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Building blocks from seabed hold key to Dwarka mystery

Building blocks from seabed hold key to Dwarka mystery

Author: Manu Pubby
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: August 18, 2007
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/210993.html

They may not look like much, but a few limestone "building blocks" recovered from the seabed off the Gujarat coast by the Indian Navy hold the key to solving the age-old mystery of the mythical city of Dwarka.

Marine archaeology experts say that samples collected during a recent underwater excavation under the supervision of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will give definitive proof to establish the antiquity of the site and help "put together a genuine history of our country"

Recorded in Mahabharata as the capital of Lord Krishna's kingdom, mythology holds that the island of Dwarka was swallowed by the ocean. Traces of structural remains detected off the Saurashtra coast close to 40 years ago triggered speculations that the city of Dwarka had been rediscovered.

A 21-member team of ASI experts and Indian Navy divers have now conducted the first scientific undersea survey near the present day Samudranarayana Temple at Dwarka and found building blocks of various sizes. The samples are now being sent to various labs across the world for carbon dating to establish their antiquity.

Experts have refused to comment on the nature of the ruins, saying it would be premature to speculate on the origin. "They are structural remains but we cannot interpret them to say what structures were present at the site. They are limestone blocks that were part of a structure," Alok Tripathi, Superintending Archaeologist, ASI said.

However, he ruled out the possibility of the structures belonging to the Harappan civilization due to the nature of building material found and said that the remains could not be placed into any definitive period going by the design style.

Details of the excavation will now be discussed by an international group of experts at a seminar on the Maritime Heritage of the Indian Ocean in the Capital on August 23-24.


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