0: Dwarka has a special significance.

3: It's the only place which is contemporary

6: with the events which are mentioned in Mahabharata.

17: Krishna told in Mahabharata that the city

19: of Dwarka was built on reclaimed land.

22: But when the sea level started going back, the city of Dwarka got submerged.

35: I am an underwater archeologist,

37: exploring submerged archeological sites in Indian waters.

42: One of the major excavations which was conducted by

45: the underwater archeological wing was at Dwarka.

49: A site which is famous for its historic city,

55: for its religious importance and also historical and archeological importance.

112: In the second half of

113: the last century, archeologists made attempts to find the material evidence,

120: so that they can prove the historic city beyond doubt.

123: And the first excavation was conducted in the 60s by The Deccan College, Puna.

128: In 1979, Archeological Survey of India carried out another excavation,

133: where the excavator found some pottery which he felt

137: was of the second millennium BC.

143: Excavation and exploration conducted in and around Dwarka

147: have revealed a variety of archeological remains.

151: We have nicely painted polychrome where many colours are used.

158: We have microns, where on a red surface they have black paintings.

162: More than 500 antiquities were recovered from there,

165: and also the samples and dating materials,

168: firmly establishing the cultural sequence for almost 2000 years.

174: Under water we have found remains of stone structures, huge blocks,

179: but we didn't find associated pottery or other objects as they are exposed

185: on the surface and there is a very strong current.

187: The work on marine archeology of submerged Dwarka

191: started with the excavation near the present Dwarkadhish Temple,

195: and a series of temples were excavated.

198: It means temples were shifting towards land as the sea level was rising.

204: This has encouraged Dr S R Rao, a very famous Indian archeologist,

209: to think why not do a survey in an offshore area

213: and see if there's any evidence of the sunken city.

217: And Later on in 2007, a detailed excavation was conducted.

223: I was the director of that whole project.

225: Dwarka is located on the western-most tip, here.

231: The location of which matches with whatever is written in literature.

236: This is a small stream which comes and joins the sea, here,

240: and it is known as Gomti. And this is the town of Dwarka.

244: So we selected an area around 200m by 200m and then scientifically,

251: as we do in archeology, we explore the area and all these remains.

256: And in that again we found around a 50m area is having more remains

262: and they were of better size, well preserved.

265: Here they found a thick deposit of around 10m.

269: The settlement was destroyed by the sea.

274: We carried out a hydrographic survey of around two nautical miles

278: by one nautical mile.

280: A detailed hydrographic sheet of this area.

283: You will find there is shift in the position of this stream.

290: And we very preciously measured them and properly marked for diving operations.

295: And we laid down the grids and the grids were numbered.

300: So one by one we explored.

302: And when you go down, actually, you find they are all overgrown with the vegetation.

308: And once you clean, then their shapes start coming up.

313: Some of the structures had a number of courses.

317: A large number of stone anchors have been found from this area

320: so that establishes that it was an ancient port and that is beyond doubt.

325: In NIO (National Institute of Oceanography), we generated the records

328: of the last 15,000 years of how sea level has fluctuated.

331: The sea level was about 100m lower than 15,000 years back.

336: Sea level has started going up,

338: around 7,000 years ago it has passed the present sea level.

342: And around 3,500 years back, this is the time when Dwarka city was built.

348: And then when again the sea level has gone up, this became a submerged city.

409: If we can locate the exact location of the ancient settlement,

415: it is going to be of a very high significance as far as the history

421: of India is concerned.