Interview, Fireside Chat
Below Delhi, the search for India's mythical past
The EconomistLeo Mirani, Rosie Bloor, Raghu Karnad, Vasanth Swankar, Barclay, Rathish Nanda, Richard Eaton
- The Mahabharata is a 100,000-verse Sanskrit epic, comparable in length to seven sets of the Harry Potter series, which serves as a central cultural, religious, and moral guide for a wide spectrum of Indians including Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and atheists.
- Core historical narrative involves a war between two rival clans over the throne of Hastinapur, an event that supposedly occurred thousands of years ago and marks the beginning of the current age, Kalyug (the age of darkness).
- Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) excavations in North India have persisted for 75 years to locate physical evidence of sites mentioned in the epic, specifically the mythical city of Indraprastha.
- In 2014, archaeologist Vasanth Swankar discovered ten shards of "painted greyware" pottery at Purana Kila (Old Fort) in New Delhi, a material type previously found at other Mahabharata-associated sites, though the find was geographically isolated and sparse.
- Swankar confirmed a continuous 3,000-year history of human habitation at the site, but cautioned that the archaeological record consists of "random shards" rather than the apocalyptic war or palace of illusions popularly imagined.
- A major political and cultural controversy surrounds the interpretation of Purana Kila, with some tour guides and activists asserting it is an ancient Hindu site buried beneath later Islamic structures, a narrative some use to claim divine political legitimacy for modern Delhi.
- The Sabyata Foundation, part of the government's "Adopt a Heritage" program, has taken over the maintenance of Purana Kila and plans to reorient the site's narrative toward the Mahabharata, including a sound and light show centered on Indraprastha rather than the actual Mughal builder, Humayun.
- The Foundation similarly adopted Humayun's Tomb and Red Fort for heritage projects, where a recent sound and light show at the Red Fort notably omitted Mahatma Gandhi's role in the independence struggle, suggesting a pattern of selective historical revisionism.
- Historian Richard Eaton warns of a growing disconnect between academic historical methodology and public discourse, noting that this gap allows demagogues and "rank idiots" to propagate unverified myths, such as the claim that the Mahabharata proves the ancient invention of nuclear weapons.
- Archaeological findings are limited to material culture like pottery and amulets, leading scholars to view the Mahabharata's "truth" not as a literal record of gods and magic, but as a possibly based-on-reality story of warring clans over resources that evolved into a moral tapestry over generations.
- The epic's theological core, the Bhagavad Gita, frames the war not as a conflict between good and evil, but as a necessary fulfillment of dharma (duty), culminating in the grim realization that time destroys all worlds regardless of individual action.
- The excavation at Purana Kila highlights the tension between the archaeological need for evidence-based interpretation and the political desire to construct a national identity rooted in a specific version of ancient Hindu glory.