Important Mahabharat Evidence

NARAYAN R JOSHI

I enjoyed the information provided by JH Hiranandani in his letter ‘Indian Connections With Other Languages’ (India Post, May 16). I would like to add one more item for friends of India Post interested in the pre-history of India. In the articles on the ancient Indus civilization (Mohen jo daro), we are shown again and again a picture of a statue of a naked girl with many bangles in one hand. Indus civilization was branded as the Dravidian civilization by the ‘Invasionist (Aryan Invasion of Dravidian India) scholars.’

I always wondered why no body finds in archeological excavations in the Indian subcontinent any evidence of the Mahabharat era. Recently I read a reference on page 188 of the Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval India (1927) by Nundo Lal Dey.

It is said there that at the place called Sivi (now in Pakistan) a steatite relief (now in British Museum) was excavated which represented in a most artistic way the celebrated story of Usinara, the King of Sivi, as given in the Mahabharat. Indra disguised as a falcon chasing a dove arrives at the palace of Usinara who sheltered the dove. In exchange for the life of the dove the King agreed to offer the flesh of his thigh equal in weight of the dove to the falcon. Why did we never see the photo of this relief in our textbooks along with the naked girl? If anybody has information on this item, please publish it. If anybody can get the photo of this relief from the British museum, please do it or write to the influential Indian historians to make efforts to publish it.

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