Where Mythology Meets Reality: Sunken City Of Dwarka

When it comes to underwater settlements within Indian marine archeology, the most commented would be the ancient city of Dwarka. According to legend, it is said that Krishna, the most powerful personality of Mahabharat, founded the city, in a place with the same name in the Devbhoomi Dwarka district on the west coast of Gujarat.
My search for Dwarka began when I became an archeology student. I was lucky to have found a book on underwater archeology in India. This book captured my interest and helped build and develop my thirst for marine archeology in the country.
When one cares about marine archeology, the first thing we should understand should be what defines it. Although, more commonly due to the word "Marina", the definition sometimes deceives common minds.
As per the ancient Hindu texts, Dwarka was a skirmish ground for Krishna and the evil King Salva. As the Mahabharat says, the Salva King attacked Dwarka with a flying machine. It is the description of the battle that catches the attention of the ancient alien theorists, as it seems to suggest that it was fought with sophisticated technology and advanced weapons, potentially with a ship attacking from orbit. The spacecraft began an attack on the city with the use of energy weapons, which for the spectators resembled lightning.
The attack was so devastating that most of the city was ruined.
Lord Krishna counterattacked and fired his weapons at the ship. Mythology describes them as arrows that roar like thunder and shine like the sun's rays when released. Indian mythology is full of stories of what the original Dwarka looked like.
Mahabharat says that Dwarka had 900,000 royal palaces, all built with glass and silver and decorated with emeralds. The city was connected by an elaborate system of boulevards, roads, markets, assembly houses and temples. These legends have been recorded in Indian minds for so long that their authenticity is not questioned. Fortunately, due to the grace of the department of marine archeology of India, childhood stories have become a reality to a great extent.
Marine archaeological explorations have shed light on a series of structures of different shapes, stone anchors and other artifacts. The exploration has found sandstone walls, a grid of streets and remains of a seaport, about 70 feet below the sea. The evidence points to the fact of the existence of a city about 9,000 years ago. Also, according to them, this was one of the most important and busiest ports during the historical and medieval periods.
The detailed exploration and excavation of this sunken city began in 1988 with certain objectives and results in mind:
1. The explorations extended to the Temple of Samudranarayan (God of the sea), in order to trace the extension of the port city and the purpose behind the huge stone walls built on the banks of the ancient Gomati River.
2. If the architectural features were in conformity with those described in the Mahabharat.
3. To obtain more corroborative evidence of the claim mentioned in the epic.
4. The nick point where the Gomati River joined the sea had to be determined.
5. The cause of immersion.
Dwarka was supposed to have been built in six blocks, two on the right bank and four on the left. The six sectors have protective walls built with sandstone-coated stones. What has been tracked so far largely conforms to Dwarka's description in the Mahabharat. For example, the enclosures may correspond to the Antahpurs (harems) of the texts.
Similarly, the large number of stone anchors is indicative of foreign trade. The large ships were anchored to the sea, while the small ones were near the warehouses in Gomati, part of which had been submerged.
Marine archeology has shown that the existence of the Dwarka and its immersion in the II millennium a. C. referred to in the Puranos Mahabharat, Harivamsa, Matsya and Vayu (Sanskrit texts) is a fact and not a fiction.

By: Preeti Narula
Content: https://www.gounesco.com/where-mythology-meets-reality-sunken-city-of-dwarka/