Presented at third International Conference on Sarasvati River (Feb 8-9, 2019) at Panjab University, Chandigarh, 2019
The mammoth significance of the Mahābhārata to Indic Chronology is readily seen in the copious scholarship dedicated not only to examining its epoch but also in particular to dating of river Sarasvatī. While there are several works studying Sarasvatī in the earliest Sanskrit texts and drawing inferences and arguments from textual evidence to address critical issues plaguing early Indic chronology, a similar effort—to comprehensively document, from 89000+ verses of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) critical edition of the Mahābhārata and analyse it in its context to draw inferences that could be of relevance to early Indic chronology—forms the crux of this paper. The authors’ work consists of a database of 222 verses of Sarasvatī from the BORI critical edition of the Mahābhārata. This database enables study of the qualifiers associated with the river, including vitality, an especially crucial factor when considered with the geographical markers associated with it, thus providing a framework against which contemporary scientific research draws greater perspective. We particularly look at the verses that indicate vitality of the river in the light of scientific evidence from fields including geology, geomorphology, geohydrology to explore the possibility of a terminus ante quem for the textual material. The authors believe that their database, when combined with the parameter of geographical coordinates, fills an important place in textual analysis of the epic with regards to the timeline of the Sarasvatī itself, and by extension the chronology of the events of the Mahābhārata.