THE MAP OF MAHABHARATA

If we have to consider it as a mythological tale, the Mahabharata would become one of the pillars of Hindu religion. If logic and scientific calculations are applied, its questionable from its year of event to its mere existence. So much so that the year of Mahabharata has been estimated as multiple by various historians. This post here shall discuss on some interesting facts about the Mahabharata.

5561 BCE, 3143 BCE, 3067 BCE etc. are various years estimated by both Indian and foreign historians. The earliest civilization on the Indian subcontinent was the Mehrgarh Civilization that existed between 7000 BCE to around 2500 BCE, a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization. (P.S., in Indian textbooks the IVF is considered as the first civilization as IVF sites existed in India as well as Pakistan. Mehrgarh existed solely in Pakistan. Hence Mehrgarh is the first civilization on the Indian subcontinent, but IVF would be the first in India).

Coming back to the Mahabharata era now. If we put aside the ambiguity of the exact year of the Kurukshetra War, there were multiple tribes and Janpadas (republics/kingdoms) allied with either the Kauravas or the Pandavas. These realms were spread from as far as Iran, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan to Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet encapsulating the remaining Indian subcontinent. The map shown here points out those names.

The ones that are highlighted in fluorescent supported the Pandavas. The ones in the red allied with the Kauravas. While the remaining who flipped sides or were unsure, are highlighted in orange.

Now, if we have to apply logic here, the map shows kingdoms such as Pandyas, Cholas and Kerala (the name Kerala goes really old). Historically, the Pandya Kingdom existing only after 13th century AD. And Mahabharata existed somewhere around 56th or 31st centuries BCE. Some historians claim that according to Hindu mythology, since time is cyclic, there were multiple Mahabharatas or even Ramayanas in each cycle or 'kalpa'. But even that couldn't explain how a 13th century AD empire could exist around 4300 years ago?

Some of the kingdoms mentioned such as Pancala (Panchala), Kuru, Surasena, Vatsa etc. were also the Mahajanpadas, i.e. 'great republics'. They originated at around 1200 BCE and were considered the earliest form of democracies on the Indian subcontinent. Again, with the ambiguity of the Mahabharata date, its not possible for these empires to exist at the time of the Kurukshetra battle. Also, the time gap between Mahajanapadas and the south Indian kingdoms of Pandya and Chola is roughly 1500 years. So even if we assume one single year for the Kurukshetra War, these two time-frames doesn't really fit in properly.

Also, more than the archeological evidences, these kingdoms are mentioned in the Hindu Vedas, the ancient sacred texts. Existing since 16th century BC and goes upto 12th century BC. By this logic, the realms mentioned on the map could be existing just as tribes and not really republics. And they rose to power several millennia later. But still it's not exactly a clear picture as to when exactly the event had happened. Another point, concluding, is the version of Mahabharata and Ramayana Indians know of, started existing into practice only 2500 years ago, that's roughly around 500 BC (the Mahajanapada period). So possibly the narrators of the tale had passed on a slightly different version of the names here.

The map sketched here is based on multiple research. This includes the following:

1) A Historical Atlas of South Asia - Joseph Schwartzberg.

2) List of Mahabharata Tribes - Laxman Burdak

3) Articles written by Devdutt Patnaik

4) Video references by Ollie Bye

5) Various sub-sources of Wikipedia