DATING INDIAN HISTORY ALL OVER AGAIN

IN 1650, Irish theologian James Ussher claimed that the world was created on Sunday, October 23, 4004 BCE.

- NANDITHA KRISHNA

IN 1650, Irish theologian James Ussher claimed that the world was created on Sunday, October 23, 4004 BCE. Ussher based his calculation on a correlation of the Christian holy writ and West Asian and Mediterranean histories. Tragically, his unscientific dating became a basis for dating Indian history-and, for some, continues even today.

In 1783, William Jones was appointed judge at Fort William in Bengal. He studied Sanskrit, the Vedas and ancient Hindu laws. He was captivated by Indian culture, founded the Asiatic Society and proposed a relationship between European and Indo-Aryan languages.

As a follower of Ussher, Jones believed "the foundation of the Indian empire (sic) was about 3,800 years" before 1790 CE, that is, between Ussher's date of 4004 BCE and the Great Flood that Jones believed took place in 2350 BCE. He dated the Rig Veda unscientifically to 1500-1000 BCE and proposed an Aryan invasion of India, an idea that lacked any evidence.

For a long time, the West supposed India jumped from the Stone Age to the Buddha, whose date became very important for ancient Indian history. Eastern Buddhist tradition in China, Japan, Vietnam and Korea dated Siddhartha between his birth in 1026 BCE and his death in 949 BCE. In 1821, John Davy chose the Sinhalese date of Buddha's Nirvana as 543 BCE, when the Sinhalese system of reckoning time begins. This gave time between Jones's date for the Vedas (1500 BCE) and the Buddha; hence it was "chosen". Mahavira was never properly dated and was regarded merely as Buddha's contemporary.