Internet and live TV in the Mahabharata
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Does Sanjaya's narration of the Kurukshetra war to Dhritarashtra show that India had the internet or satellite TV?
Indian claim not supported by evidenceTechnology & engineering
Indian claim
In April 2018 the then Chief Minister of Tripura, Biplab Kumar Deb, said that the internet and satellites existed in the Mahabharata era, since Sanjaya could describe the distant battle to the blind king.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- In the Mahabharata, the sage Vyasa grants Sanjaya divya drishti (divine sight) so he can see and narrate the war to Dhritarashtra.
- Tripura's then Governor Tathagata Roy said ancient people may have had 'superhuman imagination' and the idea was worth looking into, while saying he had not claimed there was an internet.
Commonly credited to
The internet grew out of ARPANET (1969) and TCP/IP (1983); communication satellites date from the 1960s.
Evidence for the other claim
- The epic itself presents Sanjaya's vision as a spiritual gift, not a machine.
- No cables, transmitters, electronics or power sources from that era have ever been found.
- Scientists and many commentators criticised the claim when it was made.
What historians and scientists say
Sanjaya's divine sight is a literary and spiritual device in the epic. There is no evidence of any communication technology behind it.