Proof of Krishnas 's times

[Guest guest]

Mon, 19 Apr 2004 14:00:19 -0000"indologia2000vrnparker"

Proof of Krishnas 's timesTHE EPOC OF MAHABHARATA AND BHAGAVATA

PURANABy Horacio Fco. Arganis J. Graduate Student in Linguistic andLiterature

in U A de C."One of the earliest estimates of the date of the Vedas was at

onceamong the most scientific. In 1790, the Scottish mathematician JohnPlayfair

demonstrated that the starting-date of the astronomicalobservations recorded in

the tables still in use among Hinduastrologers (of which three copies had

reached Europe between 1687and 1787) had to be 4300 BC.3 His proposal was

dismissed as absurd bysome, but it was not refuted by any scientist. Playfair's

judicioususe of astronomy was countered by John Bentley with a

Scripturalargument which we now

must consider invalid. In 1825, Bentleyobjected: "By his [= Playfair's] attempt

to uphold the antiquity ofHindu books against absolute (biblical) facts, he

thereby supportsall those horrid abuses and impositions found in them, under

thepretended sanction of antiquity. Nay, his aim goes still deeper, forby the

same means he endeavours to overturn the Mosaic account, andsap the very

foundation of our religion: for if we are to believe inthe antiquity of Hindu

books, as he would wish us, then the Mosaicaccount is all a fable, or a

fiction."4 "we find that Bentleyhas "proven" that Krishna was born on 7 August

in AD 600 (the mostconservative estimate elsewhere is the 9th century BC), and

onp.158ff., that Varaha Mihira (AD 510-587) was a contemporary of theMoghul

emperor Akbar (r.1556-1605).Before that, Sir Williams Johns and others

formulated the borrowingtheory that holds that Krishna and his history, as the

Bhâgavata andVisnu

puranas, etc, were a derived from Christianity. Therefore, allthe texts that

tried on him, for logical consequence were of a periodAfter Dominus.Before a

rigorous observation the discovery of a ephistemologicalproblem is noticed,

denominated, by the funder of scientific methodephilosopher, Francis Bacon,

íldolus specus or cavern idols. Thisrefers that due to prejudices of

temperament, character, personallikes, religious, ethnocentric, social and

political factors that hadcontaminated the investigations on the work in

question. In otherwords, these erudites tend to lock in their own fossilization

ofsuppositions and they deformed the reality from the study phenomenon,when

accommodating it to their paradigm, for the suppression ofeverything that could

contradict them. In fact, this ídolus-specustype is applied to the racial,

national prejudices and all type ofsubjective attitudes, as those that have an

incompatibility with

thesearch of new discoveries and vehement adherence to certain

paradigm.Nevertheless, the first thing that is demanded when one attempts

anapproach in the scientific investigation, it is the suspension of allthe

previous trials. That is to say the phenomenical application ofthe epoje; what

means, momentarily to suspend any previous trial andto proceed from zero to the

examinación of the object, and this wayto discover the reality of such a

phenomenon. Otherwise, thepsychological studies of perception demonstrate, that

among morethere is demarcation toward a posture, she/he gets lost the capacityto

evaluate the evidences that document that this could be missedobjectively.1.2

Dataciones"The erudites have been unable to arrive to a concerning clearconsent

to the date of the Bhâgavatam."XIII d. C. H.H. Wilson and ColebroockXI d. C.

DasguptaIX-X d. C. Sharma, Buitenen, etc. goesIX d. C. Ingalls, Hopkins,

Pargiter etc.VI d. C. Eliade, Hazra, etc.IV-V d. C. Tagore, KrisnamurtiIII d. C.

DiksitahIV-V to. C. Hudson.X-IX to. C. Vyas.XII-XIII to. C. Gyani.XX to. C.

