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Re: Dating of Ramayan
That the Ramayan occured at the end of Treta Yug(a) is not a matter of
dispute. The Ramayan itself says so, albeit indirectly by refering to
Kruta Yug(a) as a bygone era. No reference is made to Dwaapar and Kali.
According to the popular Yug(a) calculations, Dwaapar spans about 860,000
years and accordingly, Ramayan must have occured 860,000 years ago.
Large-sized animals (that are mentioned in the Ramayan), as evidenced
from modern findings, perished thousands of years (10,000 or more?) ago
indicate that the Ramayan must have occured in remote antiquity. Also, in
Baalkand.39 it is stated that the Himalaya and Vindhya mountains are of
the same height. It is known that the height of the Himalaya is
constantly increasing. At present, Himalaya and Vindhya are about 29000
and 5000 ft. respectively. It is said that Himalaya increase by about 3
ft. in hundred years and by that rate, they were at about 5000 ft.
800,000 years ago! This number tallies to that of the traditional account
and this point becomes too conspicious to be ignored.
However, the Atharva Veda suggests that the span of a Yuga cycle is
10,000 thousand years (excluding the Sandhees); Kali being 1000 years
with 100 years period of sandhee on either sides. This places the Ramayan
around 5500 B.C. which also tallies approximately with the genealogical
records from the Puranas. The astronomical dating may also suggest the
same date. At the end of Surya Siddhanta are two verses stating that this
mathematical knowledge was obtained by Mahasura Maya -- father of
Mandodari, wife of Ravana -- from the Sun God. The sages, later,
obtained the knowledge from him. This probably occured during the fifth
ice-age, approximately 8000 years ago. [ Incidently, Maya is said to
have fled "westward" towards South America and perhaps, is the founder
of what is today called the "Mayan Civilization".]
As I said earlier, the evidence for the dating of the Ramayan has not been
comprehensively researched and much work remains to be conducted. I
believe that it will take some time until more facts are gathered and
encoded before anything concrete can be stated.
---Prasad.
