Mathomathis would like to present article on Indian Astronomy | Astronomical Dating of Events | 103 by the author Kosla Vepa Published by Indic Studies Foundation, 948 Happy Valley Rd., Pleasanton, Ca 94566, USA. Previous article can be found here (Indian Astronomy | Astronomical Dating of Events | 108 (Vikrama Samvat | Saptarsi Tradition)) Their website can be located Indicstudies.us. The studies is also conducted by N.S. Rajaram PhD. Author’s in the volume 1 of their research start their discussion on a topic called Why are History and the Chronology Important by Kosla Vepa PhD.
The Western historians have tried to identify Kanishka era with 78 CE in their attempt to deny historicity of the Salivahana saka. Professor Sengupta had considered astronomical information from two kharosthi inscriptions which refer to regnal years of Kanishka , but could not match with the 78 CE date and so he proposed his own date for the starting of the Kanishka era. The inscriptions in question are no.26 and no. 35 in the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Vol. II. edited by Sten Konow. According to the inscriptions, in the eleventh year of reign of king Kanishka, on the 20th day of Asadha, it was uttaraphalguni naksatra. In the year 61, on the 8th day of caitra, the naksatra was purvasadha. Know had concluded that the full moon day was the first day of the month in these inscriptions. Sengupta correctly pointed out that there is no such Indian system in which the first day of the month is the full moon day. The months are full moon ending months and the 20th day of Asadha of the inscription would correspond to sravana sukla panchami and 8th day of caitra would correspond to caitra krsna astami. With these calendrical data, when Sengupta tried to calculate the dates based on the 78 CE as the beginning of Kanishka era, he could not quite match the data from the inscriptions. So he proposed that the Kanishka era be started from December 25 of 79 CE, nearly two years after the Salivahana saka.
But, based on the list from Rajataragini, Kanishka’s date would be 1298 BCE. The eleventh and sixty-first years would be 1287 BCE and 1237 BCE respectively. Figure A shows the star map for June 23, 1287 BCE, it is sravana sukla pancami uttaraphalguni, an exact match to the inscription. Figure B shows the star map for March 1, 1237 BCE, caitra krsna astami, also an exact match to inscription no. This clearly establishes the consistency of the record in rajatarangini with the kharosthi inscriptions and hence the miss-identification of Kanishka era by the Western historians.
Author Concludes as following: The real history of Bharata is preserved in its itihasa and purana texts. The Chronology is comprehensive and cogent. Simulations of the astronomical data preserved in these texts, using modern planetarium software, have attested the coherence of the chronology. From the date of the Mahabharata war, the sarpa yaga of Janamejaya, the date of Buddha, Asoka Maurya, Kanishka, Adi Sankara, the Gupta period, through the Vikrama and Salivahana sakas, the chronology exhibits a continuous flow which has been convincingly demonstrated by the simulations using planetarium software. The consistency is staggering. Many of the sticky points with ‘traditional chronology’ of the historians is simply resolved with these stimulations. There is still a large body of inscriptional data awaiting validation by simulations using the planetarium software.
