[Reader-list] 'Krishna existed. The school texts are wrong': says nuclear scientist

[Javed]

After their not-too-successful missions to the moon and the nuclear
programme, is this what our scientists will move onto?
------

'Krishna existed. The school texts are wrong'
Raj Nambisan / DNA
Saturday, August 29, 2009 0:12 IST

Dr Manish Pandit, sutradhar of the documentary Krishna: History or
Myth, uses four pillars -- archaeology, linguistics, what he calls the
living tradition of India, and astronomy -- to arrive at the
circumstantial verdict that Krishna was for real, because the
Mahabharata and the battle of Kurukshetra did indeed happen. In an
interview with DNA, Pandit outlines his documentary journey. Excerpts:

You are a specialist in nuclear medicine. What persuaded you to do a
film on the history/myth of Krishna? You think there are too many who
doubt? Is this a politico-religious message or a purely religious one?
We are always taught that Krishna is a part of Hindu myth and
mythology. And this is exactly what I thought as well. But imagine my
surprise when I came across Dr Narhari Achar (of the Department of
Physics at the University of Memphis, Tennessee, in the US) and his
research somewhere in 2004 and 2005. He had done the dating of the
Mahabharata war using astronomy.
I immediately tried to corroborate all his research using the regular
Planetarium software and I came to the same conclusions. Which meant
that what we are taught in schools about Indian history is not
correct.
I also started wondering about why this should be so. I think that a
mixture of the post-colonial need to conform to western ideas of
Indian civilisation and an inability to stand up firmly to bizarre
western ideas are to blame. Also, any attempt at a more impartial look
at Indian history is given a saffron hue.
I decided that I could take this nonsense no more, and decided to make
films to show educated Indians what their true heritage was. The pen
is mightier than the sword is an old phrase but I thought of new one:
Film is the new pen.
Any ideas I have will receive wide dissemination through this medium.
I wanted to present a true idea of Indian history unfettered by
perception, which was truly scientific, not just somebody's hypothesis
coloured by their perceptions and prejudices.

Why not a documentary on Rama, who is more controversial in India
today? Proof of his existence would certainly be more than welcome
today...
A documentary on Rama is forthcoming in the future. But the immediate
reason I deferred that project is the immense cost it would entail.
Whereas research on Krishna and Mahabharata was present and ready to
go. Also, Rama according to Indian thought, existed in the long hoary
ancient past of Treta Yuga, where science finds it difficult to go.

There is a controversial point in your documentary where someone Hare
Krishna monk alludes to Krishna as being the father of Jesus. How can
you say that since there is an age gap of roughly 3000 years between
the two spiritual giants?
Is Krishna the spiritual father of Jesus? That is what the person who
was training to be a Roman Catholic priest, and who now worships
Krishna, asks. The answer comes within the field of comparative
religion and theology.
The Biblical scriptures qualify Jesus as the son of God. Most Indians
have no problems accepting this as Hindus are a naturally secular
people. However, then the question that arises is, if Jesus is the
son, then who is the Father or God Himself?
Now, Biblical scriptures do not really give the answer except to say
that the Father is all-powerful and omnipresent. Now, of course, we
know that Jesus does not say that he is omnipresent or omnipotent.
Now, no scripture can live as an island, all by itself, and the Srimad
Bhagavatam and other scriptures such as the Bramha Samhita all call
Krishna as an all powerful, omnipresent being.
So, if we use these words of Bhagavatam, there can be no other truth,
which means that Krishna is the father of all living creation.
But it does not mean that Jesus is not divine. Jesus is indeed divine.
What I liked about the monks in my documentary is that they do not
denigrate Jesus although they worship Krishna as God. They keep Jesus
in their hearts, while worshipping Krishna. What could be more secular
or more Christian?

