Finding Sri Krsna's Dwarka
BY: STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Aquatint Engraving of Dwarka from Grindlay, c. 1830
Oct 4, Ahmedabad (THE HINDU) — Giving a totally new twist to the location of Lord Krishna's birthplace Dwarka, satellite pictures taken by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have indicated that Dwarka did not exist in Jamnagar as the historians believe but in Junagadh district of Gujarat.
A senior scientist with Space Application Centre of ISRO Dr P S Thakker, who has worked on this project, said "what is interesting is that the findings of ISRO corroborates what is mentioned in the Vedas and ancient Hindu scriptures about the geographical location of Dwaraka but contradicts what the archaeologists and modern historians say about the present Dwarka which they claim is in Jamnagar district of Gujarat."
Though the study was done by ISRO four years back it was confined to abstract papers in the dusty shelf of ISRO.
Satellite images can pinpoint things that are not visible to the naked eye. For example, it can indicate the presence of ruins of a city which has been long buried under the soil.
Thakker said there are nine sites in Gujarat which claim to be original Krishna's Dwarka.
Those sites are the holy town of modern Dwarka in Jamnagar district, Mul Dwarka near Kodinar in Junagadh district, Muli in Surendranagar district, Panch Dwaraka near Vankaner in Rajkot district, Bet Dwarka in Jamnagar district near Okha and a city believed to be submerged in the Great Rann of Kutch.
Another site which is claimant of Dwarka is Jima Durga in Junagadh district.
Descriptions of Krishna's Dwarka mentions presence of rivers, forests, mountains, gardens having colourful flowers in its environs. But the present day Dwarka, which exists in Jamnagar, doesn't match with the descriptions found in literature but matches perfectly with the images of satellite which was taken of Junagadh district, Thakker added.
He said the available literature indicates existence of two different Dwarkas at two different periods. One Dwarka was that of Vasudeva and the other was that of Krishna's.
Vasudev's Dwarka, which was submerged in the Arabian Sea about 3500 years ago, and Krishna's Dwarka were both located in Junagadh district near Prabhash Kshetra, according to Thakker.
In 1988, the sixth Marine Archaeological expedition of the National Oceanography, Goa led by Dr S R Rao, Emeritus Scientist, had discovered hitherto unknown features of a city in Jamnagar which Rao claimed to be Krishna's Dwarka.
The expedition carried out by Dr Rao had come across inner and outer gateways of the proto-historic port city flanked by circular bastions built of massive blocks of sandstone.
From the inner gateway, a flight of steps led to the Gomati river the submerged channel of which has been traced over a length of 1.5 km in the seabed.
However, Thakker claims this unknown feature of a city discovered by Rao could be any other city settled after 1 AD other than Krishna's Dwarka.
