Mahabharata Quiz - 28

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Question - 28

In what way Kali Yuga date is important for deducing the Mahabharata date? How is the year of the Mahabharata war derived from the beginning year of Kali Yuga? 

Answer:

Kali Yuga marks the time of departure of Krishna from this physical world. Mahabharata war had taken place 35 years before that.

It is said at four places in the Mahabharata, that the Vrishni clan would die on the 36th year after the war. Along with them Krishna also shed his mortal coils. That day marked the beginning of Kali Yuga.

1. On seeing the death of her children and all the relatives in the war, Gandhārī vented out her frustration at Kṛiṣhṇa, cursing him that he would perish in the wilderness after causing the slaughter of his kinsmen in the 36^th year (MB: 11.25.4). In the 36^th year, a huge carnage did take place wiping out the Krishna-clan.

2. When the 36^th year (after the war) arrived, Yudhishthira noticed many unusual omens (MB: 16.1.1)

3. Again, it is said in the Mahabharata that a great calamity overtook the Vṛiṣhṇī-s on the 36^th year (MB: 16.2.2).

4. On seeing the inauspicious omens, Kishṇa understood that the 36^th year had arrived when Gandhārī’s curse, given out of grief on losing her children, was about to happen (MB: 16.3. 18, 19).

All these internal evidences giving clinching evidence for a gap of 35 years between the war and Krishṇa’s exit, the year of the war can be deduced as Pre-Kali-35, in the same way that the inscriptions are dated from the Kali-begin date. That year was 3136 BCE, thirty-sixth year before 3101 BCE.

Pramāthi was the year of 3101 BCE when Krishna left. The 36th year before that was Krodhi.

Therefore the year of the Mahabharata war was Krodhi, corresponding to 3136 BCE. 

Thus the Kali Yuga date offers a crucial hint to derive the year of the Mahabharata war. 

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