The Harivamsa is not just an appendix to the Mahabharata — it may be the oldest Purana ever composed. Scholar Sneha Nagarkar presents a rigorous academic introduction to the Harivamsa, arguing it contains all five classic Puranic hallmarks (Sarga, Pratisarga, Vamsha, Manvantara, Vamshanucharita), making it textually prior to all 18 Mahapuranas.
The talk situates the Harivamsa within its historical context: the rise of Bhagavata Dharma as a pan-Indian tradition by the 1st century BCE, with centres at Mathura, Ghosundi, and Naneghat (where Satavahana Queen Naganika invoked both Balarama and Vasudeva). The conventional Gupta-period dating (4th century CE) based on Hopkins’ work is critically examined against earlier epigraphic and internal evidence.
A densely researched presentation that challenges received dating frameworks and places Krishna’s Vrishni lineage tradition in its full civilizational sweep — from Vedic roots through the Bhagavata movement to its crystallisation in the Harivamsa Purana.

About the speaker:

Snehā Nagarkar, a PhD scholar in Ancient Indian Culture and a Visiting Faculty in the Departments of Archaeology and Hindu Studies at the University of Mumbai. With 33 publications and a book titled ‘Ancient Indian Economy: The Role of Vārttā’ (2023), she has presented 34 research papers and delivered 67 public lectures. Her expertise spans Indic Temple Architecture, Iconography, Pilgrimage Studies, Ancient Economy and Polity, Vaishnavism, and the history of the Mathura-Vrindavana region.