NationStates Jolt Archive

Came accross this interesting article

http://www.geocities.com/lavlesh/More_About_india/ancient_city_found.htm

It's about what sounds like nuclear war in ancient India.

Consider these verses from the ancient (6500 BC at the latest) Mahabharata:

...a single projectile
Charged with all the power of the Universe.
An incandescent column of smoke and flame
As bright as the thousand suns
Rose in all its splendour...
a perpendicular explosion
with its billowing smoke clouds...
...the cloud of smoke
rising after its first explosion
formed into expanding round circles
like the opening of giant parasols...

..it was an unknown weapon,
An iron thunderbolt,
A gigantic messenger of death,
Which reduced to ashes
The entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.
...The corpses were so burned
As to be unrecognisable.
The hair and nails fell out;
Pottery broke without apparent cause,
And the birds turned white.

After a few hours
All foodstuffs were infected...
...to escape from this fire
The soldiers threw themselves in streams
To wash themselves and their equipment.

I've read a bit about that as well. All I'll say right now is that it's interesting.

And if true, and I hope it's not, then it only proves that history really does repeat itself.

Interesting...

I don't like repeating everyone but... interesting.

...

Why nuclear weapon ? Its always nuclear weapon with you people ...

Three words people :

" Rock From Space " ...

I hate it when the starting player in India toggles the cheat menu and just gives himself nuclear weapons in the Ancient period. I mean, you can't do that naturally, regardless of how well you play. You might be able to get one by the middle ages if you're playing on chieftan and you really wanted to prove something. :)


Does anybody play civ or was this joke just lost?

I hate it when the starting player in India toggles the cheat menu and just gives himself nuclear weapons in the Ancient period. I mean, you can't do that naturally, regardless of how well you play. You might be able to get one by the middle ages if you're playing on chieftan and you really wanted to prove something. :)


Does anybody play civ or was this joke just lost?

Oh no, I'm a recovering Civ addict :D

lost

And I agree with the rock from space theory ... a hit of that magnitude actualy does look fairly simmilar to a nuke blast

And, if we jump to further conclusions....

those nuclear technologies were really developed by time traveling aliens from the year 2156 who are attempting to invade earth, but are unable to. So instead of fighting us now, they sent back "sky charriots" to wipe out the most civilized ancient man.

Oh no, I'm a recovering Civ addict :D

Same here. That game is responsible for more time of my life wasted than anything, except maybe sleeping.

so the aliens already went back in time? i was gunna do that next summer

...

Why nuclear weapon ? Its always nuclear weapon with you people ...

Three words people :

" Rock From Space " ...

Could it be because fallout was found?

You're all overlooking the simplest explanation of all, if it's true. It's not ancient, it's modern. India has had one of the most extensive nuclear testing programs around in the last couple decades. I find the lack of any kind of mention of the site being covered by earth a little suspicious. I mean, really. A blast levels a city, and presumably takes out whatever vegetation might be around that would prevent erosion from burying the site, not to mention radiation levels that would keep plant life away for centuries...

Alternately, it's a hoax. Any independent confirmation, other news sources?

Bullshit.

It was almost definetly a rock from space.

If they had the technology to make nuclear bombs, why would they go into war on horses and elephants?

You can't have technology like atomic power without having other technological advancements.

Could it be because fallout was found?



Meteors cause fallout as well.

Could it be because fallout was found?

You're all overlooking the simplest explanation of all, if it's true. It's not ancient, it's modern. India has had one of the most extensive nuclear testing programs around in the last couple decades. I find the lack of any kind of mention of the site being covered by earth a little suspicious. I mean, really. A blast levels a city, and presumably takes out whatever vegetation might be around that would prevent erosion from burying the site, not to mention radiation levels that would keep plant life away for centuries...

Alternately, it's a hoax. Any independent confirmation, other news sources?

