History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.102.3

v7.c90.102.3

as the mean date of the beginning of the reign of Adhisīmakṛṣṇa, Divākara and Senājit, who were *vartamāna* kings. Then he takes five as the average of the kings between the *vartamāna* kings and Yudhiṣṭhira and assigning about 100 years to these 5 kings, arrives at the date 950 B. C. for the Bhārata war. He discards (AIHT p. 180 n 3) the astronomical evidence contained in the Purāṇas (and the Mahābhārata) about Bhārata war in a single sentence viz. that astronomical statements can have no scientific precision and can only have been formed by estimate at the close. The probable date of the Mahābhārata war has been discussed by the author at some length on materials supplied by the Mahābhārata, the Purāṇas, Varāhamihira, Āryabhaṭa and Inscriptions in vol III. pp. 895-923 and therefore he does not go into that question here. But he strongly disapproves of the methods of Pargiter and the date he deduces. Later scholars like Kirfel have not accepted the conclusions of Pargiter about two separate traditions and about the Purāṇas being Sanskritizations of originals written in Prakrit and Kharosthī script (p. XVI. of Intro to 'Purāṇa Texts &c.'). The importance of another independent source has not been taken proper notice of by Pargiter and even by Kirfel. It appears that about 300 B. C. Megasthenes was supplied with a list of kings from Bacchus to Alexander's time (153 or 154 in number) covering by their reigns a period of 6451 years and three months.