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, 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."

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. 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.

Yugas

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

• Satya Yuga, a time of truth and righteousness;
• Treta Yuga
• Dvapara Yuga
• Kali Yuga, a time of darkness and non-virtue.

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, which are used for the traditional chronology of India's ancient history. The Vedic Foundation gives the following chronology of ancient India:

• 3228 BC - Descension of Bhagwan Krishna
• 3139 BC - The Mahabharata War; start of Brihadrath dynasty of Magadha; start of Yudhisthir dynasty of Hastinapur
• 3102 BC - Ascension of Bhagawan Krishna; start of Kali Yuga
• 2139 BC - End of Brihadrath dynasty
• 2139-2001 BC - Pradyota dynasty
• 2001-1641 BC - Shishunaga dynasty
• 1894-1814 BC - Gautama Buddha
• 1641-1541 BC - Nandas
• 1541-1241 BC - Maurya dynasty
• 1541-1507 BC - Chandragupta Maurya
• 1507-1479 BC - Bindusara
• 1479-1443 BC - Ashokvardhan
• 1241-784 BC - Shunga and Kanau dynasty
• 784-328 BC - Andhra dynasty
• 509-477 BC - Jagadguru Shankaracharya
• 328-83 BC - Gupta dynasty
• 328-321 BC - Chandragupta Vijayaditya
• 326 BC - Alexander;s invasion
• 321-270 BC - Samudragupta Ashokaditya Priyadarshin, or Ashoka the Great
• 102 BC-AD 15 - Vikramāditya, established Vikram era in 57 BC

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. Supporters of this idea equate the Indus Civilisation with the Vedic Civilisation, state that the Vedas are older than the second millennium BCE, state that there is no difference between the (northern) Indo-European part and the (southern) Dravidian part, state that Indus script was progenitor of Sanskrit and believe that the Indo-European languages radiated out from a homeland in India into their present locations.

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:

[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).

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.

See also

• Yuga
• Kali Yuga
• Brahmanda Purana
• Nasadiya Sukta
• Samudra manthan
• Hindu cosmology
• Gandhara#Epic and Puranic traditions
• Bharata (emperor)
• Suryavansha
• Lunar dynasty

External links

• Chronological chart of the history of Bharatvarsh since its origination
• Royal Chronology and History of INDIA (Bharat)
• Hindu Timeline
• Reclaiming the chronology of Bharatvam
• Bharatiya Timeline
• The History of Bharata or India According to Indian Astronomy