The book, Underworld, the Mysterious Origins of Civilization, by Graham Hancock, has some fascinating chapters about Dwarka, in the state of Gujarat on the Kathiawar Peninsula by the Arabian Sea. There, a team of marine archaeologists, led by S. R. Rao, discovered a very large submerged site. Dr. Rao has led excavations of a vast number of important Indian sites, including many Indus Valley sites.

Graham Hancock and his wife, Santha, traveled there in 1992. Though British, he was not a stranger to India, having spent part of his childhood in Vellore, in Tamil Nadu. Santha’s family background is Tamil.

Hancock describes the Indian concept of cyclical time and the four yugas or four ages: the Krita Yuga, which is the “golden” age; the Treta Yuga, in which virtue has begun to decline and is less perfect than before; the Davapara Yuga, in which there is dishonesty…