Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s3.118

c9.s3.118

The date of the *Bhārata* war which almost synchronised with the birth of Parikshit, is, according to this calculation, and the testimony of Āryabhaṭa (A.D. 499), 3102 B.C. This is the starting point of the so-called *Kali-yuga* era. But, as pointed out by Fleet², the reckoning was not founded in Vedic times. It is an invented one, devised by Hindu astronomers and chronologists for the purposes of their calculations some thirty-five centuries after the initial point which they assigned to it. As a matter of fact another school of Hindu astronomers and historians, represented by Vṛiddha-Garga, Varāhamihira and Kalhaṇa, placed the heroes of the *Bhārata* war 653 years after the beginning of the Kali-yuga and 2526 years before the Śaka era, *i.e.*, in B.C. 2449.³ This last date is as much open to doubt as the one adopted by Āryabhaṭa and Ravikīrti. The literature that embodies the Vṛiddha-Garga tradition cannot claim any higher antiquity or reliability than the composition of the great astronomer of Kusumapura. The chronology to which it gives preference is not accepted by the Aihole inscription of Ravikīrti. A noted writer,¹ who accepts the dating of Vṛiddha-Garga and Varāha, cites only two late cases (op. cit. p. 401) to prove its currency in India, *viz.*, the commentary on the *Bhāgavatāmṛita* and certain modern Almanacs. His attempts to support this tradition by astronomical calculation based on certain *Mahābhārata* passages are beset with difficulties. For one thing there is a good deal of uncertainty regarding the starting point of what he calls the “Purāṇic” or “epic” Kaliyuga. He says (p. 399) “*most likely the Mahābhārata Kaliyuga truly began from the year* 2454 B.C. The year of the Bhārata battle according to his finding is however 2449 B.C. In other words the battle was fought *five years after the epic Kaliyuga had already begun*. But he himself points out (p. 393) that the battle was fought, according to the *Mahābhārata*, when it was the junction of (*antara*, really interval between) Kali and *Dvāpara*, and 36 years before the year of Krishna's expiry (p. 399) which was the true *beginning of the Kaliyuga*. Thus the dates assigned to the beginning of Kali do not agree. These discrepancies demonstrate the unstable character of the ground on which the chronological edifice is sought to be built. It may be remembered in this connection that Kalhaṇa, who places Gonarda I of Kashmir and the Bhārata War in 2449-8 B.C fixes a date for Aśoka much earlier than Gonarda III (1182 B.C.). This result is opposed to all genuine historical evidence and proves the unreliable character of the scheme of chronology which has for its basis a belief in 2449 B.C. as the date of the Bhārata War. Some writers¹ try to reconcile the conflicting views presented by the schools of Āryabhaṭa and Vṛiddha-Garga by suggesting that the *Śaka-kāla*, of Varāhamihira is really *Śākya-kāla*, *i.e.*, the era of the Buddha's Nirvāṇa. This conjecture is not only opposed to the evidence of Kalhaṇa, but is flatly contradicted by Bhaṭṭotpala who explains *Śaka-kāla* of the *Bṛihat Saṁhitā* passage as *Śaka-nṛipa-kāla*, era of the Śaka king.² Varāhamihira himself knew of no *Śaka-kāla* apart from the *Śakendrakāla* or *Śaka-bhūpa-kāla*, *i.e.*, the era of the Śaka *king*.³