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The Mahabharata war has been given a date of around 3300 BC by back-tracing planetary positions from scriptural references (archeo-astronomy). The Ramayana is speculated to be anywhere between a few generations prior to the Mahabharata to a few millennia before. But is there any reference in the Puranas that affirms that both these stories happened in the current Yuga cycle we are living in? Because, do planetary positions repeat themselves in each Yuga cycle?

Keshav Srinivasan
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Naveen
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  • By the way, I just posted a question about that Matsya Purana chapter I linked to in my answer: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7192/36 – Keshav Srinivasan May 05 '15 at 17:31
  • You may also be interested in another question I just posted about that Matsya Purana chapter: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7194/36 – Keshav Srinivasan May 06 '15 at 17:36

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Yes, both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata happened in the present Vaivasvata Manvantara.. Let me address each one separately. Keep in mind that we're currently living in the 28th Kali Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.

  1. Ramayana: Here is what the Matysa Purana says, while enumerating various incarnations of Vishnu in the Vaivasvata Manvantara in chronological order:

    In the 24th Treta Yuga, the seventh manifestation was that of Sri Ramchandra, as the son of Dasharatha, and with Vasishta as the priest, to kill Ravana.

    As you can see here, the Vayu Purana says the same thing. And the Skanda Purana says the same thing here.

  2. Mahabharata: This excerpt from the Shatarudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana, in the course of describing the various Dwapara Yugas of the Vaivasvata Manvantara, says this about Krishna:

    In the twenty-eighth aeon of Dwapara, there will be Dwaipayana Vyasa, the son of Parashara, and the most excellent of Purushas [Vishnu] shall be born as Krishna with his one-sixth part, as the foremost of the sons of Vasudeva.

By the way, the Shiva Purana excerpt I linked to also describes an incarnation of Shiva named Lakulisha, whom I discuss here.

