Vaisampayana opens the 16th chapter, Mausala Parva with these words,
ṣaṭ triṃśe tv atha saṃprāpte varṣe kauravanandana
dadarśa viparītāni nimittāni yudhiṣṭhiraḥ
(16-1)
“When the thirty-sixth
year (after the battle) was reached, the delighter of the Kurus, Yudhishthira,
beheld many unusual portents.” (Ganguli’s
translation)
viparītāni nimittāni were many - terrestrial,
atmospheric and celestial that included meteor showers and unusual appearance
of the solar and lunar discs. Short while later the king Yudhishthira received
the news of the destruction of the Vrishinis.
The narration then shifts to Dwaraka, wherein many inauspicious and odd omens were seen for some
time. Some peculiar planetary movements were noticed. The
stars were repeatedly attacked by the planets. None among the Yadavas could,
however, obtain a sight of the star of his birth.[1] This implies that the planets were crossing the same stars one after
the other, which means that the planets were congregating together at some location of the zodiac.
Seeing this kind of planetary congregation and the other odd
sightings on the earth and the atmosphere, Krishna thought that the Time has
come – something similar to what was witnessed during the Bharata war. His
thoughts were already written in detail in Part
21 in the context of the solar
eclipse on the 19th day of the war at the time of the mace
fight.
“By seeing (the adverse omens) Krishna understood that the
Time (of wheel) had come to a revolution. Having seen Amawasya in Trayodasi at
that time (in the past), he began to speak that Caturdasi made into Pancadasi
by Rahu at the battle of the Bharatas is (there) now for our destruction.” [2]
The extended tithi of Caturdasi into Pancadasi recalled
here, hints at the day being Caturdasi extending into the next day. Krishna
recalled Gandhari’s curse and “understood
that the thirty-sixth year had come, and that
what Gandhari, burning with grief on account of the death of her sons, and
deprived of all her kinsmen, had said was about to transpire.” [3]
“putraśokābhisaṃtaptā
gāndhārī hatabāndhavā
yad anuvyājahārārtā tad idaṃ samupāgatam”
He also thought, “The present is exactly similar to that
time when Yudhishthira noted at such awful omens when the two armies had been
arrayed in order of battle.” [4]
Thinking so, Krishna commanded the Vrishnis to go on a
pilgrimage to the sacred site on the sea shore. Once they reached the sea
shore hell broke loose and mutual
destruction of each other followed. Following the
destruction of the Vrishnis, Krishna left home after summoning Daruka to bring Arjuna to take care of the women and the wealth. Hastinapur located
at a distance of nearly 1400 kilometres from Dwaraka, Daruka could have taken a
day to reach Hastinapur and the return journey with Arjuna must have taken
another day. Daruka delivering the news of the destruction of the Vrishnis must
have coincided with Yudhishthira having noticed the nimittas just then. Perhaps
those nimittas marked the time of
Krishna leaving. That could be Pancadasi when Amawasya turned into a solar
eclipse.
After sending Daruka to Hastinapur, Krishna proceeded to the
forest where he found Balarama in Yoga,
leaving the earth. This must have been the day of Amawasya. Sitting down on the
bare earth and thinking of Gandhari’s curse, of
the previous slaughter of the Kurus and the mutual destruction of Vrishnis
short while ago, he thought it was time to leave the earth and laid himself down on the earth
and entered into Maha-yoga.
A hunter named Jara seeing
him from a distance, draped in his famous yellow garments, mistook him for a
deer and shot his arrow piercing Krishna’s heel. Krishna left the world, and Kali entered the world.
The day Krishna left the world was astronomically and historically the same day from when the 4th
Maha Yuga started ticking.
The day was marked by the congregation of all the planets except Rahu at the beginning of
Aries (Figure 1).The gathering of the planets was already noticed by Krishna.