3067 BC is when the Mahabharata war took place, says Dr Achar. How did
he arrive at this?
There are more than 140 astronomy references in the Mahabharata. Dr
Achar used simulations of the night sky to arrive at November 22, 3067
BC, as the day the Mahabharata war began. He used the references
common to Udyoga and Bhisma Parvan initially, and so Saturn at Rohini,
Mars at Jyestha with initially only the two eclipses, Lunar at Kartika
and Solar at Jyestha.
Let me tell you how rare this set of astronomical conjunctions is.
The Saros cycle of eclipses is periodic at 19 years and so is the
Metonic cycle of lunar phases.
So if I say that Amavasya has occured at Jyestha, then this will occur
again in 19 years, but if I say that a solar eclipse has occured at
Jyestha, then this occurs again at Jyestha only after 340 years. Add
Saturn at Rohini and we take this to 1 in 7,000 years. This set of
conjunctions takes all of these into consideration, but also takes all
the other data into consideration.
So now, we know about Balarama's pilgrimage tithis and nakshatras, and
believe it or not, all that fits the 3067 BC date perfectly.
And to top it all, so does the repetition of the three eclipses
described at the destruction of Dwarka 36 years later.
This would explain why so many other researchers tried and failed to
find the date of the Mahabharata war as it is based on such a unique
set of astronomy that it occured only once in the last 10,000 years.
There is talk of a banyan tree which the documentary says was a
witness to the Battle of Kurukshetra, where 4 million people are said
to have died in 14 days. Where exactly does this exist? Has the tree
been carbon-dated to confirm its age?
There is indeed a banyan tree at Jyotisaar in Kurukshetra which is
worshipped as such. This concept is similar to the tree in Jerusalem,
which is thought to have witnessed Jesus's arrival. Carbon-dating of
this banyan tree is unlikely to give any concrete answers. I have
included it in the documentary to show the living tradition of India
--- like worship of the Ganges cannot be carbon-dated to give any
answers.

There is a gentleman named Ram Prasad Birbal, who said he has found
many bones which are said to belong to the Kurukshetra battle. Has
this been scientifically proved?

Ram Prasad Birbal is an resident of Kurukshetra. I am not aware of
carbon dating of those bones. But I am informed that thermo-luminesent
dating of other relics as well as carbon-dating at other sites in
Kurukshetra have given dates far older than the Indus valley
civilisation. Further, Euan Mackie, an eminent archaeologist, had
found a clay tablet of Krishna's Yamalaarjuna episode at Mohenjedaro,
a site of the Indus Valley civilisation proving that even in 2200 BC,
there was a culture of worshipping Krishna.

You said Hinduism spread across South East Asia in those times ... how
big was this religious empire?
The Hindu religious empire extended accross the whole of the Asian
sub-continent to South East Asia, from Afghanistan to Thailand (where
Ramayana and Krishna are still shown through dances), Burma, Cambodia
(Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon etc), Vietnam, Laos (little
Kurukshetra and temples), Malaysia (which was Hindu until recent) up
to Java (more temples), Bali (where Hinduism is still the religion)
and Indonesia, where Bhima's grandson is said to have performed a
thousand fire rituals at Yogyakarta. Afghanistan was of course home to
both the Yadu race and Shakuni (Kandahar or Gandhar).

Dr Achar said the Kurukshetra war must not have happened on a full moon day...
The Mahabharata war did not start on an Amavasya. That is straight
forward. Krishna tells Karna "Saptama chappi divasat Amavasya
Bhivasyati" and says that Karna should tell Drona and Bhisma to do the
ayudha (weapons) pooja on that date. But not start fighting the war on
that date.

The documentary is quiet crisp. I am told this is the first time you
held a camera, and learnt how to shoot. How many days did this take
and what was your budget?
I learnt film editing first using a variety of software such as Final
Cut 6 as I realised that a film director must be able to do decent
basic editing to realise what to shoot, from what angles and for what
duration.
I bought a professional grade HD movie camcorder initially and then
learnt to shoot before we went filming in 8 major Indian cities, the
US, UK and Cambodia.
However, nothing prepares you so throughly as filming on your own.
Most of this was done with a skeleton crew, mostly handling audio.
I later was funded to buy the latest Cinealta tru HD movie cameras,
which are not available in India, and which I am now proficient in
using. I also taught a few crew members how to shoot.
Then came the task of assembling a team of professionals to do
editing, graphics, voice over and all else, so that I had a team of
people for my next set of documentaries.
It was a steep learning curve, as I never went to film school, but it
has worked out well, with people within the industry who are veterans
complimenting my work. I personally think that it was all God's grace.
The budget was 15,000 pounds or approximately Rs 12 lakh. It took me
18 months to complete.

