Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c20.31

c20.31

It is unnecessary here to pursue this matter into the later fully developed theory of the yugas and manvantaras, wherein 71 four-age periods (catur-yuga) made up a manvantara. It was a fanciful brahmanical elaboration; and one feature in it is that the present time is the Kali age in the 28th four-age period of the Vaivasvata manvantara, so the events of traditional history were sometimes distributed among those 28 periods.⁷ Thus a pretentious passage declares⁸—Datta Ātreya as Viṣṇu’s fourth incarnation and Mārkaṇḍeya lived in the 10th Tretā age (i. e. in the Tretā age of the 10th four-age period); Māndhātṛ as his fifth incarnation⁹ and Utathya lived in the 15th Tretā; Rāma Jāmadagnya as his sixth and Viśvāmitra lived in the 19th Tretā; Daśaratha’s son Rāma as his seventh and Vasiṣṭha lived in the 24th age¹; Vyāsa as his eighth with Jātūkarṇya, and Kṛṣṇa as his ninth with Brahma-Gārgya lived in the 28th Dvāpara.² Such assignments sometimes observe some chronological consistency, often they are erratic, and in any case, being brahmanical notions lacking the historical sense, they are unreliable.