Ramayan - The Time Scale and NASA discovery

My first interest in the subject started when in 2002-2003 there were news reports about NASA's declaration about Ram-Setu. NASA had then declared that Adam's Bridge (The name used by NASA for Ram-Setu) was not a natural bridge. It is made by men using sand-shoals and dates back to almost 1.7 mn years back.

There were two striking comments in this declaration.
1. It dates back to 1.7 mn years ago
2. It is man-made

Both are baffling statements. Sadly, NASA has deleted all its comments on this subject from the public domain. But the news caught attention of most of the world and today this fact is flashed across the internet.

However, it caused me to hunt down the Yug System, the time scale used in most of the ancient Indian texts. Lord Ram had been declared to have lived in the Treta Yug.

It is an interesting system for understanding the prevalent nature of society. It is primarily described in Divine Years. Each Divine year = 360 Human Years. On this basis, the calculation for the Yug-System goes as follows.

1. Satyug - Extends for 4800 Divine years. Therefore, a total period of 17,28,000 Human years
2. Tretayug - Extends for 3600 Divine years. Therefore, a total period of 12,96,000 Human years
3. Dwaparyug - Extends for 2400 Divine years. Therefore, a total period of 8,64,000 Human years
4. Kaliyug - Extends for 1200 Divine years. Therefore, a total period of 4,32,000 Human years

The Yug system then enters a more complicated section describing the age of a creation or life on a single planet and like that of the Single Universe itself by giving calculation of Mahayug, Manvantar, Kalp etc.

According to the the Hindu system, the Kaliyug started during the reign of King Parikshit and coincided with the death of Lord Krishn. The planetary position and other celestial details that have been described at the time of Lord Krishn leaving his body indicates a date of 17/18th of February, 3102 B.C.

Since, Kaliyug extends for 4,32,000 years, we have spent only 5111 years into this period of human life. It also means that prior to February 17/18, 3102 B.C. existed the Dwaparyug which extended back 8,64,000 years. That means 8,67,102B.C. or 8,69,111 years ago.

Prior to 8,67,102 B.C. existed Tretayug (the Age in which Lord Ram is declared to have been born or, in other words, the age that has been described in Ramayan). Since Tretayug extends for 12,96,000 years, it means that between 21,63,102 B.C. (2.165 mn years back) and 8,67,102 B.C. existed Tretayug.

This interesting figure says to us that the age described of the Adam's Bridge (as declared by NASA)falls in Tretayug. The period of Lord Ram or the period described in the story of Ramayan.

Now let us check the accuracy of Yug system.

According to the system, the life on this planet will end in 8.64bn years from the time of its creation. According to popular scientific belief, Earth was created 4.6mn years ago. That means on the time scale of Yug-System, only 4.04bn years remain.

When will earth die? We don't know. What we do know is the expected life of Sun. This has been calculated on the basis of the Sun spots and life of a star as described by Nobel Laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrashekhar back in 1930 and recognised widely on the basis of following research and understanding in 1983, through the Nobel Prize. Sun is expected to die in 5.5bn years from now. Being a medium sized star, the Sun will start expanding in size bringing it considerably closer to Earth and then it will contract, owing to its own gravity within, sucking along all the planets of Solar system. This means that life on earth would have ended much earlier than the death of Sun itself. Considering, we are talking about astronomical figure, it may not be out of place to say that the time of 4.04bn years described in the Yug-system for life on earth is quite in place.

This system can be discussed separately, but the meaning it carries and the coincidence of the age of Adam's Bridge (Ram-Setu, for Indians) and Period described in Ramayan is very striking. It also appears to be fairly accurate on the mathematical and scientific scales of two different methods of describing time.

And the possibility of an advanced man-made engineering marvel in that age creates a lot fo curiosity in one's mind.

In the next post, I will discuss the view held by some people on the need for a bridge between India and Srilanka during that age. And therefore, a man-made bridge dating back to 1.7mn years.