Authorship and Copyright Notice : All rights reserved. Satya Sarada Kandula.

Brahmarshi Vasishtha lived from the time of Satyavrata Manu, to the time of Sri
Rama. In “How long did Ancient Indians live?” we worked out that it was reasonable
to suppose that the long lived people of ancient India lived for about 120 years.
It is possible, that they lived longer, but it is not necessary to assume it, if
you look at the brahman lineages instead of the kingly lineages.
We know that Vasishtha’s son Sakthi, had a son called Parasara and that Parasara
had a son called Veda Vyasa. So we know that Vasishtha was the great grandfather
of Vyasa.
In Yoga Vasishtam, Valmiki reports a conversation between Viswamitra and Sri Rama,
where Viswamitra narrates an incident where Suka, the son of Vyasa approaches Raja
Janaka, the father of Sita Devi for a philosophical discussion. At this time
Dasaratha is alive and Vyasa is sitting next to him. This matches the description
in the Bhagavatham which states that Vyasa is an earlier incarnation of Vishnu,
with respect to Rama.
Veda Vyasa was the great grandson of Vasishtha and Sri Rama was Vasistha’s very
young student. Vyasa was just older than Sri Rama.
Sri Krishna was the cousin of the Pandavas, younger than Yudhisthira and Bhima,
but older than the Arjuna. So Sri Krishna was of the age of Vyasa’s grandsons.
Sri Krishna was named by Garga, who was quoted by Parasara in the 21st chapter of
the Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra. So Garga was at least of Sri Krishna’s great
grandfather’s generation if not older.
Viswamitra was Sri Rama’s teacher and taught him all about the weapons of the
Devas. Viswamitra’s sister, Satyavati, was the grandmother of Parasurama. So
Viswamitra was the grand-uncle of Parasurama. Vyasa says that Parasurama was the
16th incarnation of Vishnu, earlier even to himself.
Viswamitra and Vasishtha were contemporaries, they lived at the same time and
fought each other and became friends. Of the two, Viswamitra is younger. When
Parasurama fought a lot of kings, he spared Dasaratha, the father of Sri Rama. So
Parasurama was one generation earlier to Sri Rama. At Sri Rama’s wedding,
Parasurama challenged him to hold the Vishnu Chapam – the bow of Sri Vishnu.
Parasurama killed Karthavirya Arjuna, who had previously defeated the mighty
Ravana.
Parasurama’s student was Agnivesha and Agnivesha’s student was Drona. Parasurama
gave his axe to Drona. Drona was the teacher of Vyasa’s grandchildren, the
Kauravas and the Pandavas. Drona’s father was the sage Bharadwaja, and Bharadawaja
was the student of Valmiki. Drona’s son Ashwathhama was a friend of the Kauravas.
Drona was like an uncle’s age to the Pandavas, Kauravas and Sri Krishna and
Bharadwaja was of a grandfather’s age to them, like Vyasa. Though Bharadwaja was
Valmiki’s disciple, he was older to Valmiki. He had to meditate for a long time to
get Valmiki as his Guru. Bharadwaja’s daughter was Visravas’s wife, the mother of
Kubera, the elder half-brother of Ravana, so she must have been much older to
Dronacharya. Drona was born late to Bharadwaja.
Valmiki was a friend of Sri Rama. He not only wrote the Ramayanam, but he also
looked after Rama’s wife Sita and raised Rama’s children.
So far, we have worked out that Vyasa, Sri Rama, and Valmiki were of the same
generation, which makes Sri Rama of the grandfather generation of Sri Krishna. We
also know that Vyasa was senior to Sri Rama.
Bhishma’s father Santanu, married Vyasa’s mother Satyavati after both of them were
born. Vyasa’s parents were Parasara and Satyavati., and Bhishma’s parents were
Santanu and Ganga Devi. So Bhishma was a brother to Vyasa and of the same
generation as Sri Rama.
Ravana’s grandfather Pulastya, explained the story of creation to Bhishma at
Gangadwar. (Padma Puranam). Since Sri Rama and Ravana were of the same generation,
and as Bhishma was of the same generation as Sri Rama, Pulastya was of a
grandfather’s generation to Bhishma!
Bhishma fought Parasurama, over Amba’s marriage issue.
Sahadeva, the youngest Pandava, went on a victorious campaign of the South after
Yudhisthira’s campaign. When he came up to Rameswaram, he sent a respectful
message to Vibhishana of Sri Lanka, asking about his welfare and paying his
respects. Vibhishana, Ravana’s brother was Sri Rama’s generation and of a
grandfather generation to Sahadeva and the Pandavas.
Dhaumya who was the priest of the Pandavas, visited Sri Rama at the time of his
coronation. (Uttarakanda, Valmiki Ramayana)
Many Rig Vedic Rishis, the authors of the Rig Veda, were Sri Rama’s elders. They
were Vasishtha, Viswamitra, Kanva (who raised Viswamitra’s daughter), Agastya (who
gave Sri Rama, weapons from Indra and directed him southward), Atri (whose wife
Anasuya, gave Sita ornaments and advice), Bhardwaja (grandfather of Ravana’s half
brother and Valmiki’s disciple), Kasyapa, (Indra’s father), Bhrigu (Parasurama’s
great grandfather (Parasurama-Jamadagni-Richika-Bhrgu)), and Gauthama (Sri Rama
redeemed his wife Ahalya).
Durvasa was the son of Atri and Anasuya. He predicted Sri Rama’s separation from
Sita. (Uttarakanda). He gave Kunthi the mantra for invoking the Devas to beget
sons. He visited the Pandavas when they were in exile. (Mahabharata). He
pronounced a curse on Sakuntala, the daughter of Viswamitra. (Abhignyana
Sakuntalam).
Vaivaswatha Manu (Satyavrata Manu) was a contemporary of Vasishtha (Matsya
Avatara). His son Saryati was of Sakthi’s generation, grandson, Anarta was of
Parasara’s generation, great-grandson Revata was of Vyasa’s generation. Revata’s
son, Raivata Kakudmin was of Pandu’s generation. Raivata’s son-in-law Balarama and
Pandu’s sons, the Pandavas were of the same generation and very close together in
age as well.
Jambavantha fought alongside Indra, fought in Sri Rama’s army and had a wrestling
match with Sri Krishna and gave his daugther, Jambavathi, in marriage to Sri
Krishna. He was of a grandfather’s generation to Sri Krishna.
Janamejaya, the greatgrandson of Yudhisthira, and great grand nephew of Sri
Krishna was enthroned in Kishkinda. Mainda and Dwivida, Vanara heroes who fought
alongside, Sri Rama, were killed by Balarama when they attacked Dwaraka. (Sri Rama
had left Kishkinda with the Vanaras Sugriva and Angada, but the Yadus/Purus took
control of it).
The Upanishadic period overlapped with the Vedic period and extended slightly
beyond it. Sri Krishna gave us the Bhagavad Gita which is said to be the essence
of all the Upanishads. The Katha Upanishad itself is a conversation between
Gauthama’s great grand son Nachiketas and Mrtyu (the god of death). Naachiketas
was of Drona’s generation, one generation before Sri Krishna.
Maya Danava composed the Surya Siddhantam towards the end of Krta Yuga. He gave
his daughter Mandodari in marriage to Ravana. He built the Maya Sabha for the
pandavas in IndraPrastha in the Dwapara Yuga.
Balarama, the brother of Sri Krishna, visited Raja Janaka, Sita Devi’s father, at
Mithila. It was there that he trained Duryodhana in Gada Yuddha (battle with the
maces).
Brahmanas, very accurately preserved their own lineages without distortion. The
father-son and the teacher-disciple relationships are consistent across the
puranas. The possible causes of errors made by other historians are given below.

