Is Vṛndāvana really more than 5000 years old?
Vṛndāvana is not just a holy place but also a historic place. One question one could ask, however, is where is the archaeological evidence of such a huge village?
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We study in the scriptures that Vṛndāvana is not just a holy place but also a historic place. Kṛṣṇa was living there, together with thousands or millions of cowherds, who had extremely large herds of cows. One question one could ask, however, is where is the archaeological evidence of such a huge village?
When archaeologists excavate, they don’t find much evidence of an ancient city or settlement called Vṛndāvana from 3100 BCE. Mathurā is an ancient settlement, but the oldest buildings in Vṛndāvana are mostly from the 16th and 17th centuries.
A similar dilemma exists around Navadvīpa, the hometown of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, which corresponds to what is now Mayapur.
Śrila Bhaktivinoda Thākura found some archaeological evidence of the birthplace of Mahāprabhu and a few other constructions, but nothing on the scale of a huge city. So, how can we explain the historical existence of these holy places?
These are valid questions, but they are based on the wrong assumption. They start from the idea that the Vṛndāvana Kṛṣṇa lived, or the Navadvīpa where Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu lived, were ordinary cities, where the walls were made of bricks, and everyone had bodies made of flesh and bones, while the scriptures alert us that these places are transcendental.
We can see that this starts from the same mistake that leads many to conclude God doesn’t have a form. They see form as an inherent limitation, since a material form has certain dimensions and is restricted to a single position in space-time. I can extend my hand only to a certain extent, have a definite size, can only move at a certain speed, and so on. Therefore, when the scriptures mention that God is unlimited, He is everywhere, moves faster than anything, etc., they conclude He must not have a form. The mistake here is to fail to acknowledge the existence of spiritual form, which is by definition not subjected to the same limitations.
In the same way, we tend to presume that the places where Kṛṣṇa played His pastimes are physical spaces we can find through archaeological excavations. Again, that’s the wrong approach.
One can just be skeptical and assume nothing of it is real, that there is no God, etc. That’s lamentable, but at least it is consistent. However, if we accept that there is a God, who is transcendental, then we have to also accept that his abode is transcendental. He interacts with regular people to a certain extent, like when driving Arjuna’s chariot in Kurukṣetra, but His intimate pastimes are not played in an ordinary village of this world.
Kṛṣṇa’s Vṛndāvana may appear externally like a cowherd village, but internally it is the Lord’s eternal abode. The error is to demand that such a place leave the same archaeological signature as an ordinary material city. This is like trying to judge the appearance of Kṛṣṇa by trying to find His body. He is not an ordinary mortal to leave a body made of flesh and bones to begin with.
When Kṛṣṇa comes, the spiritual world comes with Him, and somehow becomes visible as part of our planet. Just as a king travels with his retinue, when Kṛṣṇa appears, the whole spiritual world manifests with Him. Just as Kṛṣṇa’s body is fully spiritual, His abode is spiritual. From the outside, Vṛndāvana appears to exist in a limited area of our planet, measuring 84 krośas, but the inside is a manifestation of the spiritual world. The Lord’s internal potency governs the whole līlā, so it cannot be measured like an ordinary historical village.
Every time Kṛṣṇa comes, His abode also manifests, together with His eternal associates, opulences, and so on. He is also joined by great devotees such as the daughters of the demigods, great sages, and the personified Vedas, who take birth in Vṛndāvana and join the eternal līlā by associating with Kṛṣṇa and His eternal associates.
The whole abode is transcendental; it becomes manifested and later again unmanifested, without leaving meaningful archaeological traces. The fact that archaeological excavations don’t find anything tangible from the period Vṛndāvana was there is thus not contradictory. It actually supports the version of the scriptures.
Vṛndāvana exists in three levels:
1) Goloka Vṛndāvana: the eternal abode in the spiritual sky.
2) Bhauma Vṛndāvana: the manifestation of the same abode on earth when Kṛṣṇa comes to play His pastimes, that remains accessible for highly qualified souls even after His disappearance.
3) The present-day Vṛndāvana, the town where we can take photos, that was built from the 16th century onward.
Archaeology can only deal with the third, external level. It is by definition the wrong tool to research the metaphysical Vṛndāvana we read about in the scriptures.
The earthly Vṛndāvana exists in the same place where the spiritual Vṛndāvana manifested, but just moving there does not automatically grant access to the spiritual abode. A pure devotee may be able to experience the spiritual reality and see Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes happening there, but an archaeologist will just see the land and bricks.
By the time of the appearance of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Vṛndāvana was just a village on the outskirts of Mathurā. The Six Goswamis excavated holy places connected with Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes and built many temples and other historical structures, but all of these are structures from the 16th and 17th centuries, as confirmed by modern studies. Everything else that exists nowadays is recent construction, brick and mortar buildings that superimpose the spiritual abode, which continues to be available for sufficiently qualified devotees.
Similarly, when Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared in Navadvīpa, His eternal abode manifested there. Navadvīpa was a modest city by material standards, a learning center, not an imperial capital. However, during the pastimes, the spiritual abode merged with the material reality, manifesting the abode where Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu played His pastimes. After His disappearance, the spiritual abode again became unmanifested, and a change in the course of the Ganges covered whatever was left, until some of the important holy places were found and excavated by Śrila Bhaktivinoda Thākura.
The same is valid for other holy places, such as Ayodhyā and Dvārakā. A team of researchers found a few ruins under the ocean a few years ago and claimed these are the ruins of Kṛṣṇa’s city, but it’s more probable that they are just ruins of some other ancient settlement. Dvaraka was supposed to have disappeared without a trace.
One may believe or disbelieve, but archaeology is not the final instrument for understanding the holy dhāma. It can study soil, bricks, pottery, and settlement layers, but it cannot measure the spiritual identity of Vṛndāvana, Navadvīpa, or Dvārakā. These places are metaphysical and can be understood only by spiritual realization. The real question is, therefore, not how old Vṛndāvana is historically, but how we can become qualified to see Vṛndāvana as it actually is.
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