Vedic-Puranic chronology

Krishna and Arjun on the chariot, 18th-19th century painting

The Vedic-Puranic chronology, or Hindu chronology, gives a timeline of Hindu history according to the Hindu scriptures. Two central dates are the Mahabharata War at 3139 BCE, and the start of the Kali Yuga at 3102 BCE.

Hindu scriptures

The Puranas contain stories about the creation of the world, and the so-called yugas. Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Puranas also contain genealogies of kings,[1] which are used for the traditional chronology of India's ancient history. Michael Witzel doubts the reliability of these texts, concluding that they "have clearly lifted (parts of) lineages, fragment by fragment, from the Vedas and have supplied the rest [...] —from hypothetical, otherwise unknown traditions— or, as can be seen in the case of the Mahābhārata, from poetical imagination."[2]

Gavin Flood connects the rise of the written Purana historically with the rise of devotional cults centring upon a particular deity in the Gupta era: the Puranic corpus is a complex body of material that advance the views of various competing cults.[3] Wendy Doniger, based on the study of indologists, assigns approximate dates to the various Puranas. She dates Markandeya Purana to c. 250 CE (with one portion dated to c. 550 CE), Matsya Purana to c. 250–500 CE, Vayu Purana to c. 350 CE, Harivamsa and Vishnu Purana to c. 450 CE, Brahmanda Purana to c. 350–950 CE, Vamana Purana to c. 450–900 CE, Kurma Purana to c. 550–850 CE, and Linga Purana to c. 600–1000 CE.[4]

Yugas

The Puranas contain stories about the creation of the world, and the socalled yugas. There are four yugas in one cyle:

According to the Laws of Manu, one of the earliest known texts describing the yugas, the length is 4800 years + 3600 years + 2400 years + 1200 years, for a total of 12,000 years for one arc, or 24,000 years to complete the cycle, which is one precession of the equinox). These 4 yugas follow a timeline ratio of (4:3:2:1).

According to Bhagavata Purana 3.11.19, which is dated at 500-1000 CE, the yugas are much longer, namely 1,728,000 years, 1,296,000 years, 864,000 years and 432,000 years

Puranic Chronology

The Puranas, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana also contain lists of kings and genealogies,[1] which are used for the traditional chronology of India's ancient history. The Vedic Foundation gives the following chronology of ancient India:[web 1][note 1]

Influence

Indigenous Aryans

The Vedic-Puranic chronoly has been used to lend credit to the idea of Indigenous Aryans. According to the "Indigenist position", the Aryans are indigenous to India.[6] Supporters of this idea equate the Indus Civilisation with the Vedic Civilisation,[6] state that the Vedas are older than the second millennium BCE,[7] state that there is no difference between the (northern) Indo-European part and the (southern) Dravidian part,[7] state that Indus script was progenitor of Sanskrit[8] and believe that the Indo-European languages radiated out from a homeland in India into their present locations.[6]

Subhash Kak, a main proponent of the "indigenist position," underwrites the Vedic-Puranic chronology, and uses it to recalculate the dates of the Vedas and the Vedic people:[9][10][web 4]

[T]he Indian civilization must be viewed as an unbroken tradition that goes back to the earliest period of the Sindhu-Sarasvati (or Indus) tradition (7000 or 8000 BC).[9]

The idea of "Indigenous Aryanism" fits into traditional Hindu ideas about their religion, namely that it has timeless origins, with the Vedic Aryans inhabiting India since ancient times. The Vedic Foundation states:

The history of Bharatvarsh (which is now called India) is the description of the timeless glory of the Divine dignitaries who not only Graced the soils of India with their presence and Divine intelligence, but they also showed and revealed the true path of peace, happiness and the Divine enlightenment for the souls of the world that still is the guideline for the true lovers of God who desire to taste the sweetness of His Divine love in an intimate style.[web 2]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The Vedic Foundation, Introduction: "The history of Bharatvarsh (which is now called India)'is the description of the timeless glory of the Divine dignitaries who not only Graced the soils of India with their presence and Divine intelligence, but they also showed and revealed the true path of peace, happiness and the Divine enlightenment for the souls of the world that still is the guideline for the true lovers of God who desire to taste the sweetness of His Divine love in an intimate style.[web 2]
  2. ↑ The earliest text to explicitly provide detailed descriptions of Krishna as a personality is the epic Mahabharata which depicts Krishna as an incarnation of Vishnu.[web 3]
  3. ↑ Conventionally dated sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BC.[5]
  4. ↑ Conventionally dated 345–321 BC
  5. ↑ Conventionally dated 322–185 BC
  6. ↑ Conventionally dated 340-298 BC
  7. ↑ Conventionally dated c. 320 BC – 272 BC
  8. ↑ Conventionally dated c. 230 BC-AD 220
  9. ↑ Conventionally dated AD 788–820
  10. ↑ Conventionally dated approximately AD 320-550
  11. ↑ Conventionally dated: reign AD 320-335
  12. ↑ Conventionally dated 304–232 BC

References

  1. 1 2 Trautman 2005, p. xx.
  2. ↑ Witzel 2001, p. 70.
  3. ↑ Flood 1996, p. 359.
  4. ↑ Collins 1988, p. 36.
  5. ↑ Warder 2000, p. 45.
  6. 1 2 3 Trautman 2005, p. xxx.
  7. 1 2 Trautman 2005, p. xxviii.
  8. ↑ Ramasami, Jeyakumar. "Indus Script Based on Sanskrit Language". Sci News. Sci News. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  9. 1 2 Kak 1987.
  10. ↑ Kak 1996.

Sources

Printed sources

  • Collins, Charles Dillard (1988), The Iconography and Ritual of Śiva at Elephanta, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-88706-773-0 
  • Flood, Gavin D. (1996), An Introduction to Hinduism, Cambridge University Press 
  • Michaels, Axel (2004), Hinduism. Past and present, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 
  • Samuel, Geoffrey (2010), The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge University Press 
  • Trautmann, Thomas (2005), The Aryan Debate, Oxford University Press 

Web-sources

  1. ↑ the Vedic Foundation, Chronology
  2. 1 2 The Vedic Foundation, Introduction
  3. ↑ Wendy Doniger (2008). "Britannica: Mahabharata". encyclopedia. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
  4. ↑ Kak, Subhash. "Astronomy of the Vedic Alters" (PDF). Retrieved 22 January 2015.

Further reading

External links

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