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Keshav Srinivasan
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    According to the text quoted above Ramayana happened in 24th Treta Yuga and Mahabharatha in 28th Dwapara Yuga. So that means Ramayana did not happen in the Treta Yuga immediately preceding the Dwapara Yuga of Mahabharatha, but happened 3 yuga cycles earlier. How does this explain the common characters between Mahabharatha and Ramayana? Also, Which Yuga/Manvanthra/Kalpa did King Muchukundhar(of Kalyavan vadham fame) belong to? – Naveen May 09 '15 at 00:25
  • @Naveen Muchukunda was the son of Vishnu's incarnation Mandhata, a solar dynasty king who lived in the 15th Treta Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara; see the links to the Matsya Purana and Skanda Purana in my answer here: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7194/36 – Keshav Srinivasan May 09 '15 at 01:03
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    @Naveen As far as how there are common characters in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, it's because there were some characters in the Ramayana who were blessed with long life or immortality. Rama blessed Hanuman with immortality, for instance. And Parashurama was blessed with longevity/immortality because of his Tapasya. – Keshav Srinivasan May 09 '15 at 01:05
  • @Naveen By the way, I just posted a question about Vishnu's incarnation Mandhata here: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7221/36. I provided the Matsya Purana and Skanda Purana quotes that talk about him living in the 15th Treta Yuga. – Keshav Srinivasan May 09 '15 at 06:21
  • Please throw some light on the following.. Which are Mahayuga/Manvantra/Kalpa period that Parvathy and Karthikeya were born in? The puranas say that Muchukundhar fought for the Devas against Tarakasur before the Karthikeya took command. If Mucukundhar lived during the 15th Treta Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara then Karthikeyan was born in current Manvantra? Also, there seems to be a huge time-gap between first wife of Shiva Sati(Svayambhuva Manvantra) and Parvathy(Vaivasvata Manvantra?) – Naveen May 09 '15 at 16:29
  • @Naveen Shakti actually died in the first Manvantara of the Pitri Kalpa, i.e. the Kalpa before the present Shwetavaraha Kalpa; see this excerpt from the Skanda Purana: http://www.indianscriptures.com/Content/Articles/PDFs/27477/62f_chapter_19_1.pdf#toolbar=0&pagemode=none&view=FitBH&page=1 Parvati was born in the present Vaivasvata Manvantara; see the Skanda Purana excerpt in my answer here: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7194/36 "In this Varaha Kalpa, O goddess, you became Parvati obtained by Himavan through his penance when the Chakshusha Manvanta has passed off." – Keshav Srinivasan May 09 '15 at 17:01
  • @Naveen So as Shiva says in that excerpt, he had to live through 21 Manvantaras (not to mention a Pralaya in between!) without his wife at his side. In any case, since Parvati was born in the Vaivasvata Manvantara, that is when Kartikeya was also born, and that is when the battle with Tarakasura happened. But I'm not sure what Mahayugas. – Keshav Srinivasan May 09 '15 at 17:11
  • @keshav Could you please tell us , when exactly vishnu's other avatar happened? Like matsa , kurma,vamana,varaha,parasurama etc? – tekkk May 11 '15 at 00:14
  • @sysinit In my question here, I provide excerpts from the Matsya Purana and Skanda Purana that answers at least some of these: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7194/36 Vamana was born in the 7th Treta Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara (i.e. the present Manvantara). Parashurama was in the 19th Treta Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara. – Keshav Srinivasan May 11 '15 at 00:20
  • @sysinitAs far as Matsya goes, Vishnu has had two Matsya incarnations, one at the beginning of the Kalpa to get the Vedas back from Hayagrivasura, and the other in the Chakshusha Manvantara (the Manvantara before this one) to rescue king Satyavrata, the previous birth of Vaivasvata Manu, from the flood; see here: http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/24 Kurma happened in the Chaksusha Manvantara. Varaha happened in the beginning of the Kalpa. Narasimha happened in the fourth Mahayuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara. And of course Krishna, Balarama, and Vyasa happened in the last Dwapara Yuga. – Keshav Srinivasan May 11 '15 at 00:26
  • Thank you Very much . Could you please again tell me , which yuga of 4th mahayuga narasimha avatar hapenned? Was it satya yuga? – tekkk May 11 '15 at 01:10
  • Also I would like to know , what you mean by "begining of kalpa" for matsya and varaha? Does it mean it happened in first satya yuga of this manvantara? – tekkk May 11 '15 at 01:13
  • @sysinit Narasimha happened in the 4th Satya Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara. Matsya happened in the Pralaya, right before the start of the Shwetavaraha Kalpa (i.e. the present Kalpa). Varaha happened in the first Satya Yuga of the Shwetavaraha Kalpa, which is how the present Kalpa got its name. – Keshav Srinivasan May 11 '15 at 02:04
  • Thanks Again. I presume that , puranas didnt mention which mahayuga of chaksusha manvantara Kurma and second matsya avatara hapenned. – tekkk May 11 '15 at 02:19
  • Do you know which purana describes events of Chaksusa manvantara ? – tekkk May 11 '15 at 02:20
  • @sysinit The second Matsya avataram happened in the last (i.e. 71st) Kali Yuga of the Chakshusha Manvantara, since the flood happened between the Chakshusha Manvantara and the Vaivasvata Manvantara. But I have no idea about which Mahayuga the churning of the ocean happened in. The Puranas don't really provide much detail about the Chakshusha Manvantara and other Manvantaras. They mainly just talk about the Vaivasvata Manvantara, because that's what we're living in, and the beginning of the Swayambhuva Manvantara, because that's when the world was created. – Keshav Srinivasan May 11 '15 at 03:15
