Published in 2002 and therefore slightly dated(especially with the AIT references), this splendid documentary is an honest attempt by western, left-liberal leaning scholars and filmmakers interpretation of the epic (although I don't believe in the title, as personally for me it is not a myth).

I used to have a dim opinion of the Peter Brooks' version of Mahabharata, but now I understand it was meant for western audiences.

This documentary is primarily the work of Paul William Roberts, whose thoroughly enjoyable book "The Empire Of The Soul" I had previously read in the late nineties.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVxNvquJLBM

Thanks EF,

I am the one who is very much facinated with Mahabharatha, and especially the role/teachings of Krishna in it. Looking forward to see this documentary.

Also, I don't call it a myth; and consider it an Epic in its truest sense. However, I have been 'unsuccessfully' trying to find the date/times when this transpired. If you or someone else could find me a great reading/research that substantiates the period during which Mahabharatha happened, then I would really appreciate. Mere faith doesn't excites me that much.

febpreet,

This documentary could help.

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Hurat Honani Murat!

Febpreet,

There was an IRS officer during the nineties and he was from Delhi(possibly Kejriwal's colleague) who calculated the dates when Ramayana would have possibly occurred based on the astrological information presented in the epic. Same was done with the Mahabharata.

The problem being, not all the astrological information could be corroborated and this astronomical pattern keeps recurring over several millennium. So which cycle do we pick and how old is Indian antiquity really? Nobody knows for sure.

Another problem which is discussed in the documentary I posted is that Indian climate does not allow for preservation of monuments for more than a millennium and only a very few have survived(beyond a thousand years). So there is very little archeological evidence.

Also Indian knowledge was transmitted orally for much of her history, so unlike the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilisations we do not have many manuscripts to corroborate dates and events.

Surti's documentary is also good. But the archeological evidence seems to suggest that in Harappa and Mohenjodaro and possibly in the submerged Dwaraka--- cities have been built over older cities which have been completely lost and the pattern that emerges is that older(deeper) cities were more sophisticated than the ones in upper echelons(later cities) of the archeological digs!!!

So there was progressive degeneration of cities and infrastructure over the course of time. Still, the antiquity of that submerged archeological find(of Dwaraka) has escaped mainstream archeology's attention.


Incredibly, over a vast area(a million sq kilometes I think) there was standardised use of bricks. Same size bricks for construction over the area spread, standardised weights and measures, as with tools and other physical objects.

This seems to indicate life during vedic era of India when Mahabharata would have happened and it seems to have been very sophisticated.