low lying areas of the city. As the

Harappans could build a dock it is no wonder if the reclamation was

resorted to by the engineers of ancient Dwaraka for building a port

city. Another point to be noted here is that the island of Bet

Dwaraka was connected by a land strip with the main land when the

sea level was lower in 1500 B.C. Dwaraka of

Mahabharata

seems

to be the name not only of the city but also of a region (Daru-

kavana). Dwaraka was a city-state with Pindara, Nageswar and

Bet Dwaraka as its suburban towns.

The prosperity of Dwaraka -Sankhodhara (Bet Dwaraka) in

the second millennium B.C. was due to the shell-working and

pearl-fishing industries, and flourishing overseas trade with the

Persian Gulf countries. But building in the sheltered harbour of Bet

Dwaraka and the facilities afforded for berthing large vessels in

Dwaraka port were other factors that brought prosperity to

Darukavana.

Pindara and Nageswar were other shell-working and

pearl fishing centres. Bet Dwaraka and Nageswar, another late

Harappan site, was an important port and shell working centre. The

Pindara town was also submerged as indicated by the rockcut

yoni

and

linga

which are exposed in lower tide, but the date of these

findings is yet to be ascertained.

The submergence of Dwaraka may be attributed partly to the

transgression of the sea and partly to tectonic activity, if any. Ac-

cording to Negi, planetary conjunction may be one of the reasons for

a rise in sea level. He has suggested a cycle of 557 years and a

shorter cycle of 320 years for such conjunctions. Even after the

first Dwaraka was submerged, other towns such as Somnath and

Pindara seem to have been partly swallowed by the sea at different

times. At Dwaraka itself four times three temples had to be built

after the sea destroyed the earlier one (S.R. Rao 1987). Perhaps

this may be due to periodic transgressions of the sea.

The fluctuation in sea level in the Bahrain Gulf has been worked

out by Larsen (Larsen 1983 : 3-6) He concludes: “The Holocene