The Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata recount tales of battles of epic proportions involving Hindu gods and demigods. A handful of researchers believe that there is a figment of truth hidden behind the cosmic battles from these Hindu epics. Traces of radioactivity were found in the cities of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, the crowning glory of the Indus Valley. Is it enough proof that a nuclear war turned the Mohenjo Daro into a radioactive wasteland?
The first imposing evidence of the supposed nuclear war is seen on several skeletons found with high levels of radioactivity. The skeletons are also conspicuously placed near one another as if the skeletons belonged to people who died writing in pain through immolation or incineration.
Read the following verses from the ancient Mahabharata:
…a single projectile Charged with all the power of the Universe.
An incandescent column of smoke and flame
As bright as the thousand suns Rose in all its splendour…
a perpendicular explosion with its billowing smoke clouds…
…the cloud of smoke rising after its first explosion formed into expanding round circles like the opening of giant parasols… .
.it was an unknown weapon,
An iron thunderbolt,
A gigantic messenger of death, Which reduced to ashes The entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas. …
The corpses were so burned As to be unrecognisable.
The hair and nails fell out; Pottery broke without apparent cause,
And the birds turned white.
After a few hours All foodstuffs were infected… …
to escape from this fire The soldiers threw themselves in streams
To wash themselves and their equipment.
These verses might remind us of nuclear war and the effects of radiation or fallout as seen on historical accounts of the bombing of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and other sites where nukes were tested on the heydays of the Cold War. The description also matches the depiction of a nuclear bomb explosion in pop culture in films, video game and other related media. The most popular and memorable of these depictions is the infamous scene from Terminator II: Judgement Day when Sarah Connor had a vision of a nuclear explosion that disintegrated everything in sight. So does the verse from Mahabharata describe a nuclear war or just an Eastern counterpart of the Revelation from the Bible?
The belief that Mohenjo Daro and/or Harappa might have found their demise from a series of nuclear bombings is relatively new. Fringe historians that were related to the ones who continue to propagate the Ancient Aliens theory seem to be one of the proponents that nuclear wars happened in the distant past, and advanced flying vehicles such as the Vimanas can drop a nuclear bomb on enemy territory.
The demise of Mohenjo Daro might have been caused by factors that often lead to the collapse of cities and civilizations. Famine,, drought, civil war and invasions might have contributed to the decline of Mohenjo Daro and Harrapa, not a nuclear explosion. Like what Stewart Stafford said, “Empires fall and drag their brands of civilization down with them”.
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
For more books related to the collapse of civilizations, read Collapse by Jared Diamond, The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph A. Tainter, The Indus Civilization by Mortimer Wheeler, and Mohenjo-Daro: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Settlement of the Indus Valley Civilization by Charles River Editors. From time to time, these titles were carried by IFY Bookstore.
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