Fig 1: The day Krishna left the world – the
conjunction of all the planets except Rahu
From Mahabharata to Bhagavata
Purana we find a continuity of events following the exit of Krishna. In the
very beginning of Bhagavata Purana, Vyasa
repeats the bad omens seen by Yudhishtira at the exit of Krishna as was
described in Mahabharata. When Arjuna brings the bad news about Krishna’s
departure, Vyasa says (in Suta’s narration) the Kali has manifest fully at the exit of Krishna.
yadā
mukundo bhagavān imāṁ mahīṁ
jahau sva-tanvā śravaṇīya-sat-kathaḥ
tadāhar evāpratibuddha-cetasām
abhadra-hetuḥ kalir anvavartata[5]
Meaning:
“When the Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa, left this earthly planet in His
selfsame form, from that very day Kali, who had already partially
appeared, became fully manifest to create inauspicious conditions for
those who are endowed with a poor fund of knowledge.”[6]
The day of mass conjunction of the planets marks the cut-off date of Time. The date of conjunction was 22nd January, 3101 BCE in
the year Pramathi, on a Thursday when the sun and the moon
joined at the beginning of Aries at
the star Aswini causing a solar eclipse.
This date is coming along without any controversy by the Pancanga writers who are the custodians
of time till now. The Jyothisha
Siddhantas are the main sources of authority
for this time computation. Unfortunately these two are forgotten or set aside
inadvertently by those who are not even aware of the time Kali Yuga started or
the factor that marked the start of this Yuga. Let me address those issues before
going ahead with the post-Krishna events.
The ayanamsa factor.
The foremost problem
is that none could get the planetary congregation in the simulators – the reasons
were already written and are now repeated again. Without having incorporated
in the simulators, the zero degree ayanamsa position running at the time of
Kali Yuga, the Kali Yuga congregation cannot be obtained. I am able to show
the congregation using the correct ayanamsa embedded in Surya Siddhanta model – the model that was personally observed over
thousands of years by the ancient sages.
Even the attempts to manually calculate using the planetary
longitudinal tables could not get the date or the congregation right for the
reason that those tables were given from the equinoctial point of the time of
the persons who computed them. The continuous
change in the trepidation is the cause for the slightly different values, given
by different Indic texts of different times of the past.
It should be noted that even at the present times, there is
a sudden increase in the trepidation of
the equinoctial point and the earth had rotated faster
than average on 28 days in the year 2020 alone, noticed for the first
time in the last fifty years.[7] No
one knows if there is any correlation between the two, but what is known is
that the rate of movement of the precession is not constant. This makes dating
the past events difficult. Fortunately in the case of Mahabharata, the zero
ayanamsa of at the beginning of Kali Yuga serves as a solid ground to
corroborate the planetary combinations.
In this backdrop the proof
of reliability of the Surya Siddhanta Ayanamsa for dating Kali Yuga (and
Mahabharata) is seen in the stipulated congregation of all the planets except
Rahu at the beginning of Aries (Figure 1)
Kali Yuga measured by planets.
We often find people making claims that kali Yuga started
during the Mahabharata war, citing verses stating that Kali had ushered in.
This was discussed in Part
1 and shown why it was not valid.
This claim is rejected outright on the simple premise that
such a proposition makes Krishna, an avatāra of Dvapara Yuga to live across two yugas – Dvapara and
Kali Yuga – which is totally against the Yuga- avatāra
connection. The ratio of the number of years of the four yugas starting
from Krita is 4:3:2:1 which is also the same for the number of avatāras in the
four Yugas. Krishna and Balarama were the two avatāras of Dvapara Yuga; they cannot be shifted to Kali
Yuga due to our inability to corroborate the Kali Maha Yuga at the time of the
exit of the two.
Any reference to Kali beforehand could therefore suggest the
decline in Dharma and not the arrival of the Kali Yuga, mainly because the Yugas are noted in terms of the planetary
movements. Krishna noticed it in the planets crossing the same stars one
after the other. The Yuga concept is basically about Time and we have seen how
Time is cosmically created and not by what we do. Siddhantas are the authority for deciding the date of the Yuga.
