Astronomical Dating of the Mahabharata War by Vedavyas

In the history of Bharat, the most important event is Mahabharata war. Mahabharata war
and its date are important in two ways. First of all, in Mahabharata war, almost all Kings who
were ruling various parts of Bharat, had participated and thus every region of this Nation had
involved in it. Thus, it was a PAN Bharatian event. The second thing is, if the date of
Mahabharata war is fixed correctly, then the dates of later events that occurred after Mahabharata
war can be fixed easily. This is because, Purana especially Vishnu, Brahmanda, Matsya,
Vayupurana and Sreemad Bhagavatham describe the chronology of three kingdoms of Bharat,
since Mahabharata war. Thus, Purana had taken the time of Mahabharata war as the sheet
anchor. The three kingdoms are, 1. Kuru Kingdom from Pandava till its end, 2. Ikshavaku
Dynasty, in which born Gautama Buddha as 24th Prince and hence Gauthama Buddha’s date can
be derived correctly and 3. Magadha Kingdom, where the period of reign of various dynasties
and kings from the time of Mahabharata war up to Andhra Satavahana dynasty i.e. just before
Gupta period, were enumerated clearly. Here Gautama Buddha was contemporary to the Kings
Bimbisara and Ajatasatru of Sisunaga Dynasty. Hence, by means of it also, the date of Gauthama
Buddha can be derived easily and correctly. Kaliyuga Raja Vriddhanta, a Sanskrit text, describes
the chronology of Magadha kingdom even up to Gupta period. Thus, the date of Mahabharata
war is the proper sheet anchor, from which the chronology of events that occurred in Bharat,
after the period of Mahabharata war, can be derived perfectly and easily. Hence the fixation of
date of the Mahabharata war becomes an important and essential one.
In this book, the Sanskrit terminology is used as such. For example, the word Graha
includes Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury and Rahu and Ketu, which are
nothing but the Ascending and Descending nodes of Moon scientifically. This is because, Graha
denotes any celestial body that attracts other celestial objects and thus can include stars, planets
and satellites and even nodes. Planet is the non-self-illuminating celestial body that revolves
around a Star and thus, Graha and planet are not at all synonyms. In the same way, Nakshatra
denotes stars, Amavasya denotes New Moon and Paurnami denotes Full Moon. Further, in the 12
zodiac signs Mesha denotes Aries, Vrishabha Taurus, Mithuna Gemini, Karkataka Cancer,
Simha Leo, Kanya Virgo, Tula Libra, Vriscika Scorpio, Dhanus Sagittarius, Makara Capricorn,
Kumba Aquarius and Meena denotes Pisces.