Pandit Kota Venkatachalam- The Seminal Historian who explained Indian History to… `Western Indologists’

Bharatha Charithra Bhaskara , Vimarsakagresara – Pandit Kota Venkatachala Pakayaji

 ( Compiled by Ch Kalyanachakravarthy, Associate, CSIS )

The great historian Sri Kota Venkatachalam (1885-1959) was born in present day Andhra Pradesh, to his parents Challa Subbarayudu and Annapurnamma and was given in adoption to Kota Nityanandam and Lakshmidevamma. Pandit Venkatachalam was a great Sanskrit and Andhra scholar, and published the original evidence-based research work `Ancient History and Chronology of Bharat’. His efforts were truly herculean in nature. He fought the same battle that present day Indian Indologists are fighting against distortions of Indian history. The so-called Indologists with Christian beliefs during pre-independence era were reluctant to acknowledge that Indian historical chronology is much ancient than their religious holy revelations. They have adjusted Bharateeya Historical Chronology to their pre-set timelines, rather than accepting evident facts. The so-called Indologists deliberately misrepresented facts and even tried to tamper the possible epigraphic evidences, they declared that whatever ancient Bharatheeya texts revealed are just myths and did not exist. This constructed false history was taught in schools and colleges leading to more misinformation.

In the introduction part of the author Sri Kota Venkatachalam’s book `Chronology of Ancient History part 1’, Sri Jatavallabhula Purushottam wrote  “the vast history of Bharat extending over millions of years has been compressed in to a short span of 4000 years by the western Indologists. This view has been reigning in the minds of our country men who received western education. Such men are the authors of books on Indian History. Since these distorted texts were taught in schools and colleges, the pure and innocent minds of our children and youth were contaminated. This gave rise to disrespect and

disbelief towards  our national culture. To dispel the darkness and do justice to our ancient civilization and culture such a scholar as Sri Kota Venkatachalam revealed himself in the person of the present author“.

Pandit Kota Venkatachalam fought valiantly, his research was original and with proper evidences. However the colonial mindset always denied all evidence. He was an ardent researcher and a constructive critique too. In his foreword of the book  `Chronology of Ancient History part 1’,  he mentioned a few references of how Dr R.C. Majumdar rejected solid evidence in the form of `Kaliyuga raja vrittantha’ on the history of Guptas . Pandit Venkatachalam’s criticism was logical and conclusive, he wrote “There is no point this historian (Dr R C Majumdar) rejecting this piece (Kaliyuga raja vrittantha ) as being an interpolation, because the information carried in this piece fully tallies with the material of the inscription. In stating that the history of the imperial Guptas in ‘Kaliyuga raja vrittantha ‘ as a later interpolation, the arguments and interpretations of certain puranic authorities by R.C. Majumdar are not sound and correct. The puranas clearly mention that the seven Andhra bhritya (Guptas ) kings followed the Andhra kings. We should remember that very few writings of European historians on the ancient history of Bharat are not more than 75 years, and note that even if  ‘Kaliyuga raja vrittanta’ had been written in recent times compared with the writings of European orientalists written only a few years back, it is an ancient and therefore respectable document. It is proved by numismatic evidence that the ‘ Kaliyuga raja vrittanta ‘ is an ancient document ( vide Ancient Hindu history by this author part 2 pp 164 to 168)”. There is a sense of appeal and clarity in these words.

Pandit Kota Venkatachalam was a great Sanskrit scholar and historian who combined the knowledge of Geography, Mathematics, Astronomy, Jyotish Shastra and dedicated many years of his life to the re-construction of Indian chronology from primary sources. He has written over 23 books, each dealing with a specific topic. He has been conferred the titles of “Bharata Charitra Bhaskara”, “Vimarsakagresara”, “Paakayaji” for his works. His other contributions include: · “Xandrames, Sandrocottus and Sandrocyptus” – Paper and Speech delivered at the Indian History Conference, Jaipur, Rajputana, 1951. He was an Interviewee and Responder to the First Sanskrit Commission, 1956.

His works in History were well received across the country and his scholarly dominance changed the course of understanding of Ancient Indian History in an authoritative way. In the first chapter of his book `Ancient Hindu History Part 1’, he mentions without any hesitation that `History is the particular art of observing and recording faithfully the events as they occur in time. A science is established, developed and learnt by observation, inference, illustration or analogy and authentic evidence. Art depends on observation and imitation or representation. History is therefore an Art and cannot be science. Hence it does not find a place of in the list of sciences recognized in the literature of ancient Bharat. But as a

matter of fact the Puranas and Itihasas of ancient Bharat do narrate the events that occurred in different parts of Bharat and elsewhere in different times, in an orderly sequence…. Events in the world do not follow a regular pattern nor do they confirm to any fixed rule or principle. The historian cannot influence or alter or shape them by imaginative or creative faculty. The task and duty of the historian is to record faithfully what he observes. A true historian should declare frankly when he is ignorant and where his statements are of doubtful authenticity. But if instead he starts with a preconceived theory or hypothesis and attempts to interpret ancient records and evidence to accord with it, and even to connect false evidence to buttress his unwarranted conclusions, he is not a true historian but only lowers the prestige of History and Historians. The writings of such are certain to be despised and rejected by the world in course of time.’ He did not mince his words, his modus operandi was as pure as lotus, and he worked with great clarity.

