Kalhana and Emperor Yudhishtira

This is an attempt to reconcile the differences between the traditional reckoning and the dates given in Kalhana's Rajatarangini.

Tradition has it that Kali Yuga begun at midnight February 17/18, 3102 BCE. It is also considered that Emperor Yudhisthira abdicated his throne shortly after this date. It is also said that Lord Krishna gave up His existence on earth on this day.

Kalhana says in his ‘Rajatarangini’ (I.51) that Pandavas and Kauravas lived at 653 Kali Era. He also claims that when Yudhisthira ruled over the earth, the Great Bear was in Magha and that it happened in the seventh century(2526 years Before Saka) Kali Era(Raja. I.55-56). He also cites the Brhat Samhita of Varahamihira to make good his case.

Now, we begin our attempt at reconciling these various dates.

The beginning of Kali at 3102 BCE is true as John Playfair has shown. Kalhana accepts it when he says that Pandavas lived at 653 Kali (Raja. I.51).

The astronomical dating of the Mahabharata done by Sri Narahari Achar is very convincing as he clearly proves that the year of Mahabharata is 3067 BCE based on the astronomical sightings recorded in the Mahabharata. He also places the date of Krishna’s ascension to Vaikunta at 3031 BCE. This date is the most convincing among the various dates given by different scholars till this day.

The Vishnu Purana states that the time of Kali had arrived even when Krishna was on the earth and that only after His departure did Kali afflict the earth (Vishnu Purana 4-24). Going by this, we can say that the present date for the beginning of Kali is the time at which Kali’s time began and not the time when it began to afflict the earth. It seems there has been confusion over this and hence everything (from the beginning of Kali to the departure of Krishna) has been filled into the year 3102 BCE.

Further, Kalhana says that 52 Kings ruled Kashmir from Gonanda I to Abhimanyu I. But he says that details about 35 Kings are not available. Also, he does not know about the individual reigning period of the 17 Kings about whom he mentions some details.

Then Kalhana describes about Gonanda III and his dynasty. From I.53 of Rajatarangini, we shall find that Gonanda III ruled at 1184 BCE (The verse says that from Gonanda III to the time of Kalhana, 2330 years).

Now, Kalhana has tried to find out the period of the 52 Kings from the above details. In Raja I.54, he says that the 52 Kings ruled for a period of 1266 years. In Raja I.48-49, Kalhana says that the Gonanda and the other Kings (mentioned in the first Taranga) ruled for 2268 years. From the above, we can find that Gonanda III to Yudhishtira I (last King of the First Taranga) ruled for 1002 years.


Armed with the above information, we shall try to reconcile the huge difference in dates.

The basis of Kalhana’s date for Emperor Yudhisthira’s reign is the Brhat Samhita. We can see that his entire astronomy is based on it (Reference to it is made in Raja VII.1720).
Some scholars say that the Saka Era used by Varahamihira in his Brhat Samhita is different from what we use today and that the date of Yudhishtira given by him is not different from the traditional one. Leaving aside this opinion, we can understand from the above mentioned facts that Kalhana believed in the accuracy of Varahamihira.

It is also known that Kalhana did not know about the reigning periods of the ‘52 Kings’. Thus, Kalhana has arrived at the entire period of the 52 Kings by comparing the dates of Gonanda III and Emperor Yudhishtira (of whom Gonanda I was a contemporary as per the ‘Nilamata Purana’).

Normally, the dates and periods provided by Kalhana are more accurate as he has referred to various sources before arriving at such dates. But in the case of the ‘52 Kings’, he had very few materials and so, he has based his dates entirely upon the Brhat Samhita and Nilamata Purana. Hence, the dates given by Kalhana for the 52 Kings are not as authoritative as the dates given for the subsequent Kings. Therefore, we may conclude that Kalhana’s date for Emperor Yudhishtira can be discarded in favour of the traditional date as the entire traditional literature is emphatic in stating that Emperor Yudhishtira was ruling at the beginning of the Kali Yuga.

Next comes the anomaly between the dates suggested by Puranic literature on one hand and Sri Narahari Achar on the other. The date suggested by Sri Achar is 3067 BCE for the Mahabharata war while the traditional date will be 3138 BCE (36 years before the ascension of Sri Krishna). But this is a problem of interpretation and nothing else. As we saw earlier, Vishnu Purana (4.24) states that Kali Era began even when Lord Krishna was on the earth but it began to affect the earth only after His ascension. Hence, we can say that the traditional date of Kali Era is the date of its actual beginning and not the date of Sri Krishna’s ascension. But the later pundits seemed to have taken the beginning of the Kali Era as the date of Sri Krishna’s ascension and that is the cause of this anomaly.

Hence, we may conclude that the date of the beginning of Kali Era is midnight 17/18 February, 3102 BCE. Similarly, the year of Mahabharata war is 3067 BCE and that the year of Sri Krishna’s ascension is 3031 BCE and that the statement of Kalhana shall be discarded for want of credible proof to support his claim.