Whether the Mahabharata is a myth or reality has been an age old problem over which much ink has been spilt. Time and again it sparked off fierce controversy involving distinguished scholars, leamed men and intellectuals Disputes and doubts regarding the stratification of the epic and the date of the Great War has always been the crux of the issue Sanskritists and historians like Winternitz. Pargiter. Ludwig and Lassen and others have had their say in their times Presently the controversy, which had been dormant for something past, came to limelight through at press interview at Pune by one of the renowned epigraphists of India. Since then (September 1975) Daily newspapers and weeklies in India carried for a long time opinions of learned men, which, more often than not, were diametrically opposed to each other. Fortunately, however, the present controversy introduced certain new features, heretoforth not known in earlier disputations. They are (1) archaeology, which prior to Lal's excavation at Hastinapura in 1951-52 did not play any significant role began to figure prominently (11) C