Fossils and myths in North India: Is there a connection between the Siwalik Hills and the Mahâbhârata? 1) Museum of Palaeontology and Geology, National.

Fossils and myths in North India:

Is there a connection betweenthe Siwalik Hills and the Mahâbhârata?

1) Museum of Palaeontology and Geology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

by Alexandra van der Geer (1), Michael Dermitzakis (1) and John de Vos (2)

2) National Museum of Natural History Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands

The Siwalik Hill range of Pakistan and northern India:famous for its mammal fossils

Kurukshetra (Haryana), plain at the foot of the Siwalik Hills, stage for the Mahabharata

What is a fossil?

I) Remains of the animal or plant, or the imprint it left. Such as: bones, teeth, skin impressions, hair, shells, impressions of animals or plants in the sediment

II) Remains of something that was made by the animal while it was living (“trace fossils”). Such as: footprints, burrows, coprolites, eggs

Fossils are the petrified traces of life forms from before the end of the last ice age (Holocene)

Fossils are proof for historical value of narratives: fossils

are bones and teeth of giants, dragons, monsters,

saints, heroes

Fossils are also seen as sacred objects and amulets

Fossils are even used as medicines

All based upon similarity in morphology, shape, colour

Geological phenomena in the landscape as evidence

Krishna’s butter ball near Mahabalipuram (Tamil Nadu)

Holy stone along the Sutlej river bank(Tibet)

Everywhere, fossils are seen as evidence for a myth or legendSiwalik Hills, foothills of the Himalayas: rich fossil bone beds at the surface. The abundant fossils found here also confirmed a legend

The legend of Kurukshetra, plain at the foot of Siwalik Hills, stage for the Mahabharata-war

The fossil evidence raised the story to mythological scale, and kept the memory alive

© A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

The Mahâbhârata, the third largest epic in the world. It tells the history of the descendants of Bharata, divided into 18 books

The Bhagavadgita is just one of its chapters, but became the most important

The Mahâbhârata was spread further to the east: Cambodja, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia

Angkor Vat, © ASI 1900-1920

The epic is based upon oral tradition, and grew into its present form between c. 400 BCE to 400 CE

Composed by the seer Vyasa, who is also one of the major dynastic characters within the epic itself

Ganesa wrote the story down, while Vyasa recited it. Once, the pen failed, and Ganesa broke off one of his tusks as a replacement

The main core of the Mahâbhârata is the battle of Kurukshetra. Originally described in a much shorter work: Jaya (Skt.: victory)War between two branches of North Indian Bharata dynasty: Pandavas and Kauravas

The war is difficult to date. Based upon astronomical events described in the epic, two options. First, the war took place around 3,106 BCE (= during Indus valley civilization period)Second option: 1,478 BCE. Seen the use of horse and chariot and war elephants, this option is the most likely

© Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Arjuna stops Krsna from attacking Bhishma

"Kurukshetra's plain is strewn with the corpes of kings"

"The ground is rugged with heaps of elephant's corpses like huge boulders. On every side are vultures' nests"

"The ground is soaked with the blood of horses, men, and elephants, wounded and slain. There is a confused mass of torn mail, skins, umbrellas, chowries, javelins, arrows, spears, and armour mixed with headless trunks, and a litter of every sort of weapon"

"Rivers of blood are crossed by bridges of elephant's corpses"

"The earth shows clearly all around in the pitiless rays of the sun slaughtered warriors and kings, elephants and chargers; it seems to support a host of fallen stars, covered as it is with darts and lances, arrows, javelins, and swords"

"Duryodhana's muscular shoulders, hard as the trunk of Indra's elephant, are torn open"

"Bhîma, matchless in battles, huge as a mountain, ........ sinks on the earth like the Golden Peak (= peak in Himâlayas) struck by a thunderbolt"

The stage for the Mahabharata is set on the plains of what is now the state of Haryana (North India), in the Kurukshetra district

The region is bordered by the foothills of the Himalayas; the Siwalik Hill Range

Kurukshetra, a pilgrimage landscape

About 360 sacred sites (tirthas) in and around Kurukshetra, yearly visited by

thousands of pilgrims

Brahma Sarovar, or Kurukshetra tank

Some sites are linked to Mahabharata’s battle: Bhishmakunda (Skt. Bhishma’s cremation place), and Asthipura (Skt. bone-town). Most important is Kurukshetra’s link with the Bhaga- vadgita, part of the Mahabharata

Gita-dvar, with statue of Arjuna’s battle-chariot

Kurukshetra and the Sarasvati river

Once, the Sarasvati river was an important river. It got glacial waters from the Yamuna and Sutlej rivers. Tectonic changes in the Siwalik ranges caused major migrations in the rivers, and the Sarasvati river became a seasonal, rain-fed stream. For a large part, it flows below the surface. Satellite images reveal its former location. Along the former channel, large settlements are excavated.

