Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c20.s1.26

c20.s1.26

If we should seek to make an estimate of the ages before the battle, it would be prudent to take a smaller length for the average reign, because only one line, that of Ayodhyā, is practically complete, while there are gaps in the other dynasties, so that there is little scope for taking medium averages of all the dynasties and eliminating peculiarities. The lowest average mentioned above, 12 years, therefore would be a sounder estimate. Since however it is said that insignificant kings have been omitted from the genealogies (p. 89), it may be contended that the average should be increased to compensate for lost kings, say, 13 or 13½ years per step in the table in chapter XII; but the uncertainty and peculiarity in such details require caution, and it would be more prudent to adhere to 12 years as the average. To contend for immense antiquity for the earliest ages is discredited by the historical sense; and to push back the antiquity of those ages to vast figures is to weaken *pro tanto* the trustworthiness of tradition about them when everything depended on memory alone.²