The Mahabharatta has been around for more than a couple of decades. More like 5000 years. It's one of the most ancient sacred texts, predating the Old Testament. And the incredible weapons have been very well known for long, although the modern translations may make it sound more like an atomic weapon. I'm sure you can find decent translations using the internet. I'm not too sure if you'll find the time to read it, it's the longest or second longest epopeyic poem.

Legends grow every time they are told, so by the time it was put down into paper the weapon probably had grown several orders of magnitud. The weapon could have been a meteorite or early experiments in gunpowder. The really distubing part, though, is the description of radiation poisoning, unknown before the early 20th century.

If they had the technology to make nuclear bombs, why would they go into war on horses and elephants?

You can't have technology like atomic power without having other technological advancements.

And without leaving signals of that technology all over the place, even if a technologically advanced society once existed and disappeared in a nuclear conflagration. What makes the text interesting is that the descriptions seem so accurate, but that may be because we are seeing through 21st century eyes.

It may not have been more tha fantasy in the first place. It's not clear yet that the Mahabharatta describes actual events, although there are ancient cities along the Indus that seem to have been destroyed in war, like Mohenjo Daro.

No evidence of atomic weapons or uranium enrichment facilities from the stone age, though.

The Mahabharatta has been around for more than a couple of decades. More like 5000 years. It's one of the most ancient sacred texts, predating the Old Testament. And the incredible weapons have been very well known for long, although the modern translations may make it sound more like an atomic weapon. I'm sure you can find decent translations using the internet. I'm not too sure if you'll find the time to read it, it's the longest or second longest epopeyic poem.

Legends grow every time they are told, so by the time it was put down into paper the weapon probably had grown several orders of magnitud. The weapon could have been a meteorite or early experiments in gunpowder. The really distubing part, though, is the description of radiation poisoning, unknown before the early 20th century.

The Mahabharatta hardly constitutes scientifically valid support for a theory. You're trusting in an oral tradition passed down for millenia before it was even committed to the written word. Additionally, it's tainted because we seek pattern and similarity. We want to classify what it describes, and it seems similar to something we're familiar with, so therefore we stick it in its neat box.

I'm just saying, there's probably a simpler explanation for this. Occam's Razor, and all that.

The Mahabharatta hardly constitutes scientifically valid support for a theory. You're trusting in an oral tradition passed down for millenia before it was even committed to the written word. Additionally, it's tainted because we seek pattern and similarity. We want to classify what it describes, and it seems similar to something we're familiar with, so therefore we stick it in its neat box.

I'm just saying, there's probably a simpler explanation for this. Occam's Razor, and all that.


Oh, I agree completely. It still makes you wonder where they came up with these ideas. And it's fun to make up theories and delve in the what-ifs of the ancient world. The Bhaghavad Gita also describes some pretty cool stuff, and there are things in the Scandinavian Odes and Mayan Popol Vuh that Sci Fi fans will be familiar with.

Even the Bible has its share of atomic weapons and thrown here and there when god wants to make sure people got his point.

Not that these things happened like this, but they are pretty entertaining.

It is said one of the researchers (possibly Oppenheimer himself) of the first A-bomb quoted verses from the Mahabharatta when he saw the effects of his creation.

Oppenheimer - “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

(once again)

interesting...

however, I wonder how in the hell can they contain a nuclear weapon? Perhaps they couldn't and thus a city is destroyed?

It's also possible that a natural uranium deposit somehow reached critical mass of its own accord and finally exploded. What was recorded might have been an ancient description of such an event.

...not that I have any evidence to back that up....

--The Democratic States of Cogitation

No, I'd say it was a man wearing a red coat and having tall, blond hair who did it. His arm probably turned into a giant cannon. That explaination works much better.

After much thought and a bit of research, I have reached a conclusion: It's a fake.
The only source for this 'ground zero' comes from just one article, albeit copied in many websites. All claim the same source, which just happens to be one that doesn't exist on Google, except as a reference to that particular article.

The area in concern is in the vicinity of a nuclear plant that leaks radioactivity, like the one from "The Simpsons." I also think that there might be nuclear weapons housed nearby, always a possibility with India near the border with Pakistan.