First cause of commonly made errors: The defenceless brahmins of the later periods
may have been under a lot of pressure from the armed rulers, trying to claim
kshatriya lineage, to include the names of their ancestors into important
lineages. So, the Puranas put so many kings into this duration, and each purana
put in a different number of kings. This is because, all kings wanted to derive
their descent from Surya, the sun, and Chandra, the moon. And Everyone wanted to
belong to the Ikshwaku Dynasty and everyone wanted to be the directly related to
either Sri Rama or Sri Krishna. Some historians, looked at the lineage of the
kings, got confused and said that Indians did not respect history. Adding lots of
kings into the direct ancestry of Sri Rama and Sri Krishna, made it necessary to
meaninglessly prolong the lifespan of the brahman rishis, to thousands of years.

Second Cause of Commonly Made Errors: In addition, Sri Rama was said to be of the
Tretha Yuga, which can also be translated as the Third Yuga, though it generally
refers to the second yuga. Sri Krishna is said to be of the Dwapara Yuga, or the
yuga after the second. Actually both of them could have been of the third yuga.
(Interestingly in another manner of counting, Kali is ekatha, the first, Dwapara
is the second, Thretha is the third, and Krutha is the 4th, the complete or Satya
yuga: please see the link below on how many kinds of Yugas are there.)

Third Cause of Commonly Made Errors: Today we use Aryabhatta’s durations for Yuga
lengths. Aryabhatta lived either 360 or 3600 years after Vyasa. So the yuga
durations referred to in the Uttarakanda and the Mahabharata, are likely to be
different from the yuga durations we use today. In this article on ‘how many kinds
of yugas are there’ we see that there are many different kinds of yugas and
durations.

Authorship and Copyright Notice : All rights reserved. Satya Sarada Kandula.