Bhirrana-Varaṇa- A place by Monsoonal Vāraṇa river?
1 min readDec 29, 2021
Identifying MBH places- Note to self
- Varana River (वारण) Mahabharata (V.19.30)
- Siswal, Rakhigarhi, Banawali, Bhirrana, Kunal, Balu and Thana are located at a radial distance of less than 500m from the Saraswati or the Drishadwati paleochannel.
- Varana (वरण) is name of a place mentioned by Panini in Ashtadhyayi.
- https://www.nature.com/articles/srep26555#f1
- 29.5496° N, 75.5480° E, (Ujjain 23.1765° N, 75.7885° E- I love this longitude)
- Early Harappan (~8–6.5 ka BP) — we estimate that the early Holocene (9–7 ka) monsoon precipitation at Bhirrana was ~100–150 mm higher than today. The subsequent enrichment from 7 ka onwards (by more than 6‰) reaching maximum towards the mature Harappan time indicates very low rainfall generating mean annual δ18OW similar to present day non-monsoon months. Such a climate scenario is indeed catastrophic and if persisted for several thousand years could easily convert large monsoon-fed perennial rivers to ephemeral or even dry ones.
I do identify Varaṇa as Bhirrana, what say…