Shreesh Deopujari

The history of an ancient civilisation like Bharat cannot be read through the Gregorian calendar alone. With Vārṣa Pratipadā approaching, the traditional New Year in many parts of Bharat raises a simple question: New Year of which era? Some mark it as the beginning of the Shalivahana Shaka, while others mark it as the beginning of the Vikram Samvat, reflecting the many systems of chronology followed across the country. That leads to a larger question: what was the year of Lord Rama’s birth?...

Satellite imagery, groundwater studies, archaeology, and ancient texts affirm that the Saraswati River was not a myth but a civilisational reality. In the 1960s and 70s, Saraswati Puja was observed every Friday in schools, with children enjoying  prasad  of jaggery and roasted chickpeas. While they repeated that Saraswati was the goddess of knowledge, few understood what knowledge—or even being a student—truly meant. As the Saraswati River was believed to be long extinct, textbooks referred...