Manu’s flood not myth but reality: Ex-ASI chief

New Delhi, March 27: Controversial archaeologist B.B. Lal, known for his works on Ayodhya, has come up with a research paper which claims that Manu’s flood, widely believed to be a mythological phenomenon, was a real event.

The research paper of the former director general of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the findings of which were arrived at by linking Manu’s flood to the disappearance of the Saraswati river through archaeological evidence, was presented on Monday at a seminar organised by the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR).

“Archaeologically, the deluge of the Saraswati took place around 2000-1,900 Before Common Era (BCE) or broadly, in the first quarter of the second millennium BCE. This was exactly

The research paper by Padma Bhushan awardee archaeologist B.B. Lal was presented on Monday at a seminar organised by ICHR

the time of Manu’s flood, which occurred after the Rigveda, but before the beginning of the second millennium BCE. Should we still call Manu’s Flood a myth,” the paper read.

Mr Lal, a Padma Bhushan awardee, is also working on a book on the same subject. His book ‘Rama, His Historicity, Mandir and Setu: Evidence of Literature, Archaeology and Other Sciences’ had created an uproar as it talked about the possible presence of a Hindu temple structure beneath the Babri Masjid.

ICHR is a flagship research-based institution functioning under the ministry of human resource development.

The three-day seminar on ‘Antiquity, Continuity and Development of Civilisation and Culture in Bharat (India) up to 1st Millennium BC’ was slated to be inaugurated Monday by Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar. He, however, could not make it to the event.