Mahabharata Quiz - 95

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Question – 95

Did the comet-hit of 3136 BCE cause the Biblical flood? What are the evidences for such a claim?

Answer:

Vyāsa specifically stated that the earth trembled, and the sea swelled, but the swelling water did not cross the shores in Bharat (MB: 6.3.36). This gives an additional insight that some meteors had fallen into the sea – the most probable location being the Arabian Sea.

In this regard, the data on Paleoclimatic Flood events furnished by Stanford.edu shows the Biblical Flood and the flood events supported by paleoclimatic data around the year 3136 BCE (Fig. below).  The well-established Mayan calendar date coming immediately after the Mahabharata war at 3114 BCE offers a benchmark to compare the flood events. I marked the Mayan date by running a blue line across it. Just before the Mayan date, the Biblical flood, suggested by Dr. Hales appears, matching with the Comet-hit of 3136 BCE.

Dates of global floods and the flood of 3136 BCE

The foremost inference from this Figure is that the flood at Dwārakā has no nearest origin, by which we are made to deduce that it was a localized flood and not a global event as the comet-hit was.

Though there is no consensus on a scientifically supported date for the Biblical Flood, with the archaeologically supported flood event coming around to 2950-2850 BCE in the Mesopotamian site of Shuruppak, the Stanford data offers overwhelming support to a global flood around 3136 BCE. Of the two dates suggested for the Biblical flood – one by Dr. Hales and the other by Wright & Morris (Fig.13), the former is supported by a range of paleoclimatic data.    When I checked the research works on the Biblical flood archaeology, there is an overwhelming consensus on a flood from the Mesopotamian region that caused the Ark of Noah to be lifted and disembarked on Mount Ararat (Biblical mount Urartu)

According to Genesis 7:11, the flood started with two major events: (1) the fountains of the deep burst and (2) the windows of the heaven were opened. Of these, the first event apparently refers to explosion noises from beneath the ocean causing eruption (fountain) of water. In the event of a major fragment of the broken comet crashing into the Persian Gulf, the burst of water from the deep becomes possible. The crash causing massive precipitation is recognized as the heavens opening up. Vyāsa-s simultaneous reference to the trembling of the earth and swelling of the oceans (MB: 6.3.36) concurs with an event of a crash in the Persian Gulf.

 

The probable location of the Biblical Flood

The Biblical month running at that time also makes an interesting correlation with the time of comet-fall. It was on “the seventh, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Urartu” (Genesis: 8.4). In the Vedic calendric months starting from Caitra / Aries (in sidereal year count starting from Aries), the crash occurred after the seventh month.