bharata battle

[Rajesh Kochhar]

Re Narayan Joshi on Mahabharata/Kuruksetra
While assigning a date to the Bharata battle, the following  points need to be kept in mind

*Indraprastha, said to founded at the time of the battle ,is a PGW side. 

* The common denominator in  Mbh-named sites is PGW. If  present-day Hastinapur was the traditional capital of the Kurus , then it should  have been  much older than Indraprastha.

* More generally, large-scale habitation east of Yamuna-Ganga ( Yaga) doab did not take place  till the advent of iron-age.The Rgveda is decidedly a pre- iron age document. Therefore, the kings and chieftains of the pre-Bharata battle  could not have been stationed east of Ganga..

* According to the Puranas,  king Kuru preceded Kauravas/Pandavas by  23 generations.The Kuru-Pancala tribes  have a history older than the participants in the Bharata battle.The name Kaurava was a nonce word to  differentiate them from the Pandavas. The purpose  for the battle , in fact , was to  determine if the Pandavas, not being the sons of Pandu ,were entitled to the family tree.

I am inclined to place the battle circa 1000 BC.Roughly speaking this is also the beginning of iron age in India.For the geography of pre-Bharata battle people we must look to the east of the Yaga doab (where else?)