Abridged Puranic Chronology: Dates of Ancient Indian History from Mythological Sources

According to the modern Indian history books Lord Buddha is believed to have been born in the sixth century BC and Chandragupta Maurya is believed to have been the ruler of Magadha Empire soon after the invasion of Alexander in the year 327 BC. There is a common misconception among the laymen as well as the historians that these and the other dates given in the official version of Indian history are proven facts. However, a careful and critical examination of the sources from which, and the manner in which, these dates have been derived show that these dates are only as true as the creation of the universe in (or around) the year 4006 BC Most people including the historians believe that the dates mentioned above and the other dates of Indian history have been derived mainly from archaeological evidences, inscriptions on stone pillars and the accounts of the foreign travelers. But no history can be written from such discontinuous sources. History has to be written mainly from the historical accounts. The modern pioneers of Indian history namely Sir William Jones, Professor Max Muller, Professor Wilson and other orientalists of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century knew this and the first sources they looked for Indian history were the scriptures known as Itihasa and Purana such as Mahabharata, Bhagavata Purana, Vishnu Purana, Vayu Purana, Matsysa Purana and Bhavishya Purana. The Puranas give the dates of the historical events in Kaliyugabda, Vikram Samvat, Sakabda and other Indian eras still in use at present. From these narrations it is possible to get the dates of all important historical events in the Christian era. This book gives the chronology of ancient Indian history calculated precisely in this manner. In calculating the dates from the Puranas the following procedure should be adopted to rectify the errors and discrepancies: 1. Proper distinction should be made between the Puranas and the other ancient texts. For example, Abhigyana Shakuntalam, Mudra Rakshasa, Raghu Vansa, etc. are magnificent literary works and not historical documents. 2. In some Puranas the dates are given in more than one era; the different eras have been enumerated in section 2.1. In such cases comparison should be made to detect any possible error. Possible grammatical errors as well as the consistency and continuity of the verses should be carefully checked. 3. The dates of events worked out from different Puranas should be tallied and compared with the dates worked out from astronomical data. These have been referred to in section 2.7. The dates of some important events calculated in a straightforward manner and verified by astronomical data as well as the archaeological evidences and Greek history are given in this book. It is high time that the modern students and scholars of history discard the chronology based on the creation of universe in the year 4006 BC and rewrite the ancient history of India on the basis of the correct chronology from the Puranas. The purpose of the book is to provide students and scholars of history the outline of the Puranic chronology supported by archaeological evidences and foreign notices. Criticisms and suggestions are invited from readers about the contents of this book including the dates of the individual historic events. All such correspondence is welcome by the author.