JJ ji,
Do you believe that the Mahabharata War was a historic event or fiction placed in a Historic Time frame?
If it is Historic Event then it must stand up to scientific inquiry.
On the other hand, If it is a fiction, it could have been written, rewritten, modified at any time.
The dates of Mahabharata is all over the place, but it can not be 4000 years old.
Arjuna and Karna had arrows of iron and steel, in the order of 60 million !
Kurukshetra war consisted of
21,870 chariots
21,870 elephants
65,610 cavalry
109,350 infantry
To supply weapons for such a large quantity, there should have been thousands and thousands of iron smiths making so much of iron weapons and weapons don't just disintegrate with time, they must leave an archeological trace and can be excavated.
Lets look at the realistic ages of metal
Stone age - 3.4 million years and ended between 8700 BCE and 2000 BCE
Bronze age - 3300–1200 BC
Iron age - 1200 BC - modern days
Iron age in India started around 1200 to 600 BCE so if Iron is used the Mahabharat then it can't be 5000 years old and if it was used at such massive scale of millions, then it should leave a large archeological evidence.
Use of Iron also brings forth stone sculpting, stone art, but no such evidence has been found, only soft stone(soap stone) art has been found eg Pashupati seal in Mohenjo-daro, made of soap stone.
The oldest idols of a religious nature are those of Buddha from the Kushana period, around 1 century CE, or around 2000 years ago. Hindu idols come later.
The oldest surviving temples are rock cut caves, but currently none of them are actively being worshiped. The oldest structural temples are around 500 CE, or 1500 years ago, but are very small brick structures unlike grand temples claimed in Mahabarat/Ramayana
Vedas
Mahabharat mentions that Hanuman learned Vedas, Vedas is dated at 1400BC, so Mahabharat can't be older than Vedas
Modern scholars estimate that Mahabharat to be not early than 400BCE and reached its final form in 4AD in Gupta Period. Thus It’s a great and very interesting epic but its age cannot be 5000 years old. And going by its realistic dates of 400BC to 4AD, we know exactly who were kings during those period and they were not from Mahabharat or Ramayan.
Answer (1 of 17): I will compose my response as a counterargument to the answer provided by Ambika Vijay for this question. To begin with, Ambika Vijay categorizes the Ramayana and Mahabharata as texts from the Iron Age, citing their mention of iron and the fact that the Iron Age in India commen...
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