BhaktivinodaXXX to. C GhokaleL B. C. VartakAnother problem that sustains this

investigation is that whenrevising the significant suppositions that the

erudites havepresented on the one dated of the Bhâgavatam, she/he is

discoveredthat: The English critics Colebrook and Wilson dated it for the

XIIIA. D ., under the apparent indication that the work in the 12º Cantogives a

chronology where it points out that of the character, thatgives beginning and

end to the work, king Pariksit, until kingChandragupta Maurya, 1250 years would

pass. Then, of there untilkings Andhras. Reason that, the work had to be from a

later time tothese figures.This registration has its base in the reference that

gives the Greekhistorian Meghastenes in the s. IV B. C, in

their IndiKA work, aboutking Sandrakutus, which was identified with king

Chandragupta Maurya.This was the apparent Stone of Rosetta by which was

reformulated thewhole chronology of the history of the India. Then it was

intendedthat the grandson, king Asoka Maurya, was the Asoka Buddhist

convertthat made councils and he financed the expansion of budhims doctrine,to

who was dated in the 200 B. C. Therefore, the battle of theMahabhâtara had to

have been for the X B. C.The problem with that proposal is that Meghastenes

didn't makemention of Chanakya, king Chandragupta Maurya's minister,

neitherChanakya mentions in his works to the Greeks as Alexandro orMeghastenes,

the last one, who visited the court of Sandrakutus.Joining this that, the kings

that preceded and succesed to theSandrakutus, that the Greek historian

mentions, they are: Xandramasand Sandrocyptus. Which don't coincide with Nanda

and Bindusar orAsoka, whose were

those of Chandragupta Maurya. The only equivalence,phonologically acceptable, it

is the relationship among those of kingChandragupta-Gupta I: Chamdramas -

Xandramas, and Samudragupta -Sandrocyptus. For what such a discovery leads to

modify the dates.Since these discoveries, presented in the University of New

Brunswickin Canada for Prasada Gokhale, insinuate that Chandragupta Mauryalived

for the 1534 B. C., and king Chandragupta I Gupta in the 325 B.C., when he

confronted Great Alejandro's forces. Also, the BuddhistAsoka was a king of

Kashmir and not emperor Maurya's Asoka grandson.This is significant because it

justifies this investigation, since itcoincides with the historical recounts

that Srimad-Bhâgavatamdescribes itself.Dr. Prasada Gokhale, he had put many

literary and astronomicalevidences showing that Lord Buddha did not lived in

the 550 BC. but1800 B. C. Jiva Goswami in his Krsna Sandharbha Anuccheda

24wrote: "Lord

Buddha appears when two thousand years of the Kali agehave passed". Before of

the misidentification between the Sandracutusmentioned by the Greek historian

Maghastenes with Chandrgupta Mauryaby Sir William Jones, even Jones like all

Indian historians acceptedtwo things: Lord Buddha was around 1000 BC and

Shankara live in the440 BC. The Rajatarangini , a history text of Kashmir by

Kalhanarecord how the Ashoka of the Gonanda dynasty embracing the faith

ofGotama Buddha, etc. He was a ahimsa -peaceful ruler on the conversionof

Buddhism living in 1448-1400 BC. But He was not the Maurya Ashoka,because,

Murya king is know be respectful and supportive of Brahmanasand Sharamanas, in

the Girnar rock edits and in a book from Him,where He open with the pranams to

King Prithu, Lord Rama, Yudhsitira,etc. All vaisnavas kings from the past

mentioned in the Bhâgavatam.10.5.2 XIV-XV B. C. (1) among the indications of

the religiouscontext of

the Bhâgavatam it has a relative frequency to the Rig-vedic pateon, where are

figure the cult to the gods Mitra, Varuna andIndra. For that that another

possible fact, is the discovery of atestimony in the cuneiform characters of

the clay splints, in thecorresponding to the Kingdom of Hitita Asia, 1380 B. C.

In thisdocument the king hitita Subiluliuma and the king mitano Mattiuza,son of

Dusratta, they make a pact, where the last one invokes theirgods like witness

and he makes a direct allusion to Mitra, Varuna andIndra. According to the

experts, during the XIV and XV centuries B.C., the kings of Mitani took similar

names in general to the Sanskritone as they corroborate it the files of the

correspondence of theEgyptian city Amarna and Bogas Keui, the capital of the

Hititas. Thissuggests the validity of the religious context that denotes the

workin study.It has been observed that through the Bhâgavatam, It is

distinguishedthe

bovine cattle raising motive, the use of oxen's carts, etc. Now,S. Piggot

reports: "This... it is very significant in view that theyhave been

representations of oxen yoked to the plow that they date ofthe Primitive

Dynastic Period of Súmer and of the third Dynasty ofEgypt; in those

representations the yoke doesn't appear, but leave tothe oxen yoked to the plow

by means of suspenders that fellows takein the horns. Another similar

representation, of origin kassita andin Mesopotamia, it shows the same

particularity, and it is alsonoticed that the oxen have hump, characteristic of

the raceindostane... Whichever it is the meaning of this fact it isinteresting

to notice that the kassitas, possible members of the Indo-European linguistic

group, used in the century xv B. c. the samemethod of traction of the plow that

the Aryans used in the India.Another factor of economic type that registers the

work in study isthe use of the horse and

the coaches. In the treaty of Kikkuli,among Boghaz Keui's documents, it

describes in technical terms amanual on the careers of cars, where it uses

similar words to theSanskrit to point out the number of turns around the hint.

Finishingwith this category, another discovery that allows to come closer tothe

one dated in connection with this context, was in the south ofRussia, by the

middle of the time of XV Kubán to the XX one B. C. Inthe tomb of Maikop, where

was discovered a silver bowl withrepresentations of the horses of Przewalski.

