Dates
of the Bharata War:
Chronology in ancient history has
always been a baffling problem. it is more so in the case of ancient
Indian history. It is understandable. lndia's antiquity is remoter
than that of many other nations in the world. Historians have found
it difficult to decide which event is historical and which mythical.
Many Western scholars considered the Mahabharata War a myth. But
many Indian and other scholars, who have their own valid reasons
think otherwise. This is obvious from books like Mahabharata War;
Myth or Reality ; Differing Views, and Age of Bharata War published
recently,
Prior to the entry of Western
scholars into the field of indology, there was no confusion on the
date of the Bharata War. It was accepted as having taken place 36
years before the beginning of Kaliyuga, which is in its 5092nd year
in November 1990. But with the advent of Western scholars and the
acceptance of their theories, many scholars have started working on
the date of the War. In the book Search for the Year of Bharata War,
one peruses the views of 120 scholars, who have opened that the date
may be from the 60th century BC to 12th century BC The source
material used by these scholars is mostly literary as no
archaeological evidence is available. It is said that astronomical
references are very often useful to decide the dates of such past
events. But the scholars who have used these references have also
differed and their date varies from 60th century BC to 12th century
BC.
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