History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.639

v6.c82.639

Differing views were held even in ancient times, as to when the Kaliyuga⁹⁹² started and what event the Kaliyuga era commemorates. At present the Kaliyuga era is supposed to have started in 3102 B. C. and a past Kaliyuga year is to be arrived at by adding 3101 to the A. D. years. There are four principal views about the starting point, viz. (1) the starting point is when Yudhiṣṭhira ascended the throne, (2) it is 36 years later when Yudhiṣṭhira crowned as king Parīkṣit, the grandson of Arjuna; (3) according to the Purāṇas⁹⁹³ Kaliyuga started when Kṛṣṇa passed away (vide Viṣṇupurāṇa IV. 24. 108 to 113); (4) According to993a to Varāhamihira, 2426 years prior to the starting of Śaka-kāla, Yudhiṣṭhira era started i. e. 653 years after the start of Kaliyuga according to the 2nd view. The Aihole inscription appears to follow the 2nd view, since it equates⁹⁹⁴ 556 śaka year with 3735 Kaliyuga year (past). One of the earliest references to the Kaliyuga era is that by Āryabhaṭa who states that he was twenty-three years old when 3600 years of Kaliyuga had expired (i. e he was born in 476 A. D.).⁹⁹⁵ There is an early Cola record dated 4044 of the Kaliyuga era (i. e 943 A. D.) Vide JRAS for 1911 pp. 689-694 for several instances of the employment of Kaliyuga era in inscriptions. Medieval Indian astronomers believed that all planets (including the sun and the moon) were together at sunrise on Sunday of Caitra śukla pratipad at the beginning of Kaliyuga and also of Kalpa.995a It is suggested by modern writers like Burgess and Dr. Saha that this epoch was arrived at by astronomical calculations carried back-ward at a late period and is a mere fiction (vide p. 253 of the C. R. C. Report). It is rather difficult to hold that this was all pure imagination on the part of the ancient Siddhānta writers; it is more probable that they. had a persistent tradition of long standing before them.995b