At some archaeological sites around Kurukshetra, Painted Grey Ware (PGW) pottery is found. These sites are Raja Karan Ka Tila, Asthipura, Bhor Saidan, Bhagpura and Daulatpur. This PGW is related to the Vedic culture, and is dated c. 1050-450 BCE

The Sarasvati, a small river today

Falconer (19th century CE) collected over 300 large fossil bones in a single day in the Siwalik Hills

These very rich fossiliferous deposits are nowadays exemplary for a much larger area, found from Pakistan up to Indonesia. They are very clear and thick in the Punjab, run eastwards and disappear at the Godavari river, but they re-emerge in Sri Lanka.

© P.D. Gingerich, Michigan

In Haryana (Markanda valley, Kurukshetra, and surrounding areas), the fossil fauna belongs to the Late Siwaliks, dated to about 2.48 million years ago (Late Pliocene)

Some elements of this fauna are not too different from present-day animals, except for their larger size, strange tusks, strange dentition. Such as a stegodont (Stegodon ganesa), mammoths (Mammuthus planifrons), elephants (Elephas namadicus), horses (Hipparion, Equus hysudricus, E. sivalensis), rhinoceroses (Rhinoceros sivalensis, R. palaeoindicus), a camel (Camelus sivalensis), a sabre-toothed tiger (Paramachairodus), pigs, crocidiles, deer

Stegodon ganesa at the Siwalik Gallery of the Geological Survey of India, Indian Museum

From fossil to myth

Bones, skulls and tusks of stegodons, mammoths, elephants are not too different from the now living Indian elephant, except for their size; the same applies to the horse bones. These are remains of war horses and huge war elephants

Indian elephant (E. maximus) Elephas antiquus, Museum am Löwenthor, Stuttgart

, the short-necked giraffids with impressive horns (Sivatherium, Samotherium, Giraffokeryx),

Sivatherium, Frick collection (AMNH, New York)

Giraffokeryx, Frick Collection (AMNH, New York)

, and the giant tortoises (Geochelone atlas).

Others are nowadays found only elsewhere, such as hippopotamuses (Hexaprotodon namadicus)

© Central Fossil Repository Unit, Geological Survey of India, Kolkota

Reconstruction of the giant tortoises. © Saketi Fossil Park, H.P.

Other Siwalik fossils look very different from present-day animals, like the ancestors of the sea-mammals (Cetacea) of today (dolphins, whales etc.),

Pakicetus attocki, Howard University, Geological Survey of Pakistan

Ambulocetus natans, Ohio University, USA

Bones and skulls of horned giraffs, sabre-toothed cats, giant tortoises, and hippos are unknown. These are remains of giants and heroes. Their isolated hippo incisors, giraf horns, tortoise carapaces and feline canines can be seen as darts, javelins, shields

Complete skeletons are not found. Scattered, isolated and fragmentary remains of various large vertebrates, isolated tusks and carapaces instead.It is just a small step to make these abundant fossils remains of war elephants, horses, heroes, shields and javelins

Archaeological remains from Vedic times (Painted Grey Ware culture) have been found in the same region. Rakhigarhi, e.g. was a large city, larger than Harappa (Pakistan)

In the Siwalik deposits stone tools of prehistoric people have been found too, known as Soanian artefacts. They belong to a paleolithic culture

From myth to reality

The Sarasvati river and its rich, fertile plains were mythical, but simply dried up and disappeared, together with the towns along it

Rakhigarhi (Haryana)

Remains of titans and giants, killed by the gods in battle, can be found on the Peloponnesos, Greece

© Pergamon Museum, Berlin

Siwalik Hills: remains are found of the demonic râkshasas who were killed by epic heroes

This could refer to the victory of Krishna over Banasura (king Bana of Sonitapua), or over Naraka. But there are many more heroic killings of râkshasas known, not in the least place the war between the Devas and Asuras

© A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Once, the Sarasvati river was an important river. In the towns along the river, Harappan ware and later Painted Grey Ware was made.

Conclusion

At some time, a war took place between two branches of the Bharata family.

The war was remembered in the epic Mahabharata, and rose to mythological proportions.

The river shrunk, deprived of glacial waters. The towns along it lost their importance.

Nothing reminded of the once glorious days of the PGW culture and the war.

Except for petrified remains of the battlefield, found nearby.

This was reason enough to keep the story alive, till it was finally written down

(c. 400 BCE).