Page 12 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

PaEFACB 9

I have omitted to mention in the essay that a few native scho-
lars ~ave tried to ascertain the date of the Mahabharata and
the R.im.ayap~rom certain positions of the sun, the moon, -and
the pl~ets given in those works. For instance, the horoscope of
R!Jp:a and the positions of the planets at the time of the great
civil war as· found in the MahAbhirata, are said to point to. a
period of 5000 or 6000 B. C., and it is contended that the Vedas
which preceded these works must be older still. Bentley relying
on the same date has-calculated 961 B. C. as the exact date of
Rama's birth. This will show how unsafe it is to act upon calcula-
tions based upon such loose statements. Sometimes the aecounts
in the Purl~as are themselves conflicting, but even where they are
or can be made definite, any conclusions based on them are not
only doubtful, but wellnigh useless for chronological purposes,
for in the first instance they are open to the objection that these
works may not have been written by eye-witnesses (the mention of
Rashi3 in the RAmayaJ}a directly supporting such an assumption ),
and secondly, because it is stiR more difficult to prove that we
now possess these books in the form in which they were originally
written. With regard to the positions of the planets at the time of
the war given in the Mahabharata, the statements are undoubtedly
confused; but apart from it, I think that it is almost a gratuitous
assumption to hold that all of them really give us the positions of
the planets in the ecliptic and that such positions again refer to
the fixed and the movable Zodiacal portion of the Nakthatras
Perhaps the writers simply intend to mention all auspicious or
inauspicious positions of the planets in such cases. I. have there-
fore .avoided all such debatable and doubtful points by confining
myself solely to the Vedic works, about the genuineness of which
there can be no doubt and using the Pura~ic accounts only to
corroborate the results deduced from the Vedic texts. According
to this view the Mahibharata war must be placed in the Krittiki
period, inasmuch as we are told that Bhtthma was waiting for
the turning of the sun from the winter solstice in the month of
Magha. The poem, as we now have it, is evidently written a long
time after this event.
I for encouraging me to carry on the inquiry and helping me
Lastly, I have to express my obligations to several friends
in one way or another to complete this essay. My special
thanks are however due to Dr. IUmkrishna GopM Bh&nd!rkar,