Essay name: Archaeology and the Mahabharata (Study)
Author:
Gouri Lad
Affiliation: Deccan College Post Graduate And Research Institute / Department of AIHC and Archaeology
This study examines the Mahabharata from an archaeological perspective. The Maha-Bbharata is an ancient Indian epic written in Sanskrit鈥攊t represents a vast literary work with immense cultural and historical significance. This essay aims to use archaeology to verify and contextualize the Mahabharata's material aspects.
Chapter 10 - Utensils in the Mahabharata
18 (of 20)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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= 383 As can be seen from this list the only probable
exception is of the megalithic burials of Tekalghat Khapa
near Nagpur in Maharashtra.
As the problem of the
chronology of the megaliths all over Deccan and South
India is somewhat controversial, this evidence, however
interesting can not be the basis for any assumption at
all. All other finds of metal utensils assume propor-
-tions only from the Mauryan period and later.
As far as literary evidence goes copper-bronze
vessels were in vogue from very early Vedic Period,
though not widely used (Macdonell and Keith 1912 : I-
130). Those of iron came on the scene much later, in
post-Vedic Sutra Period (600 B.C. and later) (Apte
a
1939 : 62). This literary fact has a sound archeologi-
-cal foundation, for the use of iron in excavated evidence
does not go beyond 800-900 B.C., and became widespread
only in the NBP Culture-phase, dated to 500-200 B.C.
a
Thus the archeological evidence coupled with
9000 the literary one does not leave much of a choice. It
is obvious that metal utensils wheather of copper,
bronze, iron or silver
became part and parcel of the
repertoire of household objects from about 300 B.C.
onwards. We may, therefore, credit the references to
them in the Mbh to this period of Indian history and not
any earlier. At least, for the present, there is no
evidence to do otherwise.
