Astronomical Dating of the Ramayan

By Dr.P.V.Vartak

It has been believed that there is no evidence to determine the dates
of events in the Ramayanic era. Some historians of the past even refuse
to acknowledge that Rama and other characters from the Ramayana even existed.
However, Sage Valmiki has recorded the dates if events in detail, albeit
by describing the positions of stars and planets. To decipher the astronomical
encodings has not been a trivial task, and not many have attempted to do
so. It should be noted that the ancient Indians had a prefect method of
time measurement. They recorded the 'tithis', days according to
the nakshatra on which the moon prevailed, the months, the seasons and
even the different Solstices. By therefore noting a particular arrangement
of the astronomical bodies, which occur once in many thousand years, the
dates of the events can be calculated. Dr. P.V. Vartak has thus attempted
to calculate the dates of important incidents that occured during the Ramayanic
Era. The correct astronomical records goes to show that Valmiki's has chronicled
an account of a true story and also, that the an advanced time measurement
system was known to the Hindus (Indians) atleast 9000 years ago. Please
refer to Dr. Vartak's celebrated book "Vastav Ramayan"
for further reading.

Before coming to the astronomical method, it should be noted that the
Mahabharat has recorded a number of facts about Ramayan (and not otherwise).
The precedence of the Ramayanic era to that of the Mahabharat can therefore
be inferred. An attempt to fix the dates of the events in the Mahabharat
era, mainly based on internal astronomical records. The Mahabharat Era
has already been dated by Dr. Vartak to 5561 B.C. [Reference: Dr. Vartak's
book "Swayambhu"].

http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/ramayan/rama_vartak.html