The combined value ofthe indications of this category is of (13.9%).10.5.4 the

Motive of the Universal Flood (3). Inside literature ofthe India, Mahâbhârata

and before Satapatha Brahmana, they relatethat the God Visnu encarnate as a

fish and inspired king SatyavrataManu to join the Vedas, the seven rishis and

the seeds of all speciesand to put them in an ark. Nevertheless, the better

known

narrationin the West on this topic is in the Hebrew literature, in the portionof

the Genesis on the story of Noé's Ark. The exegeticals haveclassified two

versions with certain divergences. One is denominatedthe Yahuistic and the

other Elohinistic. According to thesemitologistics, this text harbored several

revisions, but itsoriginal content goes back to the XIV one B. C.However,

severalexperts have tried to discover the historical bases of the motive.The

Iranian Zend Avesta provides another story of the legend in theone which, the

god Ahuramazda ordered Yima the patriarch, to open acave and to save to the

animals and plants from flood. The work waswritten in cow leather by Zoroastre,

to who has been dated indifferent periods from LXXX goes to X century B. C.In

the Epicpoem of Gilgamés s. XX B. C., a similar story exists, that has

beenconsidered the intertextual base of the Hebrew story, where the

maincharacter Utnapistim,

carried out the same trip. In theirinvestigation on the epic of Ziusudra from

Sumerian literature,Robert M. Best has concluded that the great flood

corresponded to theoverflow of the river Eufrates for the torrential rains in

thecentury XXIX B. C. The main character who was governor of the stateof

Shuruppak, navigated in similar form to his Jewish homologous, tosave to the

species, etc. That "it would have served of inspirationto the narrators of the

Flood." In the Egypt, according to the Romanshistorians as Eusebio s. I B. C.,

Marcelino IV d. C., and the Arabsas Ibn Batuta and Firazabadimasudi, etc., in

the pyramids, there wereinscriptions in those mentions to the Flood, those date

of thecentury XXVII-XXX B. C.The father of the history China, Ma s. II B.C., in

their treaty the begins with a story of Yu, who was a kingthat saved the

residents of the Flood, before the first dynastiesXXIX B. C. Other

investigators have proposed

different hypothesis toexplain the catastrophe that gave origin to that the

survivorstransmitted by means of epic poems and myths. William Ryan and

WalterPitman intend that the phenomenon took place some LVI B. C.Edith

andAlexander Toolamn sustain a date of 10, 000 B. C., under thehypothesis that

seven fragments of a comet created the cataclysm inthe Indian Ocean. A near

datation has been sustained by experts as D.S. Allan, B. Delair and Paúl

Violette, under other geologic causes.This allows to infer that independently

in which culture this Floodmotive arose and then it already passed to the

others, this became atopic that it affected the literature of the Old World in

a remoteperiod and it was reflected in the study work. The percentage

indexinside these reports points out a (11.1%).10.5.5 Bhû-Mândala (4). The word

mandala means the good fortune.However, the mandalas are diagrams that evoke the

micro andmacrocosmos. In

summary, it can report that the last studies on thecosmographic pattern that

contains the work in study, have brought tothe light that such diagram of

circles and oceans with the mount inform of inverted cone, with the base up and

the point below, containsimplicit four meanings.A) A planisferic map polar of

the earth.B) A map of the orbits of the planets of the solar system.C) The

center of the well-known diagram as Jambudvipa, exhibitsa map of the region of

central Asia and south.D) The celestial supraterrenals regionsWith respect to

these data it must be informed that among themeanings, the (A) it shows to the

Monte Meru or Sumero like the northpole, what suggests the axis whose rotation

is in an inverted conicalway. The dvipas is the continents together with the

seven seas. Inthe (B) the rings together with their oceans coincide with the

orbitsof the Earth, Sun, Moon, Mars, Saturn and Uranus. Since in that timeit

was ignored Neptune and Pluto. The © it indicates that Merumount coincides

with the Pamirs Monts of Central Asia, the areas ofthe south are identified,

from Siberia to China and India, togetherwith their rivers and mountains.

Lastly the (D), it describes thesupraterrenals regions where the devas and

upadevas, the demigods andother superhumans races of this folklore

live.Recapturing the words of the experts as Eliade again: "The symbolismof the

Pilar of the world is family, also, in the evolved cultures:Egypt, India (for

example, the Rig Veda, X, 89, 4; etc.) China,Greece, Mesopotamia, among the

Babylonians."This becomes another indicative factor, because through

thesecultures one can observe that mention model was applicable in thearchaic

societies of the Old World that date from 3000 to 2000 B. C.The presence of a

similar conception is even denoted in some Americansocieties. What allows to

infer that such model could date of

oneperiod previous to when the man passed from Asia to America in theGlacial

Era, as had been insinuate from Gorigio of Santillana andHertha von Dechend: "A

`archaic ' culture that antedates all the oldcivilizations that we know at the

moment, including those of Babylon,China and India... they possessed a

sophisticated and scientificunderstanding of astronomy expressed in terms that

we denominatemythology, because we don't understand it." Or as proposes G.Betti

"Such a time seems that it can be made go back at least fortycenturies before

Christ to a town of Central Asía that reached a veryhigh civilization degree

regarding all the other ones whose knowledgespread for all Asia, Europe and

Egypt and, with a lot of probability,also for Mesoamérica. From the astronomy

of this town it spends tothe Egyptian astronomy and that of the India, thirty

centuries beforeChrist." Wherever that had been the origin of such a

cosmogonicconception, the significant of this fact is the historical value,which

was in validity in an early era and up to now it has been ableto decode.

