The epics Ramayana and Mahabharata and the Puranas are the history books of Hindus depicting their ancient history. Genealogical lists of kings of different dynasties and kingdoms are mentioned there in. In case of some kingdoms, the reign periods of different dynasties and their kings in succession are given. The interval between some two events is also stated therein to check the calculations. Using all this material, it is easy to calculate the chronology or the dates of different events if the date of any one event during all these long years is fixed in some way. V. A. Smith used the sheet anchor date, c. 320 BC and using the Puranic genealogy had prepared the chronology. Some Indian Scholars used the beginning year of Kaliyuga as the basic year and prepared it.

In spite of such details, there are found different versions in the different Puranas regarding the succession of the kings and their reign periods. In some places, a single king is stated to have ruled for thousands of years. In view of this, an attempt was made some centuries ago in the form of 'Kaliyug, Raja Vrittanta', to study critically the accounts of the dynasties of the Kali Era given in the Puranas, to detect and amend the errors due to ignorant scribes, misreading and misinterpretations and to evolve an authoritative and valued account of the dynasties and the kings, based on maximum agreement among the varying texts of the various Puranas. In this Sanskrit treatise, a connected and consistent account of the Indian chronology from the beginning of Kaliyuga down to the eighth century AD has been given in detail.

Rajatarangini is the history of Kashmir written by Kalhana in 1178 AD. He used the records of twelve ancient chronicles and the inscriptions of grants of the old kings. From this, he sifted the evidence available at his disposal with great care, caution and patience and arrived at the correct historical material. According to the historian V. A. Smith, Rajatarangini comes nearest to the European notion of a regular history. Many other genealogies like that of Nepal, the Trigarta, etc. are also useful for ancient Indian chronology. Apart from the genealogies of the kings, lists of successive heads of different sects along with the working period of each of them (like the Shankara Peethas) in succession are also available and useful.

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