The history of the civilization may be reconstructed from ancient texts, geological evidence, archaeological evidence, coins and inscriptions. Of these, the ancient texts are usually considered the primary evidence, whereas the other sources are considered as corroborative evidence. Pandit Venkatachalam exposes the motives of the Indologists who as staunch Christians, could not accept the Hindu belief that we are in the 28^th Kaliyuga, which meant that the universe was 195 crores years old. They were convinced that, according to the Old Testament, the world was created in six days during October 4004 BCE. Due to this, the European Indologists rejected the Puranas and other ancient texts as fiction and began to look for European evidence to develop the history of India. However much later,

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and geology accepted that the earth was a couple of billion years old.

For the westerners, Indian history had to fit within the Biblical timeline. William Jones, in consultation with Warren Hastings, the then Governor General of India, began doctoring dates to fit within this Time-frame and he rejected everything before the Kaliyuga as fictional. The only event that connected the West with the East was Alexander’s sojourn to the East. Jones had to connect Alexander to some event in India, so he and others did the following:

• Discarded Indian texts as fictional and unreliable.
• Relied on vague accounts of foreign travelers (Megasthenes, Fa Hien, Hiuen Tsang).
• Decided that `Xandrames, Sandrocottus and Sandrocyptus’ from Megasthenes’ Indica, were referring to Mahapadmananda, Chandragupta and Bindusara of the Maurya dynasty, even though they were clearly referring to Chandramas (Chandrasri), Chandragupta and Samudragupta of the Gupta dynasty.
• Doctored coins to falsify history, and used these as confirmatory sources of dates.
• Tampered with some inscriptions (eg, Aihole), while ignoring others.
• Tampered with Kalhana’s Rajatarangini and other books.
• Declared Raja Vikramaditya of Ujjain and Salivahana were fictional characters and removed the dynasty of Agni Vamsa from 101 BCE to 1193 CE (~1300 years) to make the timeline fit within the western biblical constraints.

The results of this distortion were:

• Buddha got pushed from 1887 BCE to the 6^th Century BCE
• Chandragupta Maurya got pushed from 1534 BCE to 327 BCE
• Adi Sankaracharya got pushed from 509 BCE to 788 CE
• Gupta dynasty got pushed from 327 BCE well into CE
• Raja Vikramaditya of Ujjain, Salivahana and the Agni Vamsa kings were entirely removed from

History.

Pandit Venkatachalam spent significant years reconstructing the true chronology from primary sources while cross-referencing and validating across multiple sources. He corroborated his findings with inscriptions (eg, Aihole, two of Janamejaya’s inscriptions), and archaeological evidence. He refuted the `Aryan Invasion Theory’ and came up with the `Out of India Theory’, suggesting that the Mlechchha kings, particularly the Yavana Kings (kings who had stopped observing Vedic rituals and were ex-communicated), were driven to the north-western frontiers of Bharatavarsha – to what is present day Afghanistan); and migrated westward to occupy the eastern and southern parts of Greece. This place is now called Iona, a corrupted name for Yavana. This would then explain how knowledge traveled from East to West, as well as the similarities between the Greek and Hindu systems and beliefs. The sources consulted  by Pandit Venkatachalam for his work are too many to exhaustively name here, but a few examples are the Rig Veda, Surya Siddhanta, the Puranas (Brahmanda, Vishnu, Bhavishya, Bhagavat), Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, Nepal Rajavamsavali and Buddhist writings among many others. His astounding hard work now provides us a re-constructed chronology, from which we can develop the history and thereby, the Grand Narrative of Bharat.

Source:  https://en.dharmapedia.net/wiki/Kota_Venkatachalam

Sri Kota Venkatachalam’s available publications include the following:

English Publications

1. Ancient Hindu History -Part I
2. Ancient Hindu History- Part II
3. Chronology of Nepal History, reconstructed.
4. Chronology of Kashmir History, reconstructed.
5. The Plot in Indian Chronology
6. The Age of Buddha, Milinda and Amtiyoka and Yuga Purana
7. Indian Eras
8. Historicity of Vikramaditya and Salivahana
9. Age of War (Published after his Sidhi)

Telugu Publications

10. Bharateeya Sakamulu
11. Gupta Rajulu Evaru
12. Agni Vamsapu Rajulu
13. Aryula Dhruvanivasa Khandanamu
14. Kaliyuga Raja Vamsamulu
15. Andhrula Puttu purvottaralu mariyu Jambu Dweepamu

 Other Books

1. Advaitha Bodhini
2. Nirvichara Jeevanam ( two parts )
3. Abhasa Kraistavam
4. Bramhanda Srishti Vignanam
5. Kali Saka Vignanam ( three parts )
6. Ashokuni Kalamu
7. Manava Srishti Vignyanamu

Further Readings

http://mahabharatascience.blogspot.com/p/kota-venkatachalam.html  [archive]

https://archive.org/details/andhrulevaru025969mbp  [archive]

https://indianhistorybooks2.wordpress.com/tag/kota-venkatachalam/  [archive]

http://www.rarebooksocietyofindia.org/postDetail.php?id=196174216674_

10154418987581675  [archive]