Therfore its correspondence, as it was already indicated,does n't concomite

with the medieval time, like IX A. D. Apart fromthe people already mentioned,

other archaic examples of a analogusconception with Bhu-mándala would be the

Iranian Zoroastrianes, theMongolians, the Klamucks and the Buryast of Siberia,

the Turkishtribes of the south, those of Altai Tatars, the tribes of the

NorthAfrica. The registration that mark these evidences among the

othercategories corresponds to a (16.7%).10.5.6 S. XX-XVI B. C. W. J. Wilkins

in the IX A. D.indicated: "Particularly the Sarasvati should have been

associatedwith the reputation of sanctity that is attributed to the wholecalled

region Brahmavartta (northwest) that exists... located next tothe part west of

the Juma (Yamuna). The

Sarasvati seems to have beenfor the first Hindus that the Ganges (...) it is for

theirdescendants." In 1950, Piggot pointed out: "In the Sind it has beencarried

out extensive field work, and we probably have a quitecomplete idea of the

distribution of the establishments in thatregion… it Seems probable that an

intense field work in the Punjabwould take out to the light many other places,

besides the overdrafts;… For the east of the Indo, in the State of Bahwalpur

and along thebed, now dry, of the river Ghaggar, the Sarasvati of the old

Indianliterature, is a dozen of places that they were other so manyvillages or

populations that, like it seems to indicate it itsposition, they would be

politically inside the jurisdiction of theruler of Harappa, and it can that

they are taken as proof of theexistence of a northern Kingdom while waiting for

that even not sinkto them other places overdrafts in the Punjab."Inside of all

the

rivers mentioned in Rig veda, it stands out theSarasvati or Harahwati of the

Zend Avesta. It has been discoveredthat this river changed its course at least

four times and originallyit flowed toward the sea through what today is known

as Rajasthán, ofthere she ran toward the occident. This has been identified

with themodern Syr–Darya that unites to the Aral sea in the north. At themoment

a stream that flows in Badarika in the Himalayas, and anothershort stream in the

desert of Rajasthan exists. Because the geologicstudies have found that it runs

in underground form. Previously italso flowed toward the east and it met with

the Yamuna and the Gangesin the Trivedi in Prayaga near Benares in U.T. For

twenty-fouryears, began a search and the geologic studies show

thatapproximately in the 3800 B. C., the north of the India was a greenarea

with big rivers like the Sindhu, the Ganges, the Yamuna and theSarasvati

together with the

Drisadvati. Which fed of the Sutlej andthe Yamuna. This allowed the current

desert of Tahr, to not create anatural division between the occident of India

and the cultures ofthe Middle East. According to the studies, a little before

the battleof the Mahâbhârata, the Yamuna had changed its course and it

didn'tflow more toward the Sarasvati. For what is described in those datesof

Mahabhatata: "Their following stop was Prayaga, the sacred placewhere the

yellow waters of the Ganges unite with those blued of theYamuna. The river

Sarasvati gets lost in this place, uniting at bothprevious:..." But toward the

occident, it is narrated in thepilgrimage that made Balarama, as well as The

Bhâgavatam describes itin connection with Vidura and the same character brother

of Krishna.Using the satellite scanners and with the help of geologic

studies,the investigators from India, brought to the light the bed. Accordingto

the obtained results, this

river dried off at least 2000 B.C.Now four specialists, Baldeo Sahai of the

ISRO, archaeologist S.Kalyan Raman, the glacialogíst Y. K. Puri and the

hidrólogist MadhavChitle are taken charge to continue the investigation and to

tracethe course of this river. The significant of this discovery is, as itwas

already indicated in the chapter on the internal evidence, theSarasvati tend to

be located in the third place of those referred inthe work in study. Also that

you can trace their course flowingwithout drought, just as was confirm by

discoveries. This allows toinfer that the work Bhagavatam leans to date

previous to thedrought.Inside this same category the Polar star can notice,

like wasobserves along the internal evidence, this star figures in

aconsiderable percentage inside the context of some parts of theBhâgavatam. On

the other hand, the hypothesis poschristiam thatfixes the text for the IX

century or a little before, it

confrontsthe following thing: "due to the lack of appropriate brilliant stars,it

would seem that there was not a prominent polar star somecenturies ago from 1200

B. C., [until the 1400 d. C]." This way, theinvestigators suspect that in the

passages of the textGrihyasûtras: "they seem to confirm the hypotheses of

Jacobi: in thematrimonial ceremony, when the newly-weds arrive at their

newresidence, they remain sat down in silence on the skin of a bulluntil the

stars appear in whose moment the husband teaches to thewoman the polar star

saying him: `That you are as constant as her andhappy in my house '. In

Sanskrit, the star's name is dhruvathat `means ', constant `it signs '. Their

invariable appearance,always in the same place of the sky, it took as symbol of

thefeminine fidelity, but in our days the polar star grievesdistinguishes for

that is not of to be believed that could take assymbol. And it happens that

2,000 years

ago it was so far from thepole that went by the sky like many other and it could

not be spokenof their immobility. Therefore, the Grihyasûtras should have

beenreferred to another more brilliant star that could have been near

thecelestial, fixed pole, a long time ago. And Alfa Draconis was in thatcase in

the first half of the third millennium before Christ." Thisfact is suggestive,

because according to the theory of procession ofthe equinoxes, it settles down

that the rotation of the terrestrialaxis moves slowly in a conical path

centered on the north pole of theecliptic or the solar orbit. To the present

moment, the revolvingaxis is near to the star Polaris. However, in the last

3400 years itwas not in the north pole. The last time that a star Polar

notablewas near the 2600 B. C., when Tuban (Alpha Draconis) it was near tothe

north pole. Because same in the 1200 B. C., the polar axispointed between the

stars Beta Ursae Minorus

and Kappa Draconis; anduntil the present moment, one can not affirm that the

referencesmention two stars for the pole. This fact is denotative, because

itallows to infer that the author of the text in study who speaks of afixed

Polar star that would remain eternally as the center where theywould rotate all

the stars of the cosmos, he used a conceptobservable in a remote age. Inside

this variable, the relativefrequency of this category is (2.8%).10.5.7 the Era

of Mahâbhârata (7). On these discoveries it can makean appointment to Romila

Thopar: "The incidents that relates the epicpoetry can be accepted as

historically valid if they can be evidencesto support them.This is what

happens to some from the relativeexcavations to this period. For example in

Hastinapura... excavationswere made, and it was found that a part of its was

desolated... in anoverflow of the Ganges. In the Puranas it is said that

incident tookplace in the

reign of the king's seventh successor [Pariksit] thatgoverned immediately in

Hastinapura after the war [of Kuruksetra]...Incidentally, the tests of the

flood appear in the level where theculture of the Ceramic of Gray finishes in

Hastinapura." According tothe indologist, the events of the Mahâbhârata took

place in the Eraof Iron of the Civilization of the Ganges. Some archaeologists

likeD. P. Agrawal proposes an age from the X to the IX B. C. But other,as Jim

G. Shaffer, estimates an age of the XXV one to. C.This issustained with the

ruins of Kaushumbi, the one that worked as capitalwhen Delhi was flooded whose

structures resemble each other to theconstructions of Harappa. In the decade of

the 60's, IndigolistGangulli discovered artefacts in Kuruksetra that corroborate

theauthenticity of the war that is mentioned in Mahabhârata.In 1986, S. R. Rao

directed a commission of archaeologists, whoseafter applying the techniques

characteristic of the their branchunder the Arabic Ocean, they gave as fruit the

rediscovery of theruins of Dwaraka, the capital of the hero's Kingdom, in the

costs ofthe current Dwaraka in Gujarata. Among the objects are distinguisheda

brass bell, iron nails, vessels of mud, similar to the style of thebrass age in

other places, and ruins of the walls from was the fortdescribed in the Purana in

analysis. They also carried outexcavations in other near areas as Bet Dwaraka or

Sankotora, arrivingto satisfactory results. The official dataciones on this

places wentof XV to XVI one B. C. These dates woke up the scepticism of

otherexperts as R. Rajaram, who proposes that it is another called cityDwaraka.