Aryabhata
says,
“The Yuga, the year, the day and the month commenced
simultaneously at the beginning of the light half of Caitra. This time which is
without beginning and end, is measured with the help of planets and the
asterisms of the celestial sphere.”[8]
The planets and the stars, being the factors of measurement
of the Time of the Yuga, the claims that Kali Yuga started at the time of
war are automatically rejected.
In this statement of Aryabhata, there is a scope for a
controversy. Commencement at the light half of Caitra could refer to the solar month because the lunar month
soon after the conjunction was Vaishakha. Since
the first day of the Yuga was counted from the day after conjunction, i.e. Shukla Pratipat, it could not have been
lunar Caitra unless it was Nija Caitra. In the
absence of an evidence of an Adhika masa at the time of conjunction (in the
simulator), to be followed by Nija Caitra, it is deduced that the verse refers
to the waxing phase present in the solar Caitra or Mesha. The lunar Vaishakha
starting from the first day of the Yuga explains why the year beginning is
reckoned from lunar
Vaishakha in some parts of India.
The other popular Siddhanta, namely Siddhanta Shiromani authored by Bhaskara II repeats the same, but qualified with an additional
input. It states,[9]
“Six Manus had elapsed
in this Kalpa, thereafter thirty seven yugas, as well as three yuga padas,
namely, Krita, Treta and Dvapara. Further 3179 years of
this fourth yuga pada namely Kali have elapsed by the end of the Shaka king.”
3179 is the number of elapsed years since Kali Yuga began. This marks this
3rd Shaka Era which is the current Era of Shalivahna Shaka. Many olden Pancanga aphorisms are there to
calculate any date in this Shaka starting from the first year of the
Shalivahana Shaka in 78 CE. By adding 3179 to the current year of the Shaka one
gets the Kali Year date which started in 3101 BCE.
This knowledge is now getting derailed by the Mahabharata researchers –
none of whom got the Kali Yuga date right. Having entered the dating research
with no inkling of any of these concepts they are bringing in “Cyrus the Great”, a Mleccha into the
picture and claim that his Era was referred by Bhaskara II.
Resolving the confusion in Shaka kala.
With information dissemination happening now, they bring in all terms Shakendra Kala, Shakabhoopa Kala and Shaka-anta kala in to Kali Yuga Time
scale.
As far as Kali Yuga time scale is concerned only six shaka eras have been mentioned. They are [10]
Yudhistira Era
Vikrama Era
Salivahana Era
Vijayabhinanda Era
Nagarjuna Era
Bali Era.
The years allotted to all these Eras add upto 4,32,000 years – the exact
duration of Kali Yuga.
All these are based on some sort of cosmic time measurement.
For example in Yudhsihthira shaka,
the year was marked by Uttarayana.
It changed into Caitra in Full moon
in Vikrama Era and Caitra No-moon in
Shalivahana.
Moreover the Pancanga features (Year, month, paksha, star and weekday)
would repeat at the lapse
of 3780 years. [11]
This means a combination of these five on a day, say, in the year 1 of kali Yuga (3100
BCE) would repeat in the year 680 CE. This causes problems in identifying dates
of the past beyond 3780 years. It is my conjecture that a new era was necessitated to avoid this.
The initial one was Vikrama Era which however failed to be compatible with most
of India since it started the year in the Full Moon which was not in vogue in
many parts of India. Perhaps due to this, a revision was introduced in 78 CE by
ushering in Shalivahana Era.
The next Era is going to start after 18,000 years. Not surprising given
the fact that our countrymen have to go that long to undersatnd the basic
features of Kali Yuga!
To contain these explanations going too long, let me focus on the
conetntious issue, on Shaka. That is a verse in Brihat samhita by Varahamira
which the researchers are using to push in their wrong theory of Shaka and
on Sapta rishi yuga. To know what that verse says, let me do a word for
word meaning of the verse.
