P R ‘ E F A C E Wi t h t h e name of the Lord of K u ru ksh e t ra on my l ip s and h e ad t t I h u mbl t t t t e e t my a his fee , y presen his o he arn s re ader . Sri man Vi d wan Melma Narasimha Th at h ach arya Swami al . Ch akravart h . g and Prof R S y , M A advised me and guided me in the presentation of the subject matter . N B . A . b e t t Sri N Subba arayanan , has kindly orn he en ire cost of the publication of this book . I mu st thank the m for their affection and their unstinted help . - I must thank t h e press for their kind co operation . S ak a 1 89 1 S m , ow y a S a ra d R u t h u l st I s a mo n h , t B a d ra S u l P o K . S R I NI V A SA R A GH A V A N k a D w ad a s i r f. S ra v i sh t a Na k sh a t r a T e sd a 23 e 1 969 u y , S p . De t e rmi na t i on of THE DATE OF THE MA HA B HA RATA WA R I NTR OD UCTI ON I have gone carefully through all the essays of the . occide nta l and oriental scholars in determi ning the date of the Maha Bharata War . Those scholars have variously fixed 3 . M 1 1 5 . the date ranging from 9 1 9 B . C . to B C ost of their ideas are empirical and not a few of them are the product of fanciful imagination or pre conceived notions . It is now possible dispassionately to determine the correct date with a a high degree of accur cy , and this is based on astronomical Mah data and the internal evidence of the a Bharata alone . We may in fact justly and properly style the date of the M aha Bharata war , which the science of astronomy has now 2 7 . 3 0 C . a t 2 6 . in controver ibly fixed on Nov B , s the true o I a r t r anchor sheet f ndi n ch onology and his ory , as eve y date indicated by Indian astronomy and sup ported by Ancient I Indian Puranic history depends on it . ' 1 . x M B t t In fi ing the date of the aha harata war , he firs step is to determine the date of birth of Sri Krishna , as his horoscope is well known . 2 . c R V V a sa Sin e . Maha ishi eda y gives the positions of t Su n . t M t he , Moon , Rahu , Sa urn , Jupiter , ars and .Venus a t h e t o f t h e M t ime . aha Bhara a war , also the positions of t he Sun th e of and Moon and the winter solstice at time . ’ B he e shma s s a death , a few day fter the M . B . war , the exact te e t M t t da of the b ginning of he . B . war is nex de ermine d . 2 3 . 3 5 Sri Krishna left the world years after the M . B . t war . Since the positions of the sun and moon at that ime are known , the date of his death is fixed . 4 R a a su a 1 5 . e j y was p rformed years be fore the M . B . war , and the positions of the Sun and Moon on that day are . R a a su a given Therefore the date of the j y is fixed . The Y u dhi sht i ra E ra began the next day on Margasi ra Sukla P ra t h ama e . Therefore its dat is fixed . 5 . In the course of the paper it is proposed to show that all the astronomical data given by Sri Veda Vyasa a re completely consiste nt . 6 . t During the days of the Maha Bhara a war , the o i Ve danga Jy t sh a alone was i n vogue . The Zodiac was nak sh at ra Srav i sht a t divided by the segments , and was he h a a . first Naks t r . The months were luni solar Five sidereal years con si t u t e d a yuga of 62 lunations . The Yuga began Sra vi i e with the Sun and Moon at shta . Magha Sukla t h e P rath am a . One month was added at the end of third year t and another at the end of he fifth year of the Yuga . The tropical ye ar was divided into six R u t h u s = Twe l ve solar months . Th e twelve months beginning with Sarad Sah a s a Ta as a R u t h u were Isa , Urja , Sahas , y , Tapas , p y , Madh ava Nabh as Nabh a s a . Madhu , , Sucra , Suchi , , y The K e sava presiding dieties of the months are , Narayana , Madh u sud ana Tri vi k ram a Madh av a , Govinda , Vishnu , , , a a Sridh ara Hri sh i k e sa D a mo d ara . Vam n , , , Padmanabha , and The first month began with the Sarad R u thu i . e Autumnal e . Equinox , which was therefore the b ginning of the year ’ r Mar asi ra r t During S i Krishna s time , g was the fi st mon h of t th e he year , and the year began with Durga Puja and Sarada Navarath ri at the begi nning of the Sarad R u t h u . The twe lve h Rasis and the related twelve mont s were then unknown . 3 They were i ntroduce d i nto t h e Hind u Astronomy by t h e t t . t t Siddhan a As ronomers of the A D . years . Apparen ly hey got it from the Y avanas of We stern Asia . 7 . e e t t t t Th pres n s andard Zodiac of he Gov . of India 1 95 . Nak s at ra was fixed in 6 A D . Spica or Chitra h is at the 0° 1 8 th degree of this Zodiac . This is diffe rent from the ° ’ i . Zodiac of the Vedan ga Jyot sha Th e difference is 1 46 i . e t t e V I ot i sh a to ob ain he longitud on the edanga y Zodiac , 1 ° 46’ should be added to the longitude of the zodiac of the Govt . of India . Moreover the Vedic Ri shis used only Polar longitudes , t w and no the celestial longitude , which is given no adays in anc an s all the Indian P h g (Almanacs) , and this is evidently not t he correct one to determine t he positions of the planets . 8 . The metod adopted by me to determine the longitude t t e of he plane s on any given dat , is a slightly modified and improved one of that given by Sri L . Narayana Rao in his Perpetual Ephemeris . A similar method is given by Dewan Bahadur Swami Kannu Pillai in his Indian E phe meris Th is is also used for verifying the results . The longitudes t K u ru ks e t ra given are he visible longitudes at h , and no t the mean longitude s . The time of day is from sunrise at K u ruk sh e ra t (or Uj j ain) . CHA P TE R I Th e Dat e of bi rt h of Sri K ri s h na A cw rdi n t g to accepted tradi ion , Sri Krishna was born i n B h ad ra ad a t the p mon h , Krishna Ashtami , Rohini Nak sh at ra r , at about midnight , when five planets we e in exaltation and the other two in their own house s . The chart of the horoscope is as follows R a h u M o o n M a rs European scholars who could not imagine of the hoary c io e tradition of Bharat , searched for this ombinat n of plan tary positions from 1 000 B C . to 500 A D . When they found t t ha they could not fix the date , the only other alternative for them was to say that Sri Krishna is a mythical person , and the puranas false stories . Poor scholars ! They should have se arched for his date of birth near the beginning of the Kali E ra i e 1 B . Yuga . about 3 00 C . Then they would have found out . 27th 3 1 1 2 that he was born at P . M on Friday July C e h e e B . , wh n t e plan ts were dispos d as follows 5 (i) Lagna and Moon 52° 1 5' Rohini (4) ° ’ (ii) Jupiter 91 1 6 P u n arva s u (4) ° ' (iii) Sun 1 48 1 5 u t h ara P h al gu ni ° " ( iv ) Mercury 1 72 3 3 Hasta (4) ° (v) Venus 1 80 1 51 C i i t ra (3 ) .