However, until the present has not been discovered ahistorical reference that

indicates such supposition. For what otherexperts sustain that if there is an

identification among thediscoveries like Andrew Rasanen indicated: "The

information on therecent excavations of Dwaraka in particular is a new addition

to theacademic cellar." Well, the datación of the XV one to the XVI one hadbeen

development under two premises:1) Rao in his report pointed out that the level

of the sea inother parts of the world, including the Bahamas, it goes up a

height60 meters in 10,000 years, and Dwaraka it was posing on 10 metersdeep.2)

The results of the analysis of Termoluminiscency of BetDwaraka's ceramic allow

to estimate a similar age XV BC.However, the vestige of the stamp or mudra of

this place, tend to becloset similarity to those of Mohenjo dharo. Also, one

table whosemotive is the child Krishna found in Harappa, whose age is of 2600

B.C., it allows to infer that Dwaraka dates of a previous date. This

iscorroborates by the author of the URL on the topic, when he mentionsthe

discoveries of the astronomy on the hero's birth: "Lord Krishnawas born to the

midle

night Julio's Friday 27 in the 3112 B. C. Thisdate and the time has been

calculated by the astronomers based on theplanetary position on the day

registered by the Wise Vyasa." Althoughthis calculation is not the last

datación, like it will be presentedin the following category of this variable;

other investigators as P.Gokhale supposes: "The ruins of the submerged city of

Dwarakadiscovered by the Dr. S. R. Rao and his group in 1985 (ArcheologicalUnit

Marinates) along the coast of Gujarat, it provides authenticityof the existence

of the civilization of the Mahâbhârata c. 3000 B.C." The value that you/they

already add the vestiges described insidethis category is of (5.6%) in that

that regarding the data of thisvariable.10.5.8 beginning of Kali yuga (7). The

historian Juan de DiosGonzales J., indicates: "The Christian chose Christ's

birth like thebeginning of a new era; the Muslims, the escape of Mohammed from

Meca(Hégira).

Starting from these [religious] events. Each civilizationbegins to count the

years." In similar form, Teresa. E. Rohde reportsthat for the historians, the

Hindus marked the beginning of ancalendaric era called Kali-yuga "starting from

the death of Krishna."What The Bhâgavatam relates when: "Lord Visnu...

well-known asKrishna... He ascended to the spiritual sky, Kali entered in

thisworld, and people began to take pleasure in the sinful acts." Forthat the

determination of the beginning of this era, is a key hint toapproach to the

possible datación of the text in study. Because thisdate will allow to clarify

the events like the Battle of theMahâbharata, and the hero's birth and the

period of the GangeticCulture .The specialists have proposed three possible

dataciones:to) The era of Kali began in the 900 or 1000 B. C. This date has

beenbroadly accepted by the specialists, working like an useful tool

fornumerous

investigations.b) The erudites of V d. C.: Varaha Mihira, Vriddha Garga

andKalhana, in base of astronomical calculations, proposed that thetaking of

king Yudhistira, after the Battle of Kuruksetra, was to 653years of the era of

Kali. This suggests the 2526 B. C. Neverthelessthat their proposal was an

advanced tentative for his time, it hasbeen objected together with the

following one, for approaches thatwill be explained in the later lines.c) The

era of Kali began officially when Krishna disappeared of theplanet in the 3102

B. C. For what the battle of the Mahâbhârata hadto be a little before this

period. This was computed in the V. A. D.for astronomer Aryabhatta and

sustained later by Bháskara. However,this date has received an emotional

underestimate from the part ofthe circles of erudites, especially who resist to

the revision ofthe müellerane model dates . Inside this oscillation of dates,

theproposition (a) it works as

a tool, although it tend to bedisintegrate before with the discoveries

mentioned. Because as it wasalready explained in the justification, it is based

on thesupposition of 12º Canto, that predicts a chronology where it ispointed

out that of king Pariksit until king Chandragupta Maurya,about 1250 years would

pass. And then the Greek historian'sregistration Meghastenes in the s. IV B. C,

in his Indika work, onking Sandrakutus, which was identified with king

Chandragupta Maurya.Therefore the battle of the Mahabhâtara had to have been

for the X B.C. Also, such a conjecture loses credibility before the

calculationsastronomical overdrafts in the last decades. The (b), although

itdiffers of the © in the datación of the period of the Battle ofKuruksetra,

which opened the way to king Yudhistira's coronation,this doesn't disagreed in

their astronomical calculations with theproposal © of the Kali-yuga

beginning. Also that evidences

don'texist in the texts, that this events had happened to 600 years afterthe

mentioned era. With respect to the proposition ©, it wasrejected by the

erudites under the supposition pointed out in thejustification, that Aryabhatta

plagiarized his data of the Greekastronomy of Tolomeo. That which has also been

doubtful. Adding thatthat R. L. Thompson has demonstrated that the arguments of

those thatsustain such a plagiarism, suffer of serious methodological lacks;and

this investigator has exposed as Aryabhatta it arrived to thosecalculations for

means characteristic of his culture. Jointly, otherindependent investigators

have arrived to a similar datación throughastronomical computations, with more

recent calculation systems,discarding Waerden who affirmed: "According to the

moderncalculations, no conjunction took place in the 3102 B. C."One of the

first works that corroborated the meeting of the planetsin Kali Yuga's star

in the mentioned date, was of astronomers Jean-Sylvain Bailly and John Playfair

in 1790. Another of the tentativesto locate the stellar figures that are

mentioned in the texts, wasthe work carried out by K. Srinivasa Raghavan and

their team in1979, using the Vedanga Jotysha, verified the event in the 3104

B.C. and the Bharatas battle in the 3138 B. C. Shiram Sathe hasevaluated the

counts of several experts and they tend to coincidewith the 3102 B. C., like

date limit. A brief variation has beenobtained by K. N. Partanik denoting

October 16 for the Battle of theMahâbhârata 3138 B. C.Count Bijornstierna

summarizes a calculationfor the beginning from Kali to February 20 of the 3102

Bc .Startingfrom their investigations in India, Henry P. Stapp in 1994reported:

