History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.738

v4.c63.t2.738

At present it is the practice to hold Kali 5046 (expired) as equal to 1945 A. D. or *śake* 1867 or *saṁvat* 2001-2. But it appears that there were several views about the date of the beginning of the Kaliyuga. The exact starting point on the above computation was Friday, 18th February 3102 B. C. One view was that Kaliyuga was about to begin when the great Mahābhārata war was fought out.¹⁷⁵⁹ This view is expressed in the Aihoḷe Inscription which appears to equate the beginning of Kali with the Bhārata war and states that 3735 years (expired) from the Bhārata war are equal to 556 years of the *śaka* era.¹⁷⁶⁰ Āryabhaṭa knew this computation, since he says that he was 23 years old when three parts of the (great) yuga and 3600 had elapsed (Kāla-kriyāpāda, verse 10). Another view set forth in the Purāṇas is that Kaliyuga began when Kṛṣṇa finished his *avatāra* and went to heaven.¹⁷⁶¹ This would put the beginning of Kaliyuga several years after the date arrived at on the first view.¹⁷⁶² Vide Mausalaparva chap. 1. 13 and 2. 20 for reference to the lapse of 36 years before Kṛṣṇa's passing away. The Yugapurāṇa appears to make Kaliyuga start on the day Draupadī died (vide J. B. O. R. S. vol. 14 p. 400). Another view is that of Varāhamihira who says that the constellation of the Great Bear was in Maghā when Yudhiṣṭhira was on the throne and that that time is arrived at by adding 2526 years to the śaka year.¹⁷⁶³ This would place Yudhiṣṭhira in 653 of the Kali age (as calculated at present) and not at the end of Dvāpara and the beginning of Kali. The Rājatarangiṇī I. 56 quotes the Bṛhat-saṁhitā and holds that Kurus and Pāṇḍavas flourished in 653 of the Kali-yuga (I. 51). Great efforts have been made by several scholars to meet this discrepancy by explaining the word ‘ṣaḍ-dvika-pañca-dviyutaḥ’ (in the Bṛhat-saṁhitā) in various fanciful ways, which are far from satisfactory. There is no reason why *dvika* should not straightforwardly be taken in the sense of ‘two’,¹⁷⁶⁴ as the Līlāvatī and Bṛ. Saṁ. 71. 5 itself do.