Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c20.s1.22

c20.s1.22

To get the time of the Bhārata battle, we must add the kings who preceded those three kings, namely, 5 Pauravas (for Yudhiṣṭhira’s reign must be included), 4 Aikṣvākus and 6 Bārhadrathas, that is, a mean of 5, and here for so short a period the medium reign probably was longer, say 20 years.² Hence we must add (5 × 20) 100 years, and the date of the battle may be fixed approximately as (850 + 100) 950 B. C.³ This reckoning has avoided special figures or unique statements, except in the one case of the Nandas where no other course is available; and has proceeded upon general averages (1) of the number of kings belonging to 11 contemporaneous dynasties and (2) of the lengths of reigns computed from the reliable data of 14 historical dynasties in other countries; thus it has eliminated all peculiar features and is a reasonable general approximation.¹