"According to the same Vedic texts and to the traditionalalmanacs Panchangas of

the India, these computations were registeredat the beginning of the present

time called Kali

yuga, 5091 yearsbehind." What suggests the 3097 B. C. Richard L. Thompson

hascalculated with the programs Duffet–Smith of astronomy, the positionsof the

planets and they coincide with brief variation to theregistrations of the

texts, dating February 18 of 3102 B. C. for thebeginning of Kali yuga.This has

been confirmed with another registration. The cycle of theconstellation of the

seven sages, the one which pass in 3600 yearswhen Seven Rishis iniate travels

all the lunar mansions, and thestudies of J. E. Mitchiner suggests that this

phenomenon began the6676 B. C. and it finished the 3076 B. C., that which is

narrated inThe Bhâgavatam: "When the constellation of the seven sages is

passingthrough the lunar mansion Mabhâ, the era of Kali begins. This willlast a

thousand two hundred years of the devas."Another type of evidences that indicate

these dates is theinscriptions of Pulakésisa II c. VIII AD. and other earlier

ones

,they were found in Belgaum and Nidhapur, that point out the 3102 forthe Battle

of Kuruksetra. Likewise, the star Rohini or Aldebaran werein the localization

that is described in the Purana in exam, when thehero Vásudeva was born, in the

3162 B. C., according to the programSky Globe. The dependability of this program

can vary for five yearswith an 1% average of error. Jointly, Heliodoro pointed

out thatKrishna lived hundred thirty eight generations of kings

beforeAlejandro's time, to which the investigators attribute around oftwenty

years average for king, what suggests 2760 years, more 330B. C. = 3090 B. C.The

sum of the vestiges inside this variable thatsustains this datación, is

(26.4%).To conclude with this brief report, in my thesis, we uses an

fullmethodolgy applying to triagunlation to subject the body of evidenceintern

(geographical, chronological, astronomical, intertextuality,social, economic,

philosophical,

religious, political, language type)and external (documental, epigrafic,

sculpture, numismaticts, anddiscoveries adjunts) on the Bhâgavata purana, to

tests statistical ofpercentages and we discover that the weight of the evidence

tend tosustain to remote antiquity, with the hope of opening new horizons inthe

search of more discoveries that they allow the advance of theknowledge.

Nevertheless like I noticed in my thesis mentioning toKlostermaier:"While the

older theory rested on exclusively philological arguments,the new theory

includes astronomical, geological, mathematical andarchaeological evidence. On

the whole, the latter seems to rest onbetter foundations."And also to Max

Planck who pointed out:"A new scientific truth doesn't triumph by means of the

convincingof its opponents, making them see the light, but rather because

thisopponents end up dying and a new generation grows that familiarizeswith it

.."---

In vediculture, "vrnparker" wrote:> Vedic Archeology> Part 1:

The Heliodorus Column> Most Vaisnavas refer to Krishna as having appeared 5,000

years ago> and generally credit Vedic civilization and Vaisnavism with great>

antiquity. But what hard, empirical proof do we have for this> assertion?

Certainly some archeological or other evidence mustexist> to confirm or deny

these claims. Herein, we shall survey the most> prominent archeological

discoveries that clearly demonstrate the> antiquity of Krishna worship and

Vaisnavism.>> CLICK LINK FOR ARTICLE WTH IMAGES>

http://www.gosai.com/chaitanya/saranagati/html/vedic-upanisads/vedic->

archeology.html>> First of all, detailed historical evidence of Vedic

civilization is> not that easy to come by, since the Vedic culture itself seems

to> have not valued the keeping of histories.

