In his Kautilya Artha Sastra, Chanakya mentions Veda Vyasa.
Ravana,Duryodhana, Bhoja (Dandakya), Karala (Vaideha), Janamejaya, Talajangha, Aila, Ajabindhu, Sauvira (Jayadratha), Arjuna (Haihaya), Vatapi and Vrishnis who conspired against Dwaipayana (Veda Vyasa). He gives them as examples of people who failed because they were unable to conquer their six internal enemies. (Desire,anger etc…)
Chanakya lived after Bharadwaja, Visalaksha,Parasara (father of Veda Vyasa), Pisuna, Kaunapadanta, Vatavyadhi and Bahudanti . He quotes their views on the matter of selection of ministers.
Chanakya lived after the following kings killed by their own families: Bhadrasena; Kárusa, Kásirája (killed by his queen), Vairantya, Sauvíra, Jálútha, Vidúratha.
So we know that Veda Vyasa lived before Chanakya. Vyasa was the grandfather of the Kauravas.
Veda Vyasa compiled the histories of the people and events before his time in the Puranas. Each Purana gives us a list of the people through which he heard the purana. For example he learned the Siva Mahapurana from Sanatkumara, who learned it from Nandikeswara, who learned it from Siva himself. Vyasa (Krishna Dwaipayana) was the great grand son of Vasishtha who was the guru of Sri Rama. (See : Generations between Rama and Krishna., Generations previous to Sri Rama. )
- Vyasa classified the Veda Mantras, which included mantras by his father Parasara and mantras by his grandfather Sakthi and his great grandfather Vasishtha.
- Vyasa edited and compiled the Puranas which contained incidents of times before him – like the flood of the Matsya Avataram. as well as the achievements of Siva, Vishnu, Karthikeya and others.
- He made a reference to the Valmiki Ramayanam, and gave it as a reason why he need not explain the story of Rama in detail.
- He originally wrote the Mahabharatam and the SrimadBhagavatham, to reflect the heroic events of his time. The Bharatam includes the story of Sri Rama in it, as told to Draupadi to encourage her, that justice would prevail.
- He classified the Mahabharatam and Valmiki ramayanam as Itihasas.
Vyasa left a Placeholder for Future Events :
- There was a section in every purana to deal with events after the Bharata war.
- This section was written in the future tense to capture the time of the original work.
- It was updated every century or every dynasty.
- A special Purana called the Bhavishya Purana deals with incidents of the Kaliyuga. It was last updated in the time of QutbUdDin Aibak.
The british colonials dated the Puranas at the time of their last updation. This is like taking a diary maintained by a family for generations and dating all the incidents of that diary at the time of the last entry. It is silly to say the list. The anti-astrology people rejected the entire sections based solely on the use of future tense. It did not occur to them to treat it as a style issue.
David Frawley is not a typical western writer who maintains the colonial traditions. Yet he dates the Puranas as 400 AD. But he makes the following errors:
- Though he accurately interprets the shlokas and mantras, astronomically., he treats them in isolation.
- For example, he quotes a shlokam from the Vishnu Puranam which gives the astronomic date of 400 AD, but does not provide the context. It think that date-time-stamp indicated by that shlokam refers to an incident of 400 AD or to the poet who updated it.
Approximate Dateline as worked out by me, to be refined, filled in and expanded : this is based on a 3102 BCE date for the start of kaliyuga. (See : Date of Sri Rama, Date of the Mahabharata War, How many kinds of Sakas (Eras) are there? How many kinds of Yugas are there? Date of Veda Mantras Equinoxes and Dating Vedas )
- Some Veda Mantras were composed by Vasishtha on the banks of Godavari and on the shores of the Bay of Bengal.
- The Matsya Avatar is a contemporary of Satyavrata Manu, a forefather of Sri Rama. Vasishtha was on the boat to the Himalayas and helped Ikshvaku settle Ayodhya after the flood.
- Vishnu and Garuda defeated the brothers Sumali, Mali and Malyavan. (Sumali was the grandfather of Ravana)
- Surya Siddhantam created by Maya Danava.
- Siva destroyed Tripura built by Maya Danava, Ravana’s father-in-law.
- Veda Mantras of Parasara and Sakthi.
- Rama killed Ravana.
- Valmiki composed Ramayanam.
- Satrughna killed Lavanasura and established Mathura
- Bharata conquered Takshasila and Pushkalavata.
- Uttarkanda of Valmiki Ramayanam completed
- Veda Vyasa classified the Veda Mantras and he edited, abridged and compiled the Puranas. (between 3138 and 3162 BCE. (BC))
- Mahabharata war. (3138 BCE)
- Veda Vyasa Composed Mahabharatam (Jayam) and Srimad Bhagvatham (3102 to 3098 BCE): Puranas received by Saunaka and others at Naimsaranya.
- Janamejaya’s dana sasana patram. (3009 BCE)
- Aryans arrive in India (2100 BCE)
- Kautilya Artha Sastram
See Also: Aryan + Naga: Sisunagas, Gauthama Kasyapa Buddha, Chandragupta : Bhavishya Purana, Dark, handsome heroes of Uttar Pradesh – Sri Rama and Sri Krishna, Anarya! Dushyantha, Sri Rama, Sri Krishna.
Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved: Satya Sarada Kandula