The verse states,[12]
आसन् मघासु मुनयः शासति पृथ्वीं युधिष्ठिरे नृपतौ।
षड्-द्विक-पञ्च-द्वि (२५२६) युतः शककालस्तस्य राज्ञस्य॥
आसन्= āsan = Halting, stopping,
abiding, staying, sitting (third person
plural present imperfect class 2 parasmaipada √as )
मघासु = maghāsu = in the lunar
mansion Maghā (feminine locative plural stem: magha)SB 12.2.31
मुनयः = munayas = the sages
(masculine nominative, vocative plural stem: muni)
शासति = śāsati -= to command, to control (third person plural present present class 2 parasmaipada √śās)
पृथ्वीं =
pruthvim = earth (Accusative)
युधिष्ठिरे = in
Yudhihsthira (singular masculine locative)
नृपतौ = king
(singular masculine locative)
षड्-द्विक-पञ्च-द्वि = 2526
युतः = yutas = Binding, fastening, attaching,
going (masculine nominative singular past passive participle stem: yuta)
शककालस्तस्य = shaka kālas tasya –
his shaka kaala,
Tasya = about this (SB 10.89.2), at him (SB 11.23.9), by
him (SB 1.9.17, SB 9.14.42, SB 10.70.24)
राज्ञस्य = by (of) the king (singular masculine
Genitive)
Overall meaning:
The
earth was controlled by the king Yudhishthira in his shaka kala of 2526 (years)
(when) the Saptarṣis (muni) were in Maghā (star)
The Shaka era mentioned here is that of
Yudhishthira and not of anyone else, particularly not “Cyrus the Great” which is a complete anathema to the concept of
Shaka.[13]
Why this specific year stated?
The speciality of this date – Yudhishthira Shaka 2526 when the Sapta
rishis were in Magha is demystified in Srimad
Bhagavatam!
Srimad Bhagavatam (SB) also talks about the Saptarishis on Magha.
Before talking about it SB makes a clear statement again that the Age of Kali started only from
the time Krishna left the world. (Figure 2) This is same as what Vyasa
told in the first chapter of Srimad Bhagavatam quoted earlier.(SB: 1-15-36)
Fig 2: Kali started only after Krishna returned to His world.
In the next verse this is being repeated as though to clear the doubts of
people who read the verses such as “prāptaṃ kaliyugaṃ
viddhi” in their face
value. [14] (Figure
3) As long as Krishna was
there, Kali could not enter.
Fig 3: Kali could not enter as long as Krishna was around.
After stating explicitly that Kali did not enter the world as along as Krishna
was living on this earth, SB makes a statement that Kali started from the time
the Saptarishis started occupying Magha.
“When the constellation of the seven
sages is passing through the luanr mansion Maghā, the Age of Kali begins. It comprises twelve
hundred years of the demi-Gods”[15]
(Figure 4) This date corresponds to Brihat samhita date of Kali / Yudhishthira
2526. After 2526 years of
Kali Maha Yuga, the true Age of Kali began.
Fig 4: Kali begins when the Seven sages pass through Magha
This is reiterated in the next verse that “When the graet sages of the Saptarishi constellation pass from Magha to Purvashadha, Kali will have his full stregnth, beginning from King Nanda and his dynasty.”[16] (Figure 5)
Fig 5: Kali aggrevates further
Then what was the kali at 3101 BCE when all the
planets congregated and krishna left? Vyasa clarifies in the very next
verse that, “ Those who
scientifically understand the past declare that on the very day that Lord Sri
Krishna departed for the spiritual world, the influence of the Age of Kali
began.”[17]
(Figure 6)
Fig 6: The original date of Kali at the exit of Krishna
The word “Pura-vidah”
is used to show the source from which this knowledge that Kali Yuga started
only after Krishna left the world. Pura means olden,
formerly, in the beginning. Vida means knowledge. Its meaning is reproduced from the
sanskrit dictionary in Figure 7.