In his book Traditional> India, O. L. Chavarria-Aguilar writes of Indians: "A

more> unhistorical people would be difficult to find." Vedic civilization>

believed in recording the eternal and infinite. The ephemeral> details of daily

life (so much the concern of contemporary people)> need not be recorded, since

they had so little bearing on the> larger, more significant goals of human

life. Leisure time was tobe> used for self-realization, cultural pursuits, and

worship of God–not> rehashing current events or the past. Therefore,

practically no> histories, according to the Western concept of history, exist

today> about ancient India, because none were written.>> Into this vacuum of

historical data on India's past stepped the> European scholars during the last

several hundred years, and it is> interesting to note how they first dealt with

what they found.> Religious

scholars were especially shocked to observe theremarkable> similarities between

the lives and philosophies of Krishna andJesus> Christ. As a defensive reflex

they automatically assumed that> Indians must have come across Christianity in

the early centuries> after Christ's ministry and had assimilated much of it

into their> own religious tradition. This slant on Vaisnavism was called "the>

borrowing theory" and gained many adherents in the West. Concerning> this

viewpoint, Hemchandra Raycaudhuri in his book Materials forthe> Study of the

Early History of the Vaisnava Sect writes, "The> appearance in India of a

religion of Bhakti [devotion] was, in the> opinion of several eminent Western

scholars, an event of purely> Christian origin. Christianity, according to

these scholars,> exercised an influence of greater or less account on the

worshipand> story of Krishna.">>

In 1762 in Rome, P. Georgi was the first Western scholar topropound> this

theory. In his Alphabetum Tibetanum he wrote that "Krishnu" is> only a

"corruption of the name of the Saviour; the deeds correspond> wonderfully with

the name, though they have been impiously and> cunningly polluted by most

wicked imposters." The extremefanaticism> of Georgi's position was soon

repudiated by other Western scholars.> Even pro-Christian researchers admitted

that the name Krishna> existed before the birth of Jesus, but they still

maintained that> the life of Krishna and the philosophy of Vaisnavism had

undergone> major transformations because of Christian influence.>> In his

monograph Uber die Krishnajanmasthami, Albrecht Weberpointed> out the many and

striking similarities between the birth stories of> Krishna and Jesus. The

following quote from his work notes many of> these

similarities:>> Take, for example the statement of the Vishnu Purana that

Nanda,the> foster-father of Krishna, at the time of the latter's birth, went>

with his pregnant wife Yasoda to Mathura to pay taxes (cf. Luke II,> 4, 5) or

the pictorial representation of the birth of Krishna inthe> cowstall or

shepherd's hut, that corresponds to the manger, and of> the shepherds,

shepherdesses, the ox and the ass that stand round> the woman as she sleeps

peacefully on her couch without fear of> danger. Then the stories of the

persecutions of Kamsa, of the> massacre of the innocents, of the passage across

the river> (Christophorus), of the wonderful deeds of the child, of thehealing->

virtue of the water in which he was washed, etc., etc. Whether the> accounts

given in the Jaimini Bharata of the raising to life by> Krishna of the dead son

of Duhsala, of the cure of Kubja, of

her> pouring a vessel of ointment over him, of the power of his look to> take

away sin, and other subjects of the kind came to India in the> same connection

with the birth-day festival may remain an open> question.>> Weber even

contended that the whole Vedic system of avatars, or> incarnations of God, was

"borrowed" from the "Incarnation of Jesus> Christ.">> Dr. F. Lorinser

translated the Bhagavad-gita and compared it> scrupulously to the New

Testament. He concluded, writes> Raychaudhari, "that the author of the Hindu

poem knew and used the> Gospels and Christian Fathers." According to Lorinser,

continues> Raychaudhari, the similarities were "not single and obscure, but>

numerous and clear …" There was no doubt in Lorinser's mind thatthe>

Bhagavat-gita had been largely "borrowed" from the New Testament.>> Other

Western scholars disputed the borrowing

theory. Sir William> Jones' studies found Krishna to be one of the more ancient

gods of> India, who Vaisnavas asserted was "distinct from all the Avatars,> who

had only [a]…portion of his divinity …" In his fascinating and> provocative

work, On the Gods Of Greece, Italy, And India, Sir> William Jones writes that

"in the principal Sanskrit dictionary,> compiled about two thousand years ago,

Krishna, Vasudeva, Govinda,> and other names of the Shepherd God, are

intermixed with epithetsof> Narayana, or the Divine Spirit." Following in the

direction of Sir> Jones' research, Edward Moore even went so far as to say that

the> popular Greek myths had some basis in real life and could be traced>

ultimately to India. However, solid proof for either side escaped> their grasp,

and the scholars theorized and debated the issue back> and forth. Literary

evidence did exist in India to prove that>

Vaisnavism predated Christianity, but this evidence was brushed> under the rug

and given little credence until a Western literary> source decided the issue

once and for all.>> The most important and earliest non-Indian literary record

of> ancient India is found in the book, Indica, written by Megasthenes.>

Sometime in the third century BC, Meghastenes journeyed to India.> The King of

Taxila had appointed him ambassador to the royal court> at Pataliputra of the

great Vaisnava monarch, Chandragupta.> Evidently while there, Megasthenes wrote

extensively on what he> heard and saw. Unfortunately, none of Megasthenes'

original book> survived the ravages of time. However, through Megasthenes'

