Archaeological Footprints of Hinduism – Shree Rama & Shree Krishna Ek Yatharth (Reality)

Hinduism, the world's oldest religion, is still commonly practiced. Because of its large following, it's also regarded as the world's third largest religion. The religious practices in many sects and religions such as Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism etc. are offshoot of Snatana Dharma., commonly called as Hinduism. The archaeological evidences of Hinduism date as far back as 7500 B.C.E. in India. 

There are sufficient archaeological evidences of Shree Rama and Shree Krishna, the incarnations of Vishnu Bhagwan. The conclusive evidences of Archaeological findings of historical persons – Shree Rama and Shree Krishna are as under:

Maryada Purushottam Shree Rama, the historical person:
Valmiki, who wrote the Ramayana, was a contemporary of Shree Rama. While narrating the events in epic, he has mentioned the position of planets. Using the recent planetary software, it is possible these planetary positions actually took place precisely as specified in Ramayana. 

Renowned historian and archaeological researcher Dr. Ram Avtar has unearthed more than 200 such places related to the events of the life of Shri Ram and Sita, where even today there are memorial sites, where Shri Ram and Sita stayed or stayed. The time period of the monuments, frescoes, caves etc. was investigated by scientific methods. However, to make it presentable, a few important places (with present day places) are discussed here:

1. Birth of Shri Rama – Shree Rama was born in Ajodhya, the most sacred place for Hindus.
2. Met Kevat - From Ajodhya, they reached the Tamasa river (20 Km away) and then crossed the Gomti river and reached Shringverpur (now called as Singraur), 20–22 km from Prayagraj (Allahabad), which was the kingdom of Nishadraj Guha.
3. Met Bharata – They crossed Yamuna River at Prayagraj and reached Chitrakoot. The monuments located here include Valmiki Ashram, Mandavya Ashram, Bharatkup etc. Chitrakoot is the place where Bharata reaches with his army to persuade Rama. Near Chitrakoot was the ashram of Atri Rishi located in Satna (Madhya Pradesh). 
4. Met Atri Rishi - After staying for a few days in the ashram of Atri Rishi, Shri Ram stayed for around ten years in the dense forests of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. This forest area was Dandakaranya (now called as Dantewada, Chhattisgarh). According to local belief, there was a battle between Ravana and Jatayu in the sky of Dandakaranya and some parts of Jatayu had fallen in Dandakaranya. 

 
They went to The Viradha Sarabhanga and Sutikshan Muni Ashrams ahead of The Dandakaranya Area and Satna. There are many monuments in Panna, Raipur, Bastar and Jagdalpur. For example, Mandavya Ashram, Shringi Ashram, Ram-Lakshman Temple etc. Ram have gone to modern Jabalpur, Shahdol (Amarkantak) from there. Shahdol to North East is sarguja region. The name of a mountain here is 'Ramgarh'.     The cistern in which a waterfall falls from a height of    30 feet is called ‘Sita Kund'.   There is a Vashishta cave here. The names of the two caves are Lakshman Bongra and 'Sita Bongra'.  

1. Met Agastya Muni – Thereafter, they went to the ashram of Agastya Muni in Nashik. Here, Shurpanakha, Maricha and Khar and Dushan was killed.
2. Search of Sita – Ravana abducted Sita and also killed Jatayu at Sarvatirtha (Sarvatirtha' in Taked village, 56 km from Nashik). Rama-Lakshman reached Sarvatirtha and later reached the region of Tungabhadra and Kaveri rivers. He went in search of Sita to many places in the Tungabhadra and Kaveri River areas.
3. Met Shabri - After meeting Jatayu and Kabandha, they crossed the Malay mountains and sandalwood forests to reach Rishyamook mountain. On the way to Rishyamook mountain, they visited the Shabari Ashram near the Pampa River, which is located in present-day Kerala. The famous 'Sabarimalaya Temple' shrine of Kerala is situated on the banks of this river.
4. Met Shri Hanuman – After crossing the Malay Mountains and the sandalwood forests, they proceeded towards Mount Rishyamook. Here he met Hanuman and Sugriva, saw Sita's ornaments and Sri Rama killed Bali. Rishyamook mountain and Kishkindha town is presently located in Hampi, District Bellary, Karnataka.
5. Gathered at Rameswaram - Rameswaram is a famous Hindu pilgrimage centre. According to the epic Ramayana, Lord Shri Ram worshiped Lord Shiva here before ascending to Lanka. The Shivling of Rameswaram is the Shivling established by Shri Rama.
6. Reached the nearest place from Sri Lanka - Dhanushkodi is a village located on the southern edge of Rameswaram Island on the eastern coast of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
7. Building Ram setu – The waters of the Palk Strait separate Sri Lanka from the tip of India (Dhanuskodi, Tamil Nadu India and Talaimannar stretches, Sri Lanka). At the narrowest point, the Palk Strait measures about 33 miles (53 km) wide. Sacred to the Hindu religion, the bridge was said to be built by Lord Rama, who visited many towns in the region. Ramayana mentions that the Setu Banda was constructed with floating stones. Surprisingly, such floating stones are scattered across Rameswaram even to this day.
   