Fig 7: Meaning of “Vida” in Pura- vida.
In the beginning, (this is told by Vyasa
who authored Mahabharata in his other work,Srimad Bhagavatam) the knowledgeable seers had gathered
and decided that Kali Yuga started only at the time Krishna left.
How did they make this discovery?
They had seen the congregation of
all the planets which is mandatory for the measurement of Yuga and found that
Krishna left at the moment of that congregation.
They decided the start of Kali Yuga at that moment; we are just specks of
dust before them. Anyone disregarding
that knowledge given by the sages and stated by Vyasa, is unfit to research
Mahabharata!
Vyasa had repeated this idea in two verses before starting to identify Saptarishis
at Magha related to Kali.[18]
So the whole issue about Brihat Samhita verse on saptarishis in Magha star
is not about a Shaka era of Cyrus, but
about deterioration of the Dharma in Kali Yuga. His verse is a re-statement
of Srimad Bhagavatam verse.
To re-cap it, originally the Age of Kali (Kali Yuga) started only from the time Krishna left the world.
This is repeated in 4
verses of Srimad Bhagavatam as given above. That was the date when all
the planets except Rahu congregated at the beginning of Aries – stated by Siddhantas, the authoritative
books on Time and approved
by “Pura-vida” The calculation of Time that is happening till now
follows this only. Janamejaya’s
inscription cited in Figure 3 in Part
1followed the date of this Kali Yuga started from the time of Krishna’s exit. From that time it
was known as Yudhishthira Shaka. Janamejaya’s
inscription mentions “Yudhsihtrashake”
giving the year counted from Yudhishthira Shaka which is also the Kali year.
By Yudhsithira Shaka 2526, the command of Yudhishthira’s
rule, his code of ethics and Dharma seemed to have faded. That date is marked
by the Saptarishis in Magha verse. In the next 1000 years it further
deteriorated (425 CE). After this Uttarayana started before reaching Makara (Capricorn). [19]
This would bring evil, says Varahamihira.[20] Another 1500 years passsed away before our
current times. There is nothing worthy of telling for the state of Kali now and
so Vyasa refrained from saying anything beyond.
The bungling of Mahabharata date and the forgotten knowledge Kali Yuga
testify how we are beyond redemption.
With a heavy heart let us go back to where we left.. Arjuna arriving at
Dwaraka.
(To be continued)
[1] Mahabharata: 16-3-14
parasparaṃ ca nākṣatraṃ hanyamānaṃ punaḥ punaḥ
grahair
apaśyan sārve te nātmānas tu kathaṃ cana
[2] Mahabharata: 16-3 -16
& 17
[3] Mahabharata: 16-3-19
[4] Mahabharata: 16-3-20
[5]Bhagavata Purana: 1-15-36
[8] Aryabhatiya: Ch.3-
Kalakriya Pada. “Aryabhatiya of Aryabhata” edited and translated by Kripa
Shankar Shukla.
[9] Siddhanta Shiromani:
Madhyadhikara, section I, v.28
[10] Kalidasa, “Jyotirvidabharana”
4-89
[11] LCM of 60, 12, 30, 27 and
7 respectively for the features given.
[12] Brihat Samhita: 13-3
[13] The founder of the Shaka
era in Kali Yuga is one who defeated a Shaka (Mleccha) ruler.
[14] Mahabharata: 9-59-21
[15] Srimad Bhagavatam:
12-2-31
[16] Srimad Bhagavatam:
12-2-32
[17] Srimad Bhagavatam:
12-2-33
[18] Srimad Bhagavatam: 12-2- 29 & 30
[19] This is about the point
of Precession (sun at the backdrop of stars) that started moving south of
Makara which is never treated as auspicious by the sages. Presently we are in
this part.
[20] Varahamihira, “Brihat
Samhita”, Ch. 3-4