early> Greek and Roman commentators, like Arrian, Diodorus, and Strabo,>

fragments of his original work are available to us today, as wellas>

Megasthenes' general message. Dr. Hein reports

that> Megasthenes "described Mathura as a place of great regional> importance

and suggested that it was then, as now, a center of> Krishna worship.">>

Christian Lassen was the first Western scholar to bring Megasthenes> into the

debate on the "borrowing theory." He noted thatMegasthenes> wrote of Krishna

under the pseudonym of Heracles and> that "Heracles", or Krishna, was

worshipped as God in the area> through which the Yamuna River flows.>> A

respected Indologist, Richard Garbe, agreed with Lassen'sanalysis> and called

the testimony of Megasthenes indisputable. Soon,scholars> like Alan Dahlquist,

who had formerly supported the "borrowing> theory," changed their minds and

admitted, in Dahlquist's words,> that Garbe had "exploded Weber's theory once

and for all." The life> of Krishna and the religion of Vaisnavism had not been

influencedby>

Christianity, but had appeared autonomously on Indian soil and was> already

well-established by at least the third century BC.>> With Megasthenes' proof in

hand, the credibility of Indian literary> sources became enhanced. The great

grammarian and author of theYoga> Sutras, Patanjali, who lived in the second

century BC, wrote that> Krishna had slain the tyrant Kamsa in the far distant

past.> Raychaudhari tells us the exact words were "chirahate Kamse' which>

means that Kamsa's death occurred at a very remote time." In the> fifth century

BC, the greatest Sanskrit grammarian, Panini,mentions> that Vaisnavism "was even

in the fifth century BC a religion of> Bhakti," writes Raychaudhari. The

Artha-shastra of Kautila, fromthe> fourth century BC, also refers several times

to Krishna, while the> Baudhayana Dharma Sutra of the same century gives twelve

different> names for Krishna,

including popular ones like Keshava, Govinda,and> Damodara.>> Since Krishna is

mentioned in the pre-Buddhistic ChandogyaUpanishad> we must conclude that

Krishna lived before Gautama Buddha (563?-?483> BC). The scriptures of the

Jains push Krishna's life back farther> still. Raychaudhari writes, "Jaina

tradition makes Krishna a> contemporary of Arishtanemi… who is the immediate

predecessor of> Parsvanatha…. As Parsvanatha flourished about 817 B.C.,

Krishnamust> have lived long before the closing years of the ninth Century

B.C."> Of course, the Srimad Bhagavatam and Mahabharata themselves place>

Krishna's life at about 3000 BC. Still, whatever the exact dates of> Krishna's

earthly appearance and disappearance, because of the> abundance of evidence of

Krishna's antiquity, The Cambridge History> of India definitely states that

Krishna worship predates> Christianity by

many centuries.>> Let us now turn our attention to the earliest archeological>

discoveries regarding Krishna's antiquity. By far the mostimportant> discovery

was made by the indefatigable General Sir Alexander> Cunningham in 1877. During

an archeological survey of Beshnagar in> central India, he noted an ornamental

column. The shape of the> column caused Cunningham to attribute it erroneously

to the period> of the Gupta Dynasty (AD 300-550). Thirty-two years later,

however,> a Mr. Lake felt he saw some lettering on the lower part of the>

column in an area where pilgrims customarily smeared it with alead,> vermilion

paint. When the thick, red paint was removed, Lake'shunch> was proven

correct.>> Dr. J. H. Marshall, who accompanied Mr. Lake on this investigation,>

was thrilled at the find's significance. In the Journal of theRoyal> Asiatic

Society in 1909, he

described his conclusions. Cunningham> had dated the column far too late and>>

could little have dreamt of the value of the record which he just> missed

discovering…. A glance at the few letters exposed was all> that was needed to

show that the Column was many centuries earlier> than the Gupta era. This was,

indeed, a surprise to me, but a far> greater one was in store when the opening

lines of the inscription> came to be read.>>>>>> The following transliteration

and translation of this ancient> Brahmi inscription was published in the

Journal of the RoyalAsiatic> Society (London: JRAS, Pub., 1909, pp. 1053-54.>>

1) Devadevasa Va [sude]vasa Garudadhvajo ayam 2) karito i[a]> Heliodorena

bhaga- 3) vatena Diyasa putrena Takhasilakena 4)> Yonadatena agatena maharajasa

5) Amtalikitasa upa[m]ta samkasam-rano> 6) Kasiput[r]asa

[bh]agabhadrasa tratarasa 7) vasena [chatu]dasena> rajena vadhamanasa>> "This

Garuda-column of Vasudeva (Visnu), the god of gods, was> erected here by

Heliodorus, a worshipper of Visnu, the son of Dion,> and an inhabitant of

Taxila, who came as Greek ambassador from the> Great King Antialkidas to King

Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the Savior,> then reigning prosperously in the

fourteenth year of his kingship.">>>> The column had been erected in BC 113 by

Heliodorus, a Greek> ambassador to India. He, like Megasthenes, hailed from

Taxila inthe> Bactrian region of northwest India, which had been conquered by>

Alexander the Great in BC 325. By Heliodorus' time Taxila covered> much of

present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Punjab. Taxila's> king, Antialkidas,

had sent Heliodorus to the court of King> Bhagabhadra, but while Megasthenes had

only written about

Krishna> and Vaisnavism, Heliodorus had found them so attractive that he had>

adopted the practice of Vaisnavism for his own spiritualadvancement!>>

Heliodorus' Column recognized Vasudeva, or Krishna, as the "God of> gods.">> 1)

Trini amutapadani‹[su] anuthitani 2) nayamti svaga damo chago> apramado>> "Three

immortal precepts (footsteps)... when practiced lead to> heaven‹self-restraint,

charity, consciousness.">> From this inscription it is clear Heliodorus was a

Vaisnava, a> devotee of Visnu.>>>>> Raychaudhuri maintains that Heliodorus most

probably was already> acquainted with Vaisnavism in Taxila, even before he went

to India> proper, since, "It was at that city that Janamejaya heard from>

Vaishampayana the famous story of the Kurus and the Pandus [the> Mahabharata]."

Furthermore, Raychaudhuri then suggests,

"Heliodorus> of Taxila actually heard and utilized the teaching of the great>

Epic, " since we know from Panini that the Epic was "well known to> the people

of Gandhara [Taxila]" long before the time of the Greek> ambassador.>> In any

case, by BC 113 Heliodorus publicly acknowledged in the most> conspicuous way

that he held Vasudeva, or Krishna to be the "Godsof> all gods." He also had

written on his column's inscription> that "Three immortal precepts when

practiced lead to heaven–self-> restraint, charity, and conscientiousness."

These three virtues> appear in the exact same order in the Mahabharata, which

makes> Professor Kunja Govinda Swami of Calcutta University conclude that>

Heliodorus "was well acquainted with the texts dealing with the> Bhagavat

[Vaisnava] religion." Raychaudhuri concurs that "there was> some close

connection between the teaching of the Mahabharata

and> that of the Besnagar Inscription," proving that Heliodorus was a>

knowledgeable devotee of Vaisnavism.>> The Heliodorus Column also struck down

the myth that the Vedic> religion never condoned the conversion of non-Indians

to its fold.> While this exclusionary tendency has been manifest here and

therein> India (although much less so in Vaisnavism), the Islamic historian,>

Abu Raihan Alberuni, maintains that it was not practiced until> sometime after

the Muslim incursions into India, which started> around AD 674. Alberuni went

to India to study in AD 1017 and> published his findings in his book Indica

(not to be confused with> Megasthenes' work of the same title). He concluded

that the violent> conflicts and forced conversions of Indians into Muslims

made> Indians adopt an exclusionary policy, more out of self-defense than>

religious principle. He discovered that, for

many centuries priorto> the Muslim invasions, there was no bar to conversions,

and the> Heliodorus Column certainly attests to this fact.

 

Photos:

om/ph/print_splash">High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