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Shri Ashtapad Maha Tirth - II
More invasive archaeological exploration such as test pit excavation at the most probable and anomalous sites identified from geophysical survey techniques using radio imaging,
electromagnetic induction and magnetometer etc. f. Carbon dating of samples uncovered from archaeological test pit excavation. As per Jain scripture the age of Rushabhdev would be hundreds of thousands of years ago. Age frame for Ashtapad cannot be correlated with reference to scientific data available at present. One may go back to 10,000 to 20,000 years or even more as more and more scientific studies become available. From the above discussion, it appears that most promising period to look for evidence for Ashtapad will be when Gautama Swami visited Ashtapad 2600 years ago. Rushabhdevji's stay and Bharat's construction of temple in Mt Kailash area could be between 11,000 and 20,000 years or further back. In view of this the future research should be aimed at the following.
We should reconstruct the past climatic history spanning last 20,000 years around Kailash. Towards this, sediment core from Mansarovar lake would be most ideal material to work on. A core of say 5-10 m may go back in time to 20,000 years. A core from Mansarovar will be a treasure sample for local and global climate, Himalayan erosion and orogeny, cultural, social and archaeological aspects and even from geological (geomagnetism, biological changes etc.) point of view. The core has to be first dated and then can be subjected to magnetic, mineralogy, pollen, and stable isotope, major and minor elements.
These proxies provide information about the past climate variability. In this context, more recently, an effort by Juyal et al (2009) has been carried out by reconstructing the summer monsoon variability using Proglacial lake sediments at Goting in the Higher Central Himalaya very close to Lake Mansarovar. The sediments were analyzed to reconstruct the summer monsoon variability during the Last Glacial to early Holocene. Sedimentary structures, high resolution mineral magnetic and geochemical data suggest that the lacustrine environment experienced fluctuating monsoonal conditions. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating indicates that the lake sedimentation occurred before 25 ka and continued after 13 ka. During this period, Goting basin witnessed moderate to strengthened monsoon conditions around 25 ka, 23.5 ka-22.5 ka, 22 ka-18 ka, 17 ka-16.5 ka and after 14.5-13 ka. The Last Glacial phase ended with the deposition of outwash gravel dated at -11 ka indicating glacial retreat and the onset of Holocene condition. Additionally, centennial scale fluctuations between 16.5 ka and 12.7 ka in the magnetic and geochemical data are seen. A close correspondence at the millennial scale between their data and that of continental and marine records from the Indian sub-continent suggests that Goting basin responded to periods of strengthened monsoon during the Last Glacial to early Holocene. Juyal et al., (2009) attribute the millennial scale monsoon variability to climatic instability in higher northern latitudes. However, centennial scale abrupt changes are attributed to the result of albedo changes on the Himalaya and Tibetan plateau Based on the variation of the proxy indices in general and FeO, A1,0, and Tio, in particular of Juyal et al., (2009) and Vostok ice core sediments analysis, and geological evolution of Himalaya mountains and evolution of human life in this region as well as analysis of biographical details of Rushabhdev in Jain scriptures Jain et al. (2009) concluded that most likely era of Lord Rushabhdev might be between 16.5 and 21.5 ky.
A proposal for further research
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