   

Ram Setu or Adam’s bridge was declared to be man-made by scientists and geologists. After new evidence provided by NASA, this 30 km long bridge was constructed 1.2 million years ago. S. Badrinarayanan, a former director of the Geological Survey of India, a publication of the National Remote Sensing Agency, a spokesman for the Indian government in a 2008 Madras High court case, and an episode from the Discovery Communications-owned Science Channel series “What on Earth” have all either explicitly or implicitly claimed that the ancient Hindu myth of Lord Ram building the structure could be literally true, contrary to the scientific facts of the matter. Recently (January, 2021), the Government of India has cleared the research proposal of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) involving the Ram Setu. According to a Times of India report, the project involves an underwater exploration that will determine the age of the setu (bridge) and how it was formed. The research will begin in this (2021) year itself.

1. Reached Sri Lanka - According to Valmiki-Ramayana, there was a palace of Ravana in the middle of Sri Lanka. The whirlpools of tunnels and caves are found in the middle of the high hills of central Lanka towards Bandravela, about 90 km from the 'Nuwara Eliya' hills. Many such archaeological remains are found here, whose carbon dating has been extracted from them.

 
Shree Krishna, the historical figure:
There is sufficient evidence available now to suggest that Shree Krishna was indeed a historical figure, who lived about 5000 years ago. This evidence is not just literary but also archaeological, geographical as well as astronomical, N S Rajaram, author of the book Search for the Historical Krishna.
 
The places mentioned in the history of Shree Krishna such as Mathura, Vrindavan, Gokul, Govardhan, Hastinapur (Meerut), Indraprastha (Delhi), Kurukshetra, Dwarka etc. are the geographical places which are still existing.
 
Dwarka is mentioned in a number of texts, including the Mahabharata, the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, the Harivamsha as well as the Skanda Purana, and the Vishnu Purana. The Mahabharata says that the city was also extremely well planned: divided into six sectors which were in turn divided into residential, commercial areas and had 9,00,000 royal palaces. It is said that it was submerged in the big flood 9,000 years ago. The astronomical, archaeological and historical evidences of birth of Shree Krishna are provided as under:

1. Dr S. Balakrishna of NASA, Dr. B N Narahari Achar, Department of Physics, Memphis University, USA, Dr R N Iyengar, Department of civil engineering, Bengaluru,   Dr S Kalyanaraman, Saraswati River Research Centre, Chennai and others submitted papers on the date of Mahabharata war based on astronomical data with the use of planetarium software during two-days seminar in Bengaluru in January, 2003 and agreed that there does not exist any contradiction between any two descriptions of planetary configurations given in Mahabharata.
2. Dr Narhari Achar, professor of physics at the University of Memphis, has dated the Mahabharata war using astronomy, using regular planetarium software. According to his research conducted in 2004-05, the titanic clash between the Pandavas and the Kauravas took place in 3067 BC. Using the same software, Dr Achar places the year of Krishna’s birth at 3112 BC.
3. In ancient history, there are tantalizing traces of Krishna. Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador in the court of Chandragupta Maurya (4th century BC), makes the first reference to the deification of Shree Krishna. He says that Heracles (who is closest to Shree Krishna) was held in high regard by the Sourasenoi (Surasena) who possessed two large cities, namely Methora (Mathura) and Cleisobora (Krishna Pura; that is, Vraja and Vrindavan).
4. Underwater explorations conducted between 1983 and 1990 in Gulf of Khambhat, the archaeologists discovered a fortified foundation on which the ancient city walls of Dwarka must have been built along the river banks. Stone blocks used for the construction, pillars and irrigation systems were found. Marine scientists say archaeological remains discovered 36 m (120 ft) underwater in the Gulf of Cambay off the western coast of India could be over 9,000 years old. explorations conducted in the Gulf of Cambay waters revealed sandstone walls, a grid of streets and some evidence of a sea port 70 feet under water, and artefacts dating back to 7500BC. Artifacts were sent to the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) in Hyderabad, India, the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany (BSIP) in Lucknow, India, and the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India. The piece of wood was carbon dated to an age of 9,500 years old. Carbon dating on debris recovered from the site, including construction material, pottery, sections of walls, beads, sculpture and human bones and teeth, put it at nearly 9,500 years old. (Underwater Cultural Heritage. A.S Gaur and K. H Vora. Current Science Volume 86 No 9 May 2004 and also mentioned on website UNESCO.org) 

Dr. S. Balakrishna of NASA, USA; Dr. B. N. Narahari Achar, Department of Physics, Memphis University, USA; Dr. R. N. Iyengar, Department of Civil Engineering, Bangalore; Dr. S. Kalyanaraman, Saraswati River Research Centre, Chennai and others submitted papers on the date of Mahabharata war based on Astronomical data with the use of Planetarium software at the two-day seminar in Bangalore, India between fifth and sixth January 2003 and agreed that there does not exist any contradiction between any two descriptions of planetary configurations given in
the Mahabharata.