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We know Ramayana was before since Mahabharata talks about the killing of Ravana. If one looks at material life, nothing much seems to have changed. If anything Ramayana had superior technology such as flying machines.

Can Mahabharata be dated in relation to Ramayana using Hindu, Jain and Buddhist scriptures?

Sarvabhouma
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S K
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  • Yes , certainly the description of Vimanas or the flying machines has changed from Ramayana to Mahabharata and Puranas. And what design changes we expect if already these machines were functional only with Divine Power. Only interior. So there was no need to change the description since the life of gods are far far more than ours.Each one is having his specific set of vehicles ,weapons.etc. e.g. Garuda is vehicle of Vishnu, do we expect changes in description of Garuda. It should be consistent. – SwiftPushkar Apr 23 '18 at 18:44
  • Well Vishnu's chakra certainly underwent change in technology - he lost his in Patala loka and Siva gave him another one 4 times more powerful if memory serves me right.@swiftpushkar – S K Apr 23 '18 at 19:00
  • Yes , but the basic principle remained the same. What i mean is Scripture should be consistent otherwise it will loose its authority. So most of the time we find same description based on original text. – SwiftPushkar Apr 23 '18 at 19:11
  • "Scripture should be consistent otherwise it will loose its authority. " @swiftpushkar you have given the game away with this statement. If something is true you don't worry about consistency. Truth is by definition consistent and any apparent inconsistency would always have an explanation based on truth. – S K Apr 23 '18 at 19:34
  • That does not mean word to word description ` should be same. In that case two scriptures will be duplicate.Mythology is describing things in little different way to suit the story. But with keeping the original idea or foundation intact. Vedic description is much short as they are not the stories. – SwiftPushkar Apr 23 '18 at 19:42
  • And here what i mean by consistency is that it should not differ too much like One is saying Vishnu's vehicle is garuda and another is peacock . – SwiftPushkar Apr 23 '18 at 19:55
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    Does this answer your question? Did the Mahabharata and the Ramayana happen in the current Yuga cycle in the current Manvantara? – Adiyarkku Jun 11 '20 at 19:27

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The question is:

Can Mahabharata be dated in relation to Ramayana using Hindu, Jain and Buddhist scriptures?

We have some difficulties in ascertaining the period of occurrence of Ramayana and Mahabharata.

  • the composers of the EPICs Ramayana and Mahabharata or Hindu scriptures were not in the habit of writing history books like historians of our era. Hence, those books do not contain dates

  • the Ramayana and Mahabharata or Hindu scriptures were composed after commencement of Classical Sanskrit, though their occurrence might have taken place in the earlier period, which can only be inferred from the mentions of some issues/events.

  1. In Ramayana, a mention was made about 4 tusks elephants in Sundara Kanda. So we can infer that Ramayana occurred at around 16 lakhs years ago.

  2. According to the researches conducted by various scholars, Mahabharata occurred around 3102 BC.

  3. Even if we deduct 5100 years from 16 lakh years, there will not be any change in the time gap of 16 lakh years.

  4. So we can infer that the time gap between Ramayana and Mahabharata is around 16 lakh years.

Srimannarayana K V
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    "Ramayana occurred at around 16 lakhs years ago" - this means Rama was a Homo Erectus, not a modern human? – Say No To Censorship Nov 12 '19 at 18:55
  • @sv.:Thanks for providing information about Homo Erectus. Really it is a news for me that there existed such species. Coming to your comment, my answer will be - I don't know. I had just inferred from the available information. Thanks once again. – Srimannarayana K V Nov 12 '19 at 23:06
  • @sv, humans in that Treta yuga were up to 8 ft tall. it's quite possible our stature/features are different from theirs, just as they would have been different from the even earlier humans in Krita Yuga. Avg. height decreases each yuga. Or, the Homo Erectus fossils found could also be a different jati like yaksha/kinnara/gandharva, or even Vanara. Padma Purana states 8.4 million species/bodies/types, of which 400,000 are stated to be manushya/human - modern scientific definition of 'species' notwithstanding. So there could be multiple species of 'humans' itself. – ram Nov 14 '19 at 22:10
  • Treta Yuga ended 8.64 lakh years ago (+ 5000 for current Kali yuga). If Rama's avatara was towards end of Treta Yuga, that would be .8 million years ago.. Still close enough to the appearance of those 4 tusk elephants. And this is assuming Ramayana happened in Treta Yuga of current 28th mahayuga cycle, and not 24th. – ram Nov 14 '19 at 22:15
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    I don't whether to laugh or to cry at answers like these, I'm not even sure people write these with a straight face. Humans first ventured into the Indian subcontinent only circa 65000 years ago! – iruvar Dec 06 '19 at 04:34
  • I don't know whether to laugh or to cry at this type of immature comments. Humans used to live at much earlier period.@iruvar – Srimannarayana K V Dec 06 '19 at 04:37
  • @srimannarayanakv, and your basis for saying "humans used to live at much earlier period" is what exactly? Circa 65000 years is the scientific consensus for when home sapiens ventured into South Asia. And as the other person points out, your dating of Ramayana puts in in the era of Homo Erectus, a species barely capable of rudimentary tool use – iruvar Dec 06 '19 at 17:25
  • Scientific consensus has been changing. What was thought to be correct way back in early 1900, has been changed now. Earlier, it was stated that humans didn't exist before 4000 years ago but the scientific community shifted to earlier period. So I can't rely upon which has been changing @iruvar – Srimannarayana K V Dec 07 '19 at 02:09