excessively ancient sunken city

A few years back, I got caught up in the story of an archaeological find off the NW coast of India, in the Gulf of Cambay. I mean...my imagination swelled up to dangerous proportions. That strange "air" took weeks to slowly dissipate. I would spend hours in delicious reverie, thinking about the significance of this discovery: a large city, tentatively carbon-dated to be 9500 years old; thus, pre-dating the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia.

The implication is that all culture and all spirituality came from India. And this dove-tailed beautifully with what I had been reading at the time: the dialog between Devi and Shiva in the book Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. Something in the tone of revelation and in the "personality" of Shiva struck a chord in me. It seemed to be the Fact of the Matter about deep reality. And those verses are said to pre-date the Veda itself, thus the Harappan -- Indus Valley -- civilization of the north.

I had also been reading The Upanishads, which my Indian friend Chittaranjan Naik had sent me as a gift. Here also was a rumor, an evocation, a fragrance of something very old and very deep...something from the core of Being.

Strange threads of connection began to twine in my musing head. I could picture a river valley civilization with glorious cities, which had begun to rise not too many tens of thousands of years after the dawn of human self-consciousness. And these tree-shaded environs...with lotus blossoms on crystal pools...had as their foundational god none other than Krishna.

Myths about an ancient northern river -- Saraswari -- have been confirmed as fact by recent satellite imagery and some excavations. This river and its tributaries were said to be dotted with several large cities. One of these sites, on the Arabian Sea coast, is the present city of Dwarka, with its Dwarkanath Temple in honor of Krishna. Five other cities were built on the general site but were washed out to sea over thousands of years.

Here's a video I just found about a sunken city off the coast of Dwarka, but as far as I can tell, it's distinct from the Gulf of Cambay discovery:




Now, I've heard nothing recently about the astounding discovery of that sunken city in the Gulf of Cambay. Was it a hoax? I certainly hope not. If I remember correctly from reading a number of articles at the time, the India Oceanography Society was going to do more extensive underwater exploration and excavation. I also remember that the area in question was very murky, roiled with strong currents and brackish water, making camera reconnaissance almost impossible. The video above shows divers in not-too murky water, thus confirming these are two different areas and separate incidents.


Here's the original article:

BBC article on sunken city


And here's a link to a breathtaking Krishna statue. There appeared to be some licensing mumbo-jumbo, so I didn't feel comfortable putting the image here outright. Sure wish I could have, though.

gorgeous statue of Krishna!