Lets find out.
We have studied that a long time back existed a single landmass, a super-continent from which came the continents of today. Right?
Well, this is a partial truth. There did exist this single, super-continent called Pangea with a single ocean that we call Tethys. But they existed very briefly, when placed on the geological time scale of earth.
We will not go into minute details rather address the major events of earth's geological history.
Pangea existed between 500Ma-180Ma (1 Megannum(Ma)= 1 million years). Before Pangea existed Laurasia and East and West Gondwana Land. After Pangea, started the formation of the various continental plates which over the last 180 million years has given the current shape of Earth.
So when did Earth start looking like what it is today? Probably and atleast 10mn years back. Scientists have tried to reconstruct the formation of these lands and have arrived at the conclusion on the basis of many complex sources that Indian Subcontinental plate touched the Eurasian Plate approximately 10Ma and this led to the orogenic belt of Tibetan Plateau and Himalay Mountain Range.
Srilanka was a trailing island much smaller than its current form. The image above gives a fair idea of a continued separation of the Srilankan Island from the Indian Plate.
A comment from Malacalogist while studying the Deccan Traps says, "The land area of what is now Sri Lanka was much smaller at 65 Ma and it was further from the continental landmass at the time that it could have acted as a biotic refuge from the Deccan Trap lava flows." (Malacologist is the Official Journal of Malacalogical Society of London and this comment was published in their Bulletin no.45. I have published this without any permission for reproduction. However, if the society has any specific policy regarding reporoduction of information already in public domain, I will be happy to follow their policy)
In all, the point we are driven at after going through this current understanding of paleo-geographics is that there indeed was a need to build a bridge between Southern India and Northern Sri Lanka. It also, however indicates that this need may have arisen because they may not have developed large navigable sea vessels to transport such a large army across a waterbody.
Above image shows the state of tectonic plate movements across the globe in the Neogene Period (The current period which cover 23mn years back-till date).
Current state of the Ram Setu.
An enlarged portion of the Ram Setu.
In the next post we will understand the Human Natural History aspect of Ramayan.
B. B. Lal puts Ramayan's age at 1000 BCE. He talks about sea levels being lower at that time than today. Any where from 2m to 6m. Meaning the whole landmass was above water except maybe a few sopts that could have been filled with rocks etc.
ReplyDeleteSome portions are too straight to be natural is his other contention in his book Rama - His historicity, Mandir and Setu.
The book has lesser facts than what I would have expected. Then again, he has retired and is quite advanced in age. Can't expect him to continue doing digging, can I?
His point about rising of water levels in the sea is acceptable, however, there are many dates given for Rama's Birth. Some people arrived at the date of 10th Jan 5114 BC, while others have arrived at a date of 4th Dec 7323 BC.
ReplyDeleteThey both seem to have the same logic and yet arrived at different dates. They feed the planetary positions given in Valmiki Ramayan and arrive at these conclusions. I don't know how has Dr. Lal arrived at 1000BC However, his date is closer to what Max Mueller also suggested. His claim from Ramayan itself was 900BC.
However, I disagree with them all. I have given the explanation and accuracy of Yug System prior to this. That is my base for why earlier dates can be trusted. The similar planetary configurations could have happened many millenia ago. I don't have the software, but I hope I can check this part some day.
I will re-read the book to figure out how he came to a date of 1000 B.C.
ReplyDeleteThe dates of Ram, Krishna are controversial at best. Difficult to say!
That's why understanding the period is more important than trying to arrive at a specific date.
ReplyDeleteExcellent Writeup. Well-researched, but it's like a drop of water in a big ocean. Need more such articles to reveal the truth.
ReplyDelete