[paragraph continues] The shorter period is best proportioned to the number of kings; for reckoning from Sahadeva, who was cotemporary with Paríkshit, and taking the number of the Várhadrathas from the Matsya, we have thirty-two of them, five of the Pradyota race, and ten Śaiśunágas, or in all forty-seven; which, as the divisor of 1050, gives rather more than twenty-two years to a reign. The Váyu and the Matsya further specify the interval from Nanda to Pulomat, the last of the Ándhra kings, as being 836 years; a total that does notp. 485 agree exactly with the items previously specified:

9

Nandas

100

yrs.

10

Mauryas

137

10

Śungas

112

4

Kańwas

45

29

Andhras

460

62

854

[paragraph continues] In either case the average duration of reign is not improbable, as the highest number gives less than fourteen years to each prince. It is important to remember that the reign of Paríkshit is, according to Hindu chronology, coeval with the commencement of the Kali age; and even therefore taking the longest Pauráńik interval we have but sixteen centuries between Chandragupta--or considering him as the same with Sandrocoptos, nineteen centuries B. C.--for the beginning of the Kali age. According to the chronology of our text, however, it would be but B. C. 1415; to that of the Váyu and Matsya, B. C. 1450; and to that of the Bhágavata, 1515. According to Col. Wilford's computations (As. Res. vol. IX. Chron. Table, p. 116) the conclusion of the great war took place B. C. 1370: Buchanan conjectures it to have occurred in the thirteenth century B. C. Vyása was the putative father of Páńd́u and Dhritarásht́ra, and consequently was cotemporary with the heroes of the great war. Mr. Colebrooke infers from astronomical data that the arrangement of the Vedas attributed to Vyása took place in the fourteenth century B.C. Mr. Bentley brings the date of Yudhisht́hira, the chief of the Páńd́avas, to 575 B. C. (Historical View of Hindu Astronomy, p. 67); but the weight of authority is in favour of the thirteenth or fourteenth century B. C. for the war of the Mahábhárata, and the reputed commencement of the Kali age.