Book of Indian Eras, with Tables for Calculating Indian Dates c5.17

c5.17

The oldest eras described by the astronomers are the *Saptârshi-Kâl*, or cycle of the seven Rishis; the *Bârhaspatya-Mânas*, or sixty and twelve year cycles of Jupiter; and the *Kâli-Yuga*, or beginning of the *Kâli-Age*. Not one of these mounts up to the exaggerated periods of thousands of millions of years like the monstrous systems invented by the astronomers. The oldest of them, the *Saptârshi-Kâl*, ascends only to B.C. 4077, or perhaps to 6777 B.C., while the *Bârhaspatya-Mâna* and the *Kâli-Yuga* reach only a little beyond 3000 B.C. In Alexander's time the Hindus did not claim a greater antiquity than B.C. 6777. I have therefore a very strong suspicion that the present extravagant system of Yugas and Mahâyugas, Manwantaras, and Kalpas, was an invention of the astronomers, which they based on their newly-acquired knowledge of the precession. The problem was a simple one: Given the precession of 49·8 seconds, as determined by Hipparchus, the period of one revolution through the whole circle of 360° would be 26,024 16/166 years. To obtain a whole number of years the fraction was got rid of in the usual way by multiplying 26,024 by 166, and adding 16 to the product, a process which gives a period of exactly 4,320,000 years, or just one *Yuga*.