Abstract
Investigating the chronological history of ancient India is a difficult task. The difficulties arise not only because of natural reasons but the major obstacles are framed by the historians and archaeologists themselves. So, a major problem is the presence of dogmatic theories which were developed in the nineteenth-century colonial India based on presumptive hypotheses in the absence of any archaeological evidence of any ancient civilization in the soil of this subcontinent. With more and more new evidences of ancient settlements, the old dogmatic theory is being given only cosmetic uplifts keeping the basic foundation intact.
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Notes
- 1.
Vāyu Purān (Chap. 34).
- 2.
It is interesting to note that Mesopotemia and China do not figure at all in Āvestān texts.
- 3.
River Oxus’s original Sanskrit name ‘Bakshu’ originated from the name Ikshāku.
- 4.
Eight days before the full moon is actually Shukla Saptami; but such minor variation is always possible.
- 5.
Apart from the observational inaccuracy, it is to be noted that each ‘nakshatra’ occupied about 13° along the ecliptic and it takes more than 900 years for the equinoctial and solticial positions to cover this. It should be also noted that winter solstice occured in Dhanisthā during the period 2250 BCE to 1280 BCE.
- 6.
There are variations and the period is mentioned as 1050 and 1015 in the different recessions.
- 7.
A more detailed discussion on Sarasvati will be presented in Chap. 7.
- 8.
Benedetti, Giacomo, 'The Chronology of Puranic Rings and Rigvedic Risis in Comparison with the Phases of the Sindhu-Sarasvati Civilization', Chap. 6.
- 9.
Ibid Pargiter.
References
Bhatnagar, A. K., “Date of Mahābhārata War Based on Astronomical References – A Reassessment”, Indian Journal of History of Science, 52.4 (2017).
Bhatnagar, A. K., “Date of Mahābhārata War Based on Astronomical References”, Indian Journal of History of Science, Pub: Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, 52.4 (2017), 369–394.
Daftari, K. L., “The Astronomical Method and its Application to the Chronology of Ancient India”, Nagpur University, 1942.
Rao, S. R., “The Lost City of Dvārka”, National Institute of Oceanography, 1999.
Sengupta, P. C., “Ancient Indian Chronology”, Calcutta University Press, 1947, pp. 2.
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Ghosh, A. (2020). Archaeoastronomical Study of Ancient Indian Chronology: Dating Mahābhārata. In: Descriptive Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Indian Chronology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6903-6_5
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