The Yugas and the date of our Alwars.

[Guest guest]

My namaskarams to all of you Sriman NarayaNa devotees:

 

Recently there was a very beautiful article written by Dr. V. Sadagopan

on Kaala or Time, summarizing the time measures of each Yuga, etc. etc.

as given in Srimad Bhagawatam. In this context, I would like like to

bring up this topic of the Yugas and the date of our Alwars. For the past

several days, I have been reading about the life of our great Alwars,

and Acharyas from seemingly authoritative texts. For the sake of reference,

I would like to mention two books:

1. The holy lives of the Azhvars or the Dravida Saints

(by Alkondavilli Govindacharya, Publication: Anantacharya

Indological Research Institute, Bombay, ed. 1982)

2. Life of Sri Ramanuja

(by Swami Ramakrishnanada, Translated from Bengali by:

Swami Budhananda, 1959)

In ref. [1], in the table showing the hierarchy of spiritual pedigree of

saints and sages from God downwards, according to the visishtadwaita

dispensation, we can see that the first of the Azhwars (Poygei, Bhuta,

Pey) took their avataras around 4202 B.C. In the footnote for this

date reference, the author says, "It has been made out by scholars that

according Aryabhatta, Kali Yuga commenced at midnight corresponding to

17-18 February, 3102 B.C. (Old Style)." We know that the length of the

Dwapara Yuga is 864,000 human years. The year 4202 B.C. was arrived at

by the fact (given in literature elsewhere), that these azhwars took

birth in the 862,900th year of Dwapara Yuga. The calculation thereafter

is straightforward.

In the same table [1], the last of the azhwars Thirumangai Azhwars was

born in 2706 B.C. This falls into the Kali Yuga.

In ref. [2], however the facts are all no where in sink. Pandit M.

Raghava Iyengar, in his book (Alvarkal Kala-nilai), the dates of avatara

of the first three azhwars is between 5th and 6th centuries A.D., and the

date of Thiru Mangai Azhwar is 8th century A.D. Also note that Sriman

Nathamuni's time has been fixed by BOTH THESE REFERENCES as 825 A.D. to

918 A.D.

 

I see a problem with this whole time measure scheme. My personal opinion:

I believe ref [1] is much much more authoritative owing to the fact that

the dates given in literature about the Azhwars is with reference to the

Dwapara-Kali scheme. And I DO NOT DISTRUST the word of Aryabhatta on his

fixing the date of commencement of the Kali Yuga. Secondly, the

calculations fall into place. Thirdly, there is reason to believe, that

the Nalayira Divya Prabandhams were lost during the big 3500 year gap

between Thirumangai Azhwar and Nathamuni.

 

About ref [2]: If Thirumangai azhwar is as recent as the 8th century,

and also considering the fact that he is the second most prolific of the

poet saints, having composed over 1000 pasurams, I don't see a possible

chance of the loss of at least this abundant a body of work in the 100

years or less between this azhwar and Nathamuni. Plus, the monarchs of

those days were evidently great admirers of poetry, and would not have

allowed such an extinction to occur, if we believed in the dates given

in ref. [2].

 

I would lay these facts, that I have gathered, to the readers for their

perusal and also request scholars like Dileepan, and Dr. Sadagopan to

shed more light on this. Do we believe in the Christian era dates of our

Azhwars or our own system.

 

Adiyen, Murali.