  • Thanks again.If we look at the all data , I see that in no mahayuga , there was more than one avatar.It looks like for the first time in this manvantara,there would be two avatars of vishnu in a mahayuga. One is krishna , second one is kalki end of this kaliyuga – tekkk May 11 '15 at 03:27
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    @sysinit Well, first of all, lots of incarnations of Vishnu live long past the Mahayugas they were born in; Parashurama is still alive, and so is Varaha, as I discuss in this answer: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2086/36 Also, Vishnu has appeared a lot of times in this Mahayuga, including Balarama, Krishna, Vyasa, Buddha, Venkateshwara, etc. And in the first Satya Yuga of the Swayambhuva Manvantara, Vishnu had multiple incarnations including Varaha, Kapila, and Yagna, whom I discuss here: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/3664/36 – Keshav Srinivasan May 11 '15 at 03:50
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    If that is the case , why do we call Dashavatar? Why do we primarily recognize only 10 avatar across various mahayuga of this kalpa . – tekkk May 11 '15 at 04:09
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    @sysinit The notion of the Dashavatara doesn't really have a basis in Hindu scripture; people have just made various lists of what they consider Vishnu's "top ten" incarnations, as I discuss in this answer: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/935/36 In reality, Vishnu has taken countless incarnations; here is a list of just some of the incarnations that Vishnu has taken in the Vaivasvata Manvantara: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7192/36 – Keshav Srinivasan May 11 '15 at 05:18
  • @sysinit Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Keshav Srinivasan May 11 '15 at 05:20
  • @KeshavSrinivasan So that is why sage vyasa has to modify shastras in every manvantra?? Taking various incarnations in every manvantra?? If yes what is the reason behind doing all this ?? Why are ancient incidences wiped out?? – Yogi May 20 '15 at 05:28
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    @Creator If you're talking about the Vedas, the Vedas aren't just recompiled in every Manvantara, they're recompiled in each Mahayuga within each Manvantara (each time by a different Vyasa). I'm not sure what the reason for this is, which is why I asked this question: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/2771/36 – Keshav Srinivasan May 20 '15 at 13:55
  • @KeshavSrinivasan: Can you pl. add the BCE years also in the answer for the sake of completeness? – Bravo Jul 08 '15 at 17:43
  • @Bravo Well, Krishna departed the Earth in 3102 BC, and the Mahabharata war took place 36 years before that. As far as the Ramayana goes, we can use the Yuga lengths given in my answer here: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5252/how-many-days-are-there-in-one-yuga Using these numbers a Mahayuga would be 4.32 million years, so four Mahayugas (because the Ramayana happened in the 24th Mahayuga) would be 17.28 million years, although it would be closer to 18.1 million years when you add the lengths of the 24th Dwapara Yuga and 24th Kali Yuga and subtract most of the current Kali Yuga. – Keshav Srinivasan Jul 08 '15 at 17:52
  • @KeshavSrinivasan What is your opinion in this dating of Ramayana based on astrological events mentioned in Valmiki Ramayana. It doesn't appear that could be as old as 24th Mahayuga. The Ram Sethu certainly wouldn't have existed for 4 full Mahayugas (millions of years). – Naveen Jul 11 '15 at 06:14
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    @Naveen Personally, I've always thought our calculation of Hindu timescales is fundamentally flawed. I think the Yugas are much shorter than the million year-lengths people calculate, either because there was some error in how the Puranas were passed down or because people today are misinterpreting the Puranas. Now I'm not like Yukteswar and his followers, who believe that the Kali Yuga is only a thousand years long and that we're not even in the Kali Yuga anymore. I believe we're in the 28th Kali Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara, but that the Kali Yuga is more like 5000 or 6000 years long. – Keshav Srinivasan Jul 11 '15 at 13:26
  • @Naveen So I think the Yugas are much shorter than we calculate, so that the Ramayana probably happened relatively recently (though not as recently as that video suggests). But I also think Kalpas are much longer than we calculate, and that there are probably certain periods between Yugas and Manvantaras that we're neglecting to account for. – Keshav Srinivasan Jul 11 '15 at 13:32
  • @KeshavSrinivasan In which Yuga did Venkateswara come to earth? It is said that at the end of this Kaliyuga he will go to Vaikunta on his bird Garuda from Seshachalam Hills.( Inscriptions of Garuda can be seen on Tirumala Hills).Ramanadeekshutulu pantulu, main preist of TTD said Seshachalam Hills were formed 17 crore years before. Can You tell me which yuga/manvantara He came to earth? – The Destroyer Sep 28 '15 at 15:54
  • @AnilKumar The story of Venkateshwara took place in the present Kali Yuga; see the excerpt from the Venkatachala Mahatmya of the Skanda Purana quoted in my answer here: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/3555/36 But the Venkatachala hills have existed long before the story of Venkateshwara. Both the Skanda Purana and other Puranas describe various people in earlier Yugas worshipping Vishnu there. It's been a sacred place of Vishnu for a long time because Varaha lives there; in fact Tirupati was originally called Adivaraha Kshetra, as I discuss here: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2086/36 – Keshav Srinivasan Sep 28 '15 at 16:31