Your documentary says India did not have a tradition of putting down
everything in writing till 325 BC, when Alexander the Great arrived.
How did you come to this conclusion?
This is what the current scientific belief is. Although people have
talked about deciphering the Indus Valley "script", there is no
straightforward conclusion about the same, so we stuck to the
"official line" there. We will deal with these issues in a future
documentary.

S R Rao, the marine archaelogist from the National Institute of
Oceanography, found a 9th century building, and an entire city. Where
was this and when did he find it?.
S R Rao found the sunken city of Dwarka a few years ago at Beyt Dwarka
in the early 1990s.

Apparently, this city near Dwarka was set up 36 years after the
Mahabharata war. Is this the summation of Rao?
It is believed that due to damage and destruction by the sea, Dwaraka
has submerged six times and the modern-day Dwarka is the 7th such city
to be built in the area. Scientifically speaking, we see that 36 years
after the war there were the same repetitions of an eclipse triad as
we have shown in the documentary.

>From Dwarka to Kurushkshetra is more than 1,000 km. How do you think
Krishna travelled to help the Pandavas?
As a scientist, I believe that they travelled on horses which would
enable them to reach pretty quickly. If you consider 1,000 km, that
should take him 7 days if he had a string of horses. Of course if you
take faith into account, then it could happen in a twinkling of an
eye.

What's the link between the two comets that Sage Vyasa talked about,
the retrograde motion of Mars (Mangal or Kuja) at Antares (Jyestha) to
all this...
The idea that comets are harbingers of doom is well-documented. The
thing is that there is a set of statements describing comets and their
positions. Only Dr Achar has arrived at the correct deduction, that
those sentences in Bhisma Parvan relate to comets, not planets ---
which is where previous researchers found it difficult.
We know that Halley's comet was seen in that year as well.

Dr Achar interpreted verses from the Bhism Parvan and Udyog Parvan to
arrive at various conclusions. One of them is that when Saturn in at
Aldebaran (Rohini) it brings great bad tidings. The last time this
happened was in September 2001, when 9/11 happened. When does this
happen next?
Actually Saturn at Rohini is long known to be a bad omen by
astrologers. Rohinim Pidyannesha Stitho Rajan Shanischarah. This
transit happened in 1971 where a million or so were killed, and again
in 2001 September, when 9/11 happened. The next time is in 2030/2031
AD approximately.

When is the next time Mars will be in Antares?
Mars at Jyestha has to be taken in conjunction with the other things
mentioned by Karna when he talks to Krishna, as it occurs every year.
In any case, those people were great astronomers and not just
warriors, so we don't know what the extent of their knowledge was
regarding these events, In my personal humble opinion it was perhaps
even better than that which we have today.

So essentially, your thesis is that since the Mahabharata war actually
happened, as confirmed by astronomical deduction, Krishna was also a
living entity since he's the fulcrum of the great war?
Not just that, but the fact that archaeology, oral and living
traditions point to the same. And yes, we cannot separate the
Mahabharata war from Krishna. If one is shown to have happened, then
the other must be true as well.

What's your next project?
The next project is called Indian Jesus. It is already 80% complete.
It is very controversial but needed to be done. Living in India
convinced me that there are definitely many paths to God. Anybody who
lives in India and does not subscribe to that concept should be termed
intolerant, but instead the opposite is happening. There are some
people today who call their God as God and mine as the devil, this is
unacceptable, and I will see to it that those intolerant concepts are
demolished. I long to see a one borderless world where we live in
mutual respect. I cannot say much on the project but to say that I
will prove that the underlying basis of religions is the same.

Contact Dr Pandit at manish at saraswatifilms.org