Giving a totally new twist to the location of Lord Krishna's birthplace Dwarka, satellite pictures taken by the Indian Space Research Organisation have indicated that Dwarka did not exist in Jamnagar as the historians believe, but in Junagadh district of Gujarat.
A senior scientist with the Space Application Centre of ISRO Dr P S Thakker, who has worked on this project, said "What is interesting is that the findings of ISRO corroborates what is mentioned in the Vedas and ancient Hindu scriptures about the geographical location of Dwarka, but contradicts what the archaeologists and modern historians say about the present Dwarka, which they claim is in Jamnagar district of Gujarat."
Though the study was done by ISRO four years back, it was confined to abstract papers in dusty shelves of the department.
Satellite images can pinpoint things that are not visible to the naked eye. For example, it can indicate the presence of the ruins of a city, which has long been buried under the soil.
Thakker said there are nine sites in Gujarat, which claim to be original Krishna's Dwarka.
Descriptions of Krishna's Dwarka mention the presence of rivers, forests, mountains and gardens having colourful flowers in its environs.
The present day Dwarka, which exists in Jamnagar, doesn't match with the descriptions found in literature, but matches perfectly with satellite images, which was taken of Junagadh district, Thakker added.
He said the available literature indicates existence of two different Dwarkas at two different periods. One Dwarka was that of Vasudeva and the other was that of Krishna's.
Vasudev's Dwarka, which was submerged in the Arabian Sea about 3,500 years ago, and Krishna's Dwarka were both located in Junagadh district near Prabhash Kshetra, according to Thakker.
In 1988, the sixth Marine Archaeological expedition of the National Oceanography, Goa, led by Dr S R Rao, emeritus scientist, had discovered hitherto unknown features of a city in Jamnagar, which Rao claimed to be Krishna's Dwarka.
The expedition carried out by Dr Rao had come across inner and outer gateways of the proto-historic port city flanked by circular bastions built of massive blocks of sandstone.
From the inner gateway, a flight of steps led to the Gomati river, the submerged channel of which has been traced over a length of 1.5 km in the seabed.
However, Thakker claims this unknown feature of a city discovered by Rao could be any other city settled after 1 AD other than Krishna's Dwarka.
He said the study of satellite data perfectly matches with the description given in Tri Shasthi Shlaka Purush Charta (history of 63 outstanding personalities) written by Hemchandrachary, a distinguished Jain muni of 11th century AD who has given geographical description of Krishna's Dwarka built by Kuber at Indra's behest.
Thakker said the presence of Navda village in the vicinity and milollite limestone found in the vicinity of Girnar in Junagadh suggests the presence of sea in this area.
"Thus it seems that Vasudev's Dwarka, which was submerged in the sea as well and the Dwarka of Krishna were located in Junagadh district near Prabhash Kshetra. Excavation and further study is required to get more scientific information on Dwarka," he added.