Bhavishya Puran. Vikram era started in 57 BC by Vikramaditya the Great as a commemoration of his victory upon the Shaks. There is plentiful literature on Vikramaditya, and in the Bhavishya Puran itself there are descriptions of Vikramaditya in more than 40 chapters between Pratisarg Parv I and IV. He was a descended Divine personality. His capital was Ujjain where the temple of Mahakaleshwar is famous. Pratisarg Parv IV, chapter 1 of Bhavishya Puran says that after the elapse of a full 3,000 years in kaliyug (3102 - 3000 = 102 BC), a dynamic Divine personality was born who was named Vikramaditya. He was very intelligent and loving to his parents. When he was only five years old he went into the jungles to worship God. After twelve years, when he came out, God Shiv sent for him a celestial golden throne which was decorated with thirty-two statues. He then came (to Ujjain), adored Mahakaleshwar and established an elegant shrine.
Bhavishya Puran further says that the great King Vikramaditya ruled for one hundred years. Then his son Deobhakt ruled for ten years and his grandson Shalivahan, who established Shalivahan Shak era (in 78 AD), defeated the Shaks and ruled for sixty years. Vikramaditya belonged to Pramar dynasty in which there was another very powerful King, Bhojraj, who was eleven generations later than Shalivahan. The Pramar dynasty (which ends with Ganga Singh) is described in the first chapter of Pratisarg Parv IV.
According to the above descriptions Vikramaditya lived for (5 years + 12 years + 100 years) 117 years (102 BC - 15 AD).
It could be logically guessed that Vikramaditya should have been at least 45 years old when he totally defeated all the Shaks. According to Bhavishya Puran he was born in 3000 Kali era; so he established his Vikram era in (3000+45) 3045 Kali era. Vikram era is 57 BC. Thus, the beginning of kaliyug comes to 3045 + 57 = 3102 BC.
To sum up: The dynastic dates of the kings of Hastinapur are the actual historic records, but the dynasties of Magadh given in the Bhagwatam or Bhavishya Puran are the predictions by the descended Divine personality Ved Vyas who reproduced all the Vedas and Puranas before 3102 BC. The dynastic periods of both, Hastinapur and Magadh, (up to Vikramaditya) coincide with only a difference of 24 years in 3,000 years of records which is almost negligible.
It was the greatness of the predictions that all the events of the history happened the same way as predicted. There could be a difference of a few years (but not in hundreds) in the actual dynastic dates of the individual kings and the predicted dates, because the actual historic happening is also affected by the accumulated existing karmas and the general quality of the consciousness of the people of the world. So there is a likelihood of some difference, but not a lot.
The total number of years of the first eight dynasties of Magadh (as mentioned earlier) is 2,811 years, and the total number of years of the same eight dynasties as described in Bhavishya Puran Kaliyug Rajvrittant is also exactly the same (2,811 years) except some + or - differences in its details. For example: there is a difference of 6 years in the first four dynasties which is almost negligible. Thus, adding 245 years of the ninth Gupt dynasty to 2,811 comes to 3,056 years from the Mahabharat war which is (3139 - 3056) 83 BC.
After the downfall of Gupt dynasty the kingship of Magadh ended and it went under the subordination of Vikramaditya of Ujjain (Malva). Although the kings of Gupt family had defeated the Huns several times, the Shaks were still powerful in their attacks. They were finally defeated by Vikramaditya, and thus the Vikram era was established in 57 BC. One hundred and thirty-five years later, another powerful king, Shalivahan, again abolished the Shaks from India, and, in this way, the Shalivahan Shak era started in 78 AD. After that, the regal power of India was divided into several kingships and the Rajpoot kings ruled India for 1,107 years when Mohammad Gori invaded Delhi (Hastinapur) in 1192 AD and became the king.
That was the period when a number of stories of the bravery and sincerity of the Rajpoots were composed and were enthusiastically sung as folklore in the towns and the villages, and many history books were also written at that time, out of which only a few are available nowadays. The rest of them filled the trash bins of the British rulers of those days.
When Muslims took over Delhi, they started to suppress Hindu religion and faith. They ruled for 565 years when in 1757 Clive’s forces crushed and killed the Nawab and in this way the British regime was established in Bengal, the richest province of India.
The British had come to India (Calcutta) as traders (East India Co.) in 1690 and with their diplomatic skill, they established their regime in 1757, starting from Calcutta (Bengal) and spreading up to Benares, Mysore and Poona, which invoked the patriotism of Indian souls that resulted in the general revolution for independence in 1857. But, because of certain internal reasons, it didn’t succeed and it resulted into a full fledged British rule that dignified the Queen with the title of the Empress of India. Then, the English education was preferenced in our education system which was designed to passively induce their beliefs in our educated community.
In 1918, however, an agreement was drawn to solace the burning hearts of the Indians demanding the independence of India with a promise to start a democratic rule, but it was never properly implemented and the second world war broke out in 1939, shaking the whole world and exhausting the ‘friendly nations’ (India, England and France) for six years. It resulted in a state of despair for the British to reconstruct the damages of their own country, and thus, they had to leave India after 190 years of their rule by favoring us with the independence which they declared on August 15, 1947. They took some time to finish the paperwork and finally left India on January 26, 1948. Now (in 1999) it is the 52nd year of India’s independence.
We must try to understand that our history is not the history of worldly kings and queens who entangled themselves in fulfilling the needs of their passion. The major part of Bhartiya history is the history of eternal Sages and Saints and such Divine personalities who descended on the earth planet to show us the path of eternal happiness that has no limits. They revealed the scriptures to give us an understanding of the deceptive illusions of the world and the unimaginable Blissfulness of God Who is the true friend of every soul; and, as long as they lived on the earth planet, they remained as the practical guiding light for all the true aspirants of God’s love for the whole world.
The Bhagwatam (mahatmya, chapter six) says that after the ascension of Krishn and the elapse of thirty years of kaliyug, on the ninth waxing moon day of Bhadrapad, which is September 3072 BC, Shukdeo started explaining the Bhagwatam. After 200 years of the elapse of kaliyug, Saint Gokarn again recited and explained the Bhagwatam in the month of Asadh (July); and after 230 years of the elapse of kaliyug, Sankadik Paramhans started relating the Bhagwatam on the ninth waxing day of Kartik which is October 2842 BC.
