Historicity of the Mahabharata: Evidence of Literature, Art and Archaeology

To the faithful, everything mentioned in the mahabharata is true to the very letter, whereas the skeptic holds that the epic is nothing more than a mere figment of imagination how, then, can one asertain tha truth? it is here that archaeology comes to our rescue in 1951-52, professor b b lal excavated the key-site of hastinapura, situated on the bank of the ganga, in meerut district of uttar pradesh over here he encouraged in the lower levels a settlement which was distinguished by a characteristic pottery called the painted grey ware, assignable to circa 1100-800 bc this pgw culture has since been discovered at all the mahabharata sites - a feature which binds them together the combined evidence of archaeology and literature duly establishes that the mahabharata is not a figment of imagination but has a basis in historical reality at the same time, ut is on record that the epic underwent eleven-time inflation - from 8800 to 100,000 verses - and hence it is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff but let not the precious wheat be thrown away with the chaff