Dear reader,
The past few days have come with such a steep learning curve that if used properly I can pole vault myself in that curve to the moon. The deeper I dig into the puranas the more interesting and unheard of information I come across. During one such ventures I began asking myself - All my life I’ve heard that Krsna was the next avatar after Rama, but how are these two immensely popular characters from our mythology connected? If we see them as purely historical figures who did actually exist and rule their kingdoms for an X period of years, then is there a way to maybe come up with some sort of draft of the lineage? After about 15 hours of looking around various scriptures, primarily the Vishnu Purana and a book called “Ancient History of India” I came to what I consider a decent representation of how these two characters from our land were connected. The initial cue came to me when I learnt that Rama’s youngest brother Shatrugna had conquered Lavanasura (King of Mathura Madhu’s son) and taken over that land. He had then put his son Subahu on the throne for a brief period before he was ousted by Satvat’s son Bhima Satvat. There began my journey of tracking down names, looking up references, matching records from various different sources until I was able to make a concise list of kings who ruled Mathura. The lineage led me to Sura (or Surasena in some texts) who has been mistakenly quoted as being Shatrugna’s son and hence the father of Vasudeva. Oh no. It was nowhere near that. In fact, 16-17 generations must have passed between Rama and Krsna thus making it at least 1800 – 2000 years between them. So, for what it’s worth, I have put the time line chart below for you to look at. Any confirmed discrepancies will, of course, be truly appreciated.
Please click on the thumbnail image below for the larger version
Cheers,
Other recommended reading:
Looking for the real Hanuman
In search of Mayasura
The past few days have come with such a steep learning curve that if used properly I can pole vault myself in that curve to the moon. The deeper I dig into the puranas the more interesting and unheard of information I come across. During one such ventures I began asking myself - All my life I’ve heard that Krsna was the next avatar after Rama, but how are these two immensely popular characters from our mythology connected? If we see them as purely historical figures who did actually exist and rule their kingdoms for an X period of years, then is there a way to maybe come up with some sort of draft of the lineage? After about 15 hours of looking around various scriptures, primarily the Vishnu Purana and a book called “Ancient History of India” I came to what I consider a decent representation of how these two characters from our land were connected. The initial cue came to me when I learnt that Rama’s youngest brother Shatrugna had conquered Lavanasura (King of Mathura Madhu’s son) and taken over that land. He had then put his son Subahu on the throne for a brief period before he was ousted by Satvat’s son Bhima Satvat. There began my journey of tracking down names, looking up references, matching records from various different sources until I was able to make a concise list of kings who ruled Mathura. The lineage led me to Sura (or Surasena in some texts) who has been mistakenly quoted as being Shatrugna’s son and hence the father of Vasudeva. Oh no. It was nowhere near that. In fact, 16-17 generations must have passed between Rama and Krsna thus making it at least 1800 – 2000 years between them. So, for what it’s worth, I have put the time line chart below for you to look at. Any confirmed discrepancies will, of course, be truly appreciated.
Please click on the thumbnail image below for the larger version
Cheers,
Other recommended reading:
Looking for the real Hanuman
In search of Mayasura
5 reflections:
Great info. Not sure how 16-17 generation translates to 1800 years. A generation should be around 25 years.
@Anonymous
The idea behind that rationale (and I should've included this in blog now that I think about it) was that people back then had extremely long lifespans. So being 120 years or 140 years was normal. In fact, Arjna is said to have been 125 years when the Kuruskhetra war happened. By that math if each generation lasts a 100 years at least, then 1500 years does not seem like a far fetched idea. Hence my deduction of the timeline in that sense.
Cheers,
SK
As legend says, Bhima met Hanuman while he went in search of Sugandapushpa for Draupadi (the tail moving episode)... So going by the above lineage, at that time Hanuman should be atleast 1500 yrs old.
As the saying goes Hanuman is also called Chiranjivi meaning one who lives for ever. With the world so connected man has explored every inch of mother earth, where is Hanuman today?
-NRK
@NRK
I think the word 'Chiranjeevi' needs some clarification. I don't think it literally means 'someone who lives forever'.A lot of texts suggest that it merely means 'unusually long life'. This may extend to 300 or even 400 years. Now, Bhma has been well recorded as a Kshatriya with immense strength and physique. Now, just like Hanuman (see my blog post 'Looking for the real Hanuma') is it also not possible that this episode of Bhma meeting Hanuma was just Vyasa's way of re-enforcing the idea that Bhma was a re-incarnation of Hanuma? Can it also be that since they were in a jungle that was full of various sorts of illusions, Bhma could've experienced some sort of hallucination (since it is highly likely he was 'always told' he was as strong as Hanuma) thus making him feel that he met Hanuma? All I am trying to say is that there are various possibilities for what actually might've happened. So the chances that a vanara, however strong he might've been, being alive for 1500 years seems impossible. :)
Cheers,
SK
If you want to verify your work you can check with Mr. Devdutt Pattanaik http://devdutt.com
Cheers,
Dilip
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