Indian Epigraphy c15.s2.t1: 1. Kali-yuga Era

Indian Epigraphy c15.s2.t1

Language: English

1. Kali-yuga Era

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¹ Ojha, *Bhāratīya Prācīn Lipimālā*, pp. 161 ff.

A Kalpa constituting a single day of the god Brahman is believed to consist of 14 Manvantaras and 6 Mahāyugas, or 1000 Mahāyugas, or 4,320,000,000 years. Each Mahāyuga (also called *Caturyugin*) is supposed to consist of 4 Yugas, viz. Satya or Kṛta, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali. The Kali age consists of 432000 years, while Dvāpara, Tretā and Satya or Kṛta respectively two, three and four times that number.

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The Kali-yuga era is also called the Yudhiṣṭhira² or Bhārata war³ reckoning. Its beginning is counted from the 18th February 3102 B. C. The Aihole inscription of Cālukya Pulakeśin II of Badami was incised on the expiry of 3735 years after the Bhārata war and 556 years of the Śaka kings. Thus the expired Kali year is arrived at by adding 3179 to the expired Śaka year. Similarly, we have to add to the years of the Kali era 3044 and 3101 to arrive at the years respectively of the Caitrādi expired Vikrama year and the year of the Christian era.

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² Kielhorn's Southern List, No. 1077.

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³ Cf. *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. VI, p. 7.

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According to Varāhamihira,⁴ the Saptarṣi were at the nakṣatra Maghā when king Yudhiṣṭhira was ruling and [the beginning of] his reign was 2526 years earlier than [the beginning of] the Śaka-kāla. This tradition places the end of the Bhārata war, and the succession of Yudhiṣṭhira resulting from it, 3179—2526=653 years after the beginning of the Kali era.

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⁴ *Bṛhatsaṃhitā*, XIII, verse 3 : *Āsan=Maghāsu munayaḥ śāsati pṛthvīm Yudhiṣṭhire nṛpatau | ṣaḍ-dvika-pañca-dvi-yutaḥ Śaka-kālas=tasya rājyasya* (var. lect. *rājñas=ca*) ||

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The same tradition is followed in Kalhaṇa’s Rājatarangiṇī according to which the Bhārata war was not fought at the end of Dvāpara,¹ and the Kurus and Pāṇḍavas flourished in the expired year 653 of the Kali era.

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¹ I. 49 : Bhārataṁ Dvāpar=ānte=bhūd=vārtay=eti vimohitāḥ | kecid=etāṁ mṛṣā teṣāṁ kāla-saṅkhyāṁ pracakrire ||

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There are other discrepancies in the tradition besides the above. There is a Puranic saying, that 1015, or 1050, or 1115, or 1500 years intervened between the birth of Prikṣit (an event that took place shortly after the Bhārata war) and the accession of Mahāpadma Nanda (who ruled some decades before Alexander’s invasion, i.e. about 400 B.C.).³ This would make the difference between the Bhārata war and the beginning of Nanda rule between ten and fifteen centuries. On the shaky basis of the dynastic lists in the Purāṇas, Pargiter placed the Bhārata war about 950 B.C.⁴

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³ Matsya Purāṇa, 273. 36 : Mahāpadm-ābhiṣekāt=tu yāj=janma Parikṣitaḥ | evaṁ varṣa-sahasraṁ tu jñeyaṁ pañcāśad-uttaram || Cf. Vāyu Purāṇa, 99. 415; Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Upodghātapada 3, ch. 74, verse 227; Viṣṇu Purāṇa, IV. 24. 32: jñeyaṁ pañca-śat-ottaram or pañcadaś-ottaram || Bhāgavata Purāṇa, XII. 2. 26 : etad=varṣa-sahasraṁ tu śataṁ pañcadaś-ottaram || The reading pañcāśad-uttaram has been accepted by some scholars. See Pargiter, Purāṇa Text, p. 58; cf. pp. 13-22, 67-69, 74; Anc. Ind. His. Trad., p. 179; Raychaudhuri (PHAI, 1950, pp. 29 ff.) assigns the Bharata war to c.850 B.C. on the basis of the Vedic lists of teachers, which appear to offer somewhat better evidence than the Puranic lists of kings. But the importance attached to the event is possibly unrealistic.

Linked texts (7)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Viṣṇupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Rājataraṅgiṇī — Kalhaṇa, Sanskrit
Vāyupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Bṛhatsaṃhitā — Varāhamihira, Sanskrit