Where to Look for India’s Past?

Whenever we talk about India and India’s past, people generally hold two opinions, and both tend to be extreme. One section of people is of the opinion that India is a civilisation that is lakhs of years old, as mentioned in the Puranas. They cite calculations of Yugas, Mahayugas, Manvantaras, etc., to support their arguments. The second section of people, however, believes that Indian civilization is not older than 3,500 years, as presented by Western historians or colonial historians. They cite the Aryan Invasion Theory to support their arguments.

So, the question arises: Is India merely a 3,500-year-old civilisation, or is it an eternal civilisation that has existed for lakhs of years?

The truth lies somewhere between these two extremes.

Western historians, during the colonial period, made us believe that India did not have any history. The epics Mahabharata and Ramayana were treated merely as poems, the Puranas as fiction, and we were told that we did not have any recorded history comparable to the records maintained by the West over the past 2,000 years. India was invaded by many people, and the British were the last among them. Though Western science and technology developed upon foundational knowledge that also came from India, these historians never acknowledged our ancestral wisdom, Indian Knowledge Traditions, Ancient Indian Science, Mathematics or other intellectual achievements. Instead, they consistently criticised our traditions and made us believe that we were somehow a substandard people.

Yes, India does not have recorded history in the same manner in which the West has maintained its records for the last 2,000 years, but this does not mean that India does not have a history. Our mechanism of preserving history is different from that of the West. Our method does not fit into the Western template. That is why people from the West, and Indians with a Western mindset, often fail to recognise India’s own traditions of preserving history.

Our ancient texts can broadly be divided into three main categories: History, Knowledge and Ancient Histories.

The Ramayana and Mahabharata are historical books within the treasure of ancient Indian texts. The Puranas contain stories of non-earthly beings who once lived on or visited our Earth, and these historical stories were passed down from generation to generation. Hence, they are Puranic stories, representing the ‘past of the past’. The Vedas, Vedangas, Upanishads, Samhitas and Shastras are our core knowledge texts.

Now, let us go into the past step by step.

There was once a hunter named Lubdhak who went deep into the forest one day and could not return to his village by evening. So, he had to spend the night in the jungle. As there were tigers in the jungle, it was not a good idea to rest on the ground. He therefore climbed a tree and sat on one of its branches.

Sometime later, a tiger passed by. It smelled a human presence and sat under the tree, waiting for the person to come down so that it could eat him. Lubdhak was afraid. He could neither come down nor risk falling asleep because he might fall from the tree. So, to keep himself awake, he started picking leaves from around him and dropping them from the branch on which he was sitting. He remained awake throughout the night and continued doing the same thing.

We all celebrate Shivratri. We stay awake for the entire night on Shivratri, and this is an important ritual associated with its observance.

In the morning, the tiger went away and Lubdhak came down from the tree. Suddenly, Lord Shiva appeared before him and said, “You remained awake throughout the night and worshipped me. I am very pleased with you. Ask for any boon.”

If we wanted to depict this story today, how would we do it? We would probably draw a tree, a branch, a man sitting on the branch and a tiger sitting below the tree. Right?

Now look at the following seal from the Harappan civilisation.

Is it the same story that they carved on the seal? Do we still need any further evidence that they were none other than our ancestors? So, we will call them Sindhu – Saraswati People. 

Now, let us go a little further into the past.

We have the Mahabharata period prior to the Sindhu-Saraswati Civilisation, and the Mahabharata happened towards the end of the Dwapara Yuga. Prior to that, we have Rama and his life documented by Rishi Valmiki in the Ramayana. There have been many attempts to date these two epics based on the astronomical observations mentioned in them. One such attempt, which considers a large number of these observations and tests them astronomically, is the dating proposed by Shri Nilesh Oak. He dates the Mahabharata War to 5561 BC and the Ramayana to around 14,000 years ago. So, for the purpose of this discussion, we will take this dating and move even further backwards in history.

Our Vedas and Upanishads also contain hymns (Richa) that describe planetary positions, seasons, geography, environmental conditions and catastrophic events. Therefore, these texts can also serve as a treasure of historical observations. In the Maitrayani Upanishad, there is a reference to King Brihadratha. According to Smt Rupa Bhaty, author of Indus Seal Deciphered, in one hymn he describes the ocean as receding or going back, and Agastya as drinking the ocean. This observation need not be seen merely as poetic imagination. King Brihadratha could have been recording an important event occurring on Earth.

Around 33,000 years ago, there was a cooling phase on Earth associated with Ice Age conditions. Sea levels dropped as enormous quantities of water became locked in ice sheets and glaciers. Therefore, an observation describing the ocean as receding begins to make sense when viewed alongside what we now know about prehistoric sea-level changes. In this way, such textual observations can potentially take us further and further into the deep antiquity of India. But for the moment, we will not go any further back.

The observation associated with King Brihadratha should also not be seen in isolation. There are other references that may be considered alongside it. For example, Agastya is described as having drunk the ocean. Around this period, the southern star Agastya, or Canopus, was visible from particular locations in southern India. Secondly, the winter solstice is also described in relation to Magha Nakshatra, which is interpreted as corroborating the same broad period. Thus, by bringing together multiple observations, a period around 33,000 years ago has been proposed. Similar attempts at scientific dating based on ancient textual observations take the chronology even further back, in some cases to around 2,15,000 years.

We have also been a seafaring civilisation. The story of a huge ship appears in the Matsya Purana, associated with Matsya, the very first Avatara of Vishnu. What is described is not merely a small boat, but a vessel capable of carrying humans, animals, plants and the means necessary for agriculture. This naturally raises the possibility of communities having a close relationship with the sea and the coastline. Even today, a significant proportion of India’s population lives close to its coastline.

Now, let us come forward to around 10,800 BC, when the Earth was still experiencing Ice Age conditions and enormous ice sheets, kilometres thick in places, covered large parts of North America. According to one hypothesis, a comet or fragments of a comet struck or exploded over this ice-covered region. The resulting event is proposed to have contributed to rapid environmental changes and extensive flooding.

As the Ice Age ended, the global sea level eventually rose by more than 120 metres. Vast areas of previously exposed land were submerged by the advancing sea. To visualise 120 metres, imagine a rise approximately equivalent to the height of a 40-storey building. Any settlements situated across those low-lying coastal landscapes would have been profoundly affected by such enormous changes

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The light-blue portion of the map above represents land that was exposed when sea levels were substantially lower than they are today. Much of that landscape is now underwater. Any human habitation, activity or cultural remains that once existed across these areas may therefore also lie beneath the sea.

This fundamentally changes the question with which we began.

If we consider Indian civilisation across a chronology extending beyond 2,00,000 years, then for a very large part of that timeline, human communities would have inhabited landscapes very different from the coastline we see today. Vast stretches of those ancient landscapes are now underwater.

Therefore, if we genuinely want to search for India’s deep past, looking only on the land may never be enough. We must also look beneath the sea.