Q. There seems to be archaelogical proof of a civilization during Lord Krishna’s time (about 5 thousand years ago) in India. But if you calculate back to Treta-yuga when Lord Rama was on the earth (earliest would be 2 x 432 thousand = 864 thousand years ago), archaelogicalists or the concept of human evolution says that at a couple million years ago there was not human-like skulls on the earth (only a degenerated homo-species). Was some of the things in scriptures then in fact on a different “plane” of existence that did not materially exist on this earth? Or is there something wrong with the dating system of evolution scientists?
Answer by Romapada Swami: I requested Drutakarma Prabhu to assist by providing the answer to this question. Here is his response.
“I would answer something like this: According to Vedic epistemology, the shabda pramana (shastra, transcendental sound from perfect sources, as recorded in the Vedic literature ) is superior to the pratyaksha pramana (material sense evidence) and the anumana pramana (conclusions from logical inference), because the senses and mind are imperfect. So if there is some contradiction between the evidence of shastra and the evidence in the form of archeological discoveries and theories, then we accept the evidence of shastra, and assume that there is some imperfection in the archeological evidence and theories.
In this case, if we have evidence from shastra (Ramayana, etc.) that there were humans in the Treta Yuga, then we accept that as true, no matter what archeologists may say. There is no need to prove shastra by material evidence, for that would mean that material evidence is superior to shastra, and that is not the case.
In the case of the Ramayana, it is true that archeologists believe that only primitive apelike human ancestors existed at that time. But, as shown in my book Forbidden Archeology, there is also evidence that humans of our kind existed in the Treta Yuga. For example, Reck’s skeleton, from Bed II of Olduvai Gorge (at least 1.15 million years old) is anatomically modern. Of course, all material archeological evidence is imperfect, and one can always raise questions pro and con. Nevertheless, there is archeological evidence that humans were present at the time of the Treta Yuga.
But the superior evidence is the evidence from shastra, and there can be no doubt about that.
There is not any suggestion in shastra that the events of the Ramayana refer to some other planet or level of existence. Shastra makes reference to places that can still be identified on earth.”
