Comments on: Astronomical dating of Odyssey and Mahābhārata (Part 2/2)

By: Abhi

Abhi — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:34:52 +0000

Seems to me that we all are missing the archeological findings of the city of Dwarka, which would definetly play a major role in putting a timeline to events in Mahabharata. The radio carbon dating and thermoluminiscence dating methods applied on the artifacts found from under sea excavations at Dwarka, have yeilded a date of 16th – 17th century BCE. Moreover the oldest layers have also been dated to the same period at Dwarka excavations by other methods. This information may play an important role in dating the Mahabharata. But I personally believe that there is still a lot to be uncovered before we could conclude to a final date. All the dating methods, such as astronomical, archeological, scientific (radiocarbon dating & thermoluminiscence dating) need to be in sync and give same or similar dates, then only we can be conclusive about the exact dates of the truth Mahabharata.

By: Ashwini MK

Ashwini MK — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:06:39 +0000

Good blog! Check out our ezine Dhvani if possible. Our theme this month is Mahabharata, u r welcome to contribute. Keep up the good work!

By: froginthewell

froginthewell — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:07:55 +0000

Oops, Sunil and Notreallyanonymous : I saw your comments only now. I heard this “youth” funda from a left-leaning history professor, if I remember it correctly. But that could be just his opinion and may be most historians disagree with him as you say. Thanks.

By: NotReallyAnonymous

NotReallyAnonymous — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:15:49 +0000

Also, Achari’s paper doesnt try to consider his findings with known facts like the date of invasion of Alexander and crowning of Ashoka. He places Mauryan empire somewhere around 1500 BCE, that would mean Alexander’s campaign took place even before that. I doubt if any Greek or Persian text will corroborate aligning the campaign to such an early date.

That is one problem, according to me, in dating the Mbh. Almost everyone is moving from these two sheet anchor events, which can be corroborated and then moving backwards, as compared to Achari’s method where he starts from the three dating methods which all take the base year in the neighborhood of 3000 BCE, as the starting date of Kaliyug.

By: NotReallyAnonymous

NotReallyAnonymous — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:02:10 +0000

Actually, “Yavana” comes from a term used by Persians to refer to Greeks, mainly “Ionian” Greeks. Perhaps: Ionia->Yauna->Yavana.

By: Sunil

Sunil — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:55:38 +0000

very nice post, JK.

Frog….Yavana is thought (by most historians) to be a corruption of Ionian (Hiyanians or yavanian). The greek-ionian kings were subjugated by the Persian, Cyrus, and the Persian empire pretty much reached Bactria and present day Afghanistan. The western indian civilizations were certainly in contact with the Persian empire, and very likely would have come in contact with ionians (yavanas), and the name stuck for all greeks with the coming of Alexander.

By: froginthewell

froginthewell — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:07:25 +0000

Don’t let the “veil” blind you to the truth. Seek out the “noor”jahans

By: JK

JK — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:05:47 +0000

Which Persian is better looking than Aishwarya Rai

By: froginthewell

froginthewell — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:21:51 +0000

Actually I remember hearing that Greeks were called Yavanas because they looked beautiful ( hence the etymological connection with “yuvan” or youth ). Don’t know if that is correct, but if so that would certainly be applicable to Persians who are way better looking than Indians

By: George

George — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:42:17 +0000

That’s a good point. Before Alexader, Cyrus had reached till Bactria and that would be around Buddha’s time. Not sure if they were called ‘yavanas’, but definitely the Greek reference is an example of later interpolation.