Dwaraka

Dwārakā or Dwārkā (द्वारका, „the gated [city]“) is a city in the state of Gujarat, India. According to tradition, Dwārakā was the capital of the kingdom of Kṛṣṇa and the Yādavas. It was five thousand years ago. After the death of Kṛṣṇa and the disappearance of the Yādavas, Dwārakā was swallowed up by the sea.

Systematic archaeological fieldwork in India started in 1861 with investigations in upper India undertaken by Alexander Cunningham, a British army officer. The first underwater investigation which aimed to search for the remains of an ancient city off the Tamil Nadu coast was conducted by a team of Oceanographers under the leadership of a geophysicist. Motivated by the results of this exploration, a retired archaeologist, S.R. Rao, began a project on “Marine Archaeological Studies in Indian Waters” in 1981. The project, started in the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) with generous support of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), is often referred to as the beginning of underwater archaeological studies in India.

It was S.R. Rao who announced the discovery of ancient Dwārakā and the reality of the events described in Mahābhārata. Indophiles of various religious groups, including the Hare Krishnas, take Rao’s statement about the discovery of Dwārakā as scientific confirmation of ancient events and the correctness of their religion.

S.R. Rao published several articles and books about his underwater research. The conclusions proposed by the author are still criticized by archaeologists, and members of the team of his underwater expeditions insist that they did not manage to find the ancient Dwārakā. The ruins found in the sea, masquerading as the ruins of Dwārakā by Rao, have nothing to do with Kṛṣṇa’s Dwārakā, according to former members of Rao’s team, now eminent scientists of departments at the National Institute of Oceanography in India. Then whose ruins are these and who owns the mass of anchors and other ancient utensils found at the bottom?

The answer has been known for a long time. This topic has been the subject of many scientific papers. My project „Dwaraka“ tells the story of the search for the ancient capital of the Yādavas, and most importantly, highlights the results of the search and the conclusions of specialists.

Format: Primarily a popular science documentary film, including interviews with members of Rao’s expeditions team; acquaintance with the findings and the results of their research.