Epic-Puranic chronology

Epic-Puranic chronology reconstructs ancient Indian history from chronological accounts, king lists, and dynastic genealogies preserved in Sanskrit epics and Puranas.

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Purana: A genre of Sanskrit religious literature containing narratives about gods, cosmology, pilgrimage, and royal lineages. Puranas preserve many of the dynastic lists used in these reconstructions.
Dynastic genealogy: A lineage record tracing descent through successive rulers or ancestors. These genealogies provide the succession sequences that chronology attempts to date.
Archaeological chronology of India: The dating of India's past through archaeological contexts, material remains, and scientific dating methods. Material sequences can test or challenge dates inferred from literary genealogies.
Mahabharata historicity: The question of whether and how the Mahabharata preserves historical events or persons. Chronological reconstructions depend partly on what historical basis is assigned to the epic.
Mahabharata: An Sanskrit epic centered on conflict between the Kauravas and Pandavas, including extensive genealogical and historical traditions. Its royal genealogies anchor chronologies associated with the Bharata dynasty.
Synchronism: A proposed identification of contemporaneous people or events in separate historical records. Synchronisms can connect epic-Puranic king lists to independently dated histories.
Radiocarbon dating: A method for estimating the age of organic materials by measuring radioactive carbon-14 decay. It dates archaeological remains independently of epic and Puranic textual timelines.
Puranic king lists: Sequences of rulers and dynasties preserved in Puranic texts, often with reign lengths and genealogies. Differences among lists complicate attempts to produce a single continuous chronology.
Ramayana: An Sanskrit epic narrating Rama's exile, Sita's abduction, and the defeat of Ravana. Its dynastic traditions contribute another strand to epic-era chronology.
Regnal year: A year counted from a ruler's accession to the throne. Regnal-year systems offer chronological evidence when texts preserve specific reign lengths.