Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 11:43:18 -0000
From: "Pushkar" <pushkar39@yahoo.com>
Subject: Actual dates of the life time of Lord Ram
Namaskar
My name is Pushkar Bhatnagar, a resident of New Delhi.
I would like to share a few factual details about the life of Lord Rama through this mail. In case you are interested in knowing about the actual dates of the happening of various events during the life time of Lord Rama - please continue to read. I have found the precise dates of happening of various events during the lifetime of Lord Ram from his birth to the age of 39 years when he returned from 14 year's exile.
Maharishi Valmiki, who wrote Ramayana, was contemporary of Lord Ram. While narrating the events of lifetime of Lord Ram, Valmiki has incidentally mentioned the position of planets in the sky at different places. For instance, the position of all the planets (visible with unaided eye) has been mentioned for the date of birth of Lord Ram. Later, while mentioning that Lord Ram was sent to exile for 14 years on his 25th birthday, the position of planets in the sky has been mentioned again for that day. Moving forward, it has been stated that on the amavasya (no moon day) of the 10th month of the 13th year of his exile he fought a battle with Khar and Dushan and on that day a solar eclipse was seen from Panchwati. Not only a solar eclipse occurred but the planets were arranged in the sky in a particular manner. Going ahead, he mantions that six months later when Ram killed Bali on the Amavasya of Ashad of the 14th year of exile, another solar eclipse was visible in the morning sky and after five months when Hanuman went to meet Sita at Lanka, a lunar eclipse was witnessed in the evening. Besides these several other planetary positions have also been mentioned at different other places.
It is imporatant to know that planetary positions keep changing every day in the sky and they do not repeat for Lakhs of years!! Moreover, if we know the position of all the planets in the sky, then they refer to one and only one date in history.
The effort to provide dates to the planetary positions mentioned in Ramayana and other vedic literature began with legendary Bal Gangadhar Tilak in his well known book 'Orion'. However, the efforts made so far were based on manual computations. Since one revolution of these planets is completed in a highly complex fractional number, it is difficult to arrive at the accurate day and time in history. But in late 90s many software were developed to track the position of planets in the sky and with these software, planets' position at any given point of time in the sky can be known.
By using a powerful planetarium software, I found that the planetary positions mentioned in Ramayana for the date of birth of Lord Ram had occurred in the sky at around 12.30 p.m. of 10th January 5114 BC. It was the ninth day of the Shukla Paksh of Chaitra month too. Moving forward, after 25 years of the birth of Lord Ram, the position of planets in the sky tallies with their description in Ramayana. Again, on the amavasya of the 10th month of the 13th year of exile the solar eclipse had indeed occurred and the particular arrangement of planets in the sky was visible. ( Date comes to 7th October 5077 BC). Even the occurrence of subsequent two eclipses also tally with the respective description in Valmiki Ramayan. (Date of Hanuman's meeting Sita at Lanka was 12th September 5076 BC). In this manner the entire sequence of the planetary positions gets verified and all the dates can be precisely determined.
The entire dating has been conducted objectively because the software does not permit any manipulation and the verses of Ramayana are also free of any doubts. Leading scientists and those in this field have appreciated this work. Since the entire sequence tallies, it proves that all the observations in theRamayana were actual recordings and not conjectures.
The indologist suggested that I should have some archaeological evidence in support of these dates because for western historians these dates are too old to be accepted! By god's grace I came across an interesting archaeological evidence also and I give it's details in forthcoming paras.
About a few months back NASA had photographed an ancient bridge like structure between India and Sri Lanka and stated that it appeared to be manmade. Most of our historians and theologists jumped on the story and said it was related to Lord Ram. Later on NASA denied having made any statement as to how the bridge got built etc. The enthusiasm died soon and nothing could be conculded since we were trying to prove that it was built millions of years ago.
Just analyse the situation. Suppose you build your house with stones, which are millions of years old - Does your house also becomes millions of years old?Answer is a clear 'No'.
This was the mistake we were making while trying to claim the ancient bridge and the antiquity of Lord Ram to millions of years ago. Actually, the remains of the bridge, which Lord Ram had built are still available at a place called ' Chedu Karai' in Tamil Nadu. 'Chedu' means 'Setu' ( bridge) and 'Karai' means 'corner'. Interestingly, these remains of the bridge are available at the depth of about 10 feet below the water and these are about 1.5 kilometer inside the sea.
We are all aware that the rise of sea level, ever since the end of the last ice age (about 16000 BC), is a continuous phenomenon. There is scientific unanimity today that at the end of the last Ice age (which lasted about 1,20,000 Years) the sea level was about 120 meters below the present level. After that, earth entered the warming phase and Ice started melting. The level of sea started rising. The most interesting thing here is that the depth of sea between India and Sri Lanka is just 6-13 meters. It is not more than 13 meters deep at any place. Hence, at the end of last Ice age (16000 BC) India and Sri Lanka were connected by land.
The sea level started to rise gradually and again the scientific data
suggests that it reached the level of 14 meters as late as 8000 Years ago.
This clearly means that what we call as Palk Strait today came into existence
only around 6000 BC. Water rose to a level where it was seen above the
shallow land between India and Sri Lanka only around 6000 BC. The data
is correct to the extent of +/- 1500 years.
It is all available at the website of National Geophysical Data Centre,
USA.
Hence, if the narration in Ramayana is to be believed that Rama's army crossed the sea to reach Lanka, it has to be an event of Post 6000 BC era.
Further, the precise level at which the `remains of the bridge' built by Lord Rama can be measured and exact date of building the bridge can be ascertained because the rate of rise of sea level is known now very precisely.
All these findings have been published as a book titled "Dating the era of Lord Ram" (By Rupa & Co, Delhi). Hope you would the information interesting. I am sure you would have questions on the subject. I shall be glad to answer the same.
My e mail addresses are
Pushkar39@yahoo.com
Regards
Pushkar Bhatnagar
The same Ramayan that gives the planetary descriptions (on which the calculation is based on) also tells that Lord Ram came in Treta yug. Matasya purana (47/240,243-246) gives more detail of various decensions and says Bhagwan Ram appeared at the end of 24th treta yug. Currently, 28th Kali yug is in effect according to our scriptures. Various purans give the period of yug cycles also. This gives the period of Lord Ram approx. 18 million years ago.
The palentary positions mentioned in Ramayan would also have occured
multiple times in history prior to the calculated date...
Moreover the date calculated is heavily dependent on interpretation
of sanskrit verses and softwares or method of calculation. Thats why every
other persons gives his own date with day/month/year and time.
If we have to beleive the historicity of Lord Ram because of Ramayan then we should also beleive that he appeared in treta yug, because the same scripture says so.