  • @KeshavSrinivasan Yes i know this. People first visit Varaha Swamy Temple and then go to Venkateswara Temple. If varaha Avatar happened in 1st satya yuga of this kalpa then seshachalam hills should be roughly 4.34 billion years(age of the earth) old but Sri Ramanadeekshutulu Pantulu said 17 crore years old. Seshachala hills were formed by adisesh serpent with head at kalahasti and tail at Srisailam but venkatachala hills were brought by Garuda from vaikunta. i think these hills were brought 17 crore years before. – The Destroyer Sep 28 '15 at 17:10
  • @AnilKumar Yeah, Varaha lifted the Earth at the beginning of the Kalpa, but he may have only come to Earth later. The Skanda Purana doesn't specify when Varaha came to Earth, but it says that when he came, Venkatachala was brought with him. – Keshav Srinivasan Sep 28 '15 at 17:23
  • "[Vishnu] shall be born as Krishna with his one-sixth part". What do you mean by this? If just one-sixth part, then that is ansh avatar not purna avatar, right? – Pinakin Nov 03 '15 at 04:22
  • @ChinmaySarupria You should ask what the Shiva Purana means by this, not what I mean by this :-) Different people have different views on what this means. Some people think it means that he's not an Purna Avatara. Others think that one sixth of infinity is still infinity, so Krishna is still Purna. – Keshav Srinivasan Nov 03 '15 at 04:42
  • And others believe that the Purna/Amsha distinction is not about how much of Vishnu is found in the Avatara, but rather how much of the Avatara comes from Vishnu. That is to say, Krishna would be a Purna Avatara because he's an incarnation of Vishnu and no one else, whereas Vyasa is partially an incarnation of Vishnu but in part he's also a rebirth of an ordinary Jiva named Apantaratamas. Similarly Ashwatthama would only be a partial incarnation of Shiva because he's an incarnation of other gods as well. – Keshav Srinivasan Nov 03 '15 at 04:43
  • @KeshavSrinivasan Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu were brothers and Hiranyaksha was yonger. So, Nrisimha killed elder brother in this Manvantara after 6 manvantaras his elder brother killed? – The Destroyer Dec 22 '15 at 12:07
  • @AnilKumar Well, I suppose there could have been long gap due to Hiranyakashipu being engaged in Tapasya. By the way, one thing that should be noted is that Prahlada and Mahabali both had previous births (with the same names) during the churning of the ocean story in the Chakshusha Manvantara, and I think in those births they didn't have interactions with Narasimha and Vamana at all; they were just killed in battle. And then they were reborn in Vaivasvata. I think this is mentioned in multiple Puranas. But I'm not sure what their ancestries were back then, or whether Hiranyakashipu was reborn. – Keshav Srinivasan Dec 22 '15 at 12:25
  • @KeshavSrinivasan If churning of ocean happened in Chakshusha Manvantara, how could Parvathi was able to stop poison at Rudra's throat? Shiva married Parvathi in this Manvantara. – The Destroyer Jan 08 '16 at 15:53
  • @AnilKumar Good question. I just checked, and the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana doesn't mention Parvati holding Shiva's throat: http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga45/bala_45_frame.htm The Srimad Bhagavatam doesn't mention it either, but it does mention someone name "Bhavani" approving Shiva's drinking of the poison: http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/8/7 Prabhupada identifies Bhavani with Daksha's daughter Shakti, but Shakti is supposed to have died in the previous Kalpa. – Keshav Srinivasan Jan 08 '16 at 16:08
  • @KeshavSrinivasan Skanda Purana says Linga absorbed Kalakuta. – The Destroyer Jan 09 '16 at 13:47
  • @TheDestroyer How 24th Treta Yuga and 28th Dwapara Yuga come in the same Manvantra? –  Jun 07 '17 at 05:18
  • @Ajay Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga together form one Mahayuga. There are 1000 Mahayugas in a Kalpa. A Kalpa is also divided into 14 Manvantara, and each Manvantara is made up of 71 Mahayugas. We are currently living in the Vaivasvata Manvantara, which is the 7th Manvantara of the present Kalpa. And within that, we are living in the 28th Kali Yuga, i.e. the Kali Yuga of the 28th Mahayuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara. The Mahabharata happened in the Dwapara Yuga of this same Mahayuga. And the Ramayana took place in the 24th Treta Yuga of this Vaivasvata Manvantara. – Keshav Srinivasan Jun 07 '17 at 05:31
  • @KeshavSrinivasan Yes, It is the correct time to ask my doubt, if Ramayana happened in 24th treta Yuga and Mahabharata happened in 28th Dwapara Yuga, how it is possible for 31 Ikshvaku kings to rule 10 Million+ years? –  Jun 07 '17 at 05:44
  • @Ajay A question was posted on that here: https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/11193/36 Suffice it to say that some of those kings were extremely long-lived. See also the lengths of time that Asuras ruled for given in my question here: https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/18211/36 – Keshav Srinivasan Jun 07 '17 at 05:59
  • @KeshavSrinivasan : I've heard saying Ramayana and Mahabharata keeps repeating; quoting to a story saying at the end of Rama's avatara Rama drops his ring in a hole and Hanuman goes in search of the ring through that hole and reaches Naga loka and the King thier shows a pile of rings and says everytime Rama drops a ring, a monkey comes in search of the ring here. Looking at the Ramayana and Mahabharata timelines that you have mentioned here - 24th Treta Yuga and 28th Dwapara Yuga respectively, it doesn't seems that Ramayana and Mahabharata to repeat in every Mahayuga. – Darshan L May 02 '20 at 18:30
  • So do these events repeat in every Manvantara or in every Kalpa? Any reference to it? – Darshan L May 02 '20 at 18:30