-2,500,000§
-2.5 M Genus Homo originates in Africa, cradle of humanity.§
-2 M Stone artifacts are made and used by hominids in North India, an area rich in animal species, including the elephant.§
-500,000 Stone hand axes and other tools are used in North India.§
-470,000 India’s hominids are active in Tamil Nadu and Punjab.§
-400,000 Soan culture in India is using primitive chopping tools.§
-360,000 Fire is first controlled by homo erectus in China.§
-300,000 Homo sapiens roams the Earth, from Africa to Asia.§
-100,000§
-100,000 Homo sapiens sapiens with 20th-century man’s brain size (1,450 cc) are in East Africa. Populations separate. §
-75,000 Last Ice Age begins. Human population estimated at 1.7 million.§
-60,000 According to genetic scientist Spencer Wells’ research, televised by National Geographic, early man’s first wave of migration from Africa occurred at this time to India, evidenced by the genetic makeup of Tamil Nadu’s modern-day Kallar community, who are related to the Australian aborigines.§
-50,000 Genetic research by Richard Villems of the Estonian Biocentre concludes that the maternal lineages of modern-day India’s populations are largely unique to India, and on the order of 50,000 years old. As a result, Villems said, “I think that the Aryan Invasion theory in its classic form is dead.”§
-45,000 Seafaring migrations from S.E. Asia settle Indonesian Islands and Australia.§
-40,000 Hunter-gatherers in Central India are living in painted rock shelters. Similar groups in Punjab camp at sites protected by windbreaks. Cave paintings found in 2002 in Banda depict a hunter riding a horse in a group hunting scene. §
-30,000 American Indians spread throughout the Americas. §
-10,000§
-10,000 Last Ice Age ends after 65,000 years; earliest signs of agriculture. World population is 4 million; India, 100,000.§
-10,000 Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa 3.1.2 refers to Pūrvabhadrapada nakshatra’s rising due east, a phenomenon occurring at this date (Dr. B.G. Siddharth of the Birla Science Institute), indicating earliest known dating of the sacred Veda.§
-10,000 Vedic culture, the essence of humanity’s eternal wisdom, Sanātana Dharma, lives in Himalayas at end of Ice Age. §
-9000 Old Europe, Anatolia and Minoan Crete display a Goddess-centered culture reflecting a matriarchial order.§
-8500 Taittirīya Saṁhitā 6.5.3 places Pleiades asterism at winter solstice, suggesting the antiquity of this Veda.§
-7500 Excavations at Neveli Cori in Turkey reveal advanced civilization with developed architecture. B.G. Siddharth believes this was a Vedic culture. §
-7200 War of the Ten Kings is fought (dating by S.D. Kulkarni). §
-7000§
-7000 Proto-Vedic period ends. Early Vedic period begins. §
-7000 Time of Manu Vaivasvata, “Father of Mankind,” of Sarasvatī-Dṛishadvati area (also said to be a South Indian monarch who sailed to the Himalayas during a great flood).§
-7000 Early evidence of modern horses in the Gaṅgā basin (Frawley).§
-7000 Indus-Sarasvatī area residents of Mehergarh grow barley, raise sheep and goats, store grain, entomb their dead and construct buildings of sun-baked mud bricks. (S.D. Kulkarni asserts such refinements had existed for ages, though archeology reaches only to this period.)§
-6776 Start of Hindu king’s lists according to Greek references that give Hindus 150 kings and a history of 6,400 years before 300 BCE; agrees with next entry.§
-6500 Ṛig Veda verses (e.g., 1.117.22, 1.116.12, 1.84.13.5) say winter solstice begins in Aries (according to D. Frawley), giving antiquity of this section of the Vedas.§
-6000 Early sites on the Sarasvatī River, then India’s largest, flowing west of Delhi into the Rann of Kutch; Rajasthan is a fertile region with much grassland, as described in the Ṛig Veda. The culture, based upon barley (yava), copper (ayas) and cattle, also reflects that of the Ṛig Veda.§
-5500 Date of astrological observations associated with ancient events later mentioned in the Purāṇas (Alain Danielou).§
-5500 Mehergarh villagers make baked pottery and thousands of small, clay of female figurines (interpreted to be earliest signs of Śakti worship), and are involved in long-distance trade in precious stones and sea shells.§
-5000§
-5000 World population, 5 million; doubles every 1,000 years. §
-5000 Beginnings of Indus-Sarasvatī civilizations of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Date derived by considering excavated archeological sites 45 feet deep. Brick fire altars exist in many houses, suggesting Vedic fire rites. Earliest signs of Śiva. This mature culture lasts 3,000 years, ending around -1700. §
-5000 Rice is harvested in China, with grains found in baked bricks. But its cultivation originated in Eastern India.§
-4300 Traditional date for Lord Rāma’s time (Kulkarni’s date is -5500; see also -2040, and latest dating at -500).§
-4004 Archbishop Usher’s (17th century) supposed date of the creation of the world, based on genealogies in the Old Testament.§
-4000 Excavations from this period at Sumerian sites of Kish and Elamite Susa reveal presence of Indian imports.§
-4000 India’s population is 1 million. §
-3928 July 25th: the earliest eclipse mentioned in the Ṛig Veda (according to Indian researcher Dr. Sri P.C. Sengupta).§
-3761 The year of world creation in the Jewish religious calendar.§
-3200§
-3200 In India, a special guild of Hindu astronomers (nakshatra darśas) record in Vedic texts citations of full and new moon at winter and summer solstices and spring and fall equinoxes with reference to 27 fixed stars (nakshatras) spaced nearly equally on the moon’s ecliptic (visual path across the sky). The precession of the equinoxes (caused by the mutation of the Earth’s axis of rotation) makes the nakshatras appear to drift at a constant rate along a predictable course over a 25,000-year cycle. Such observations enable specialists to calculate backwards to determine the date the indicated position of moon, sun and nakshatra occurred.§
-3139 Reference to vernal equinox in Rohinī (middle of Taurus) from some Brahmāṇas, as noted by B.G. Tilak, Indian scholar and patriot. Now preferred date of Mahābhārata war and life of Lord Kṛishṇa (see also -1424). §
-3102 Beginning of Kali Yuga (Kali Era) in Hindu time reckoning.§
-3100 Early Vedic period ends, late Vedic period begins.§
-3100 Indian culture in Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia. §
-3100 Āryans inhabit Iran, Iraq and Western Indus-Sarasvatī Valley frontier. [Frawley describes Āryans as “a culture of spiritual knowledge.” He and many Indian scholars believe 1) the Land of Seven Rivers (Sapta Sindhu) cited in the Ṛig Veda refers to India only, 2) the people of Indus-Sarasvatī valleys and those of Ṛig Veda are the same, and 3) there was no Āryan invasion. Others claim the Indus-Sarasvatī people were Dravidians who moved out or were displaced by incoming Āryans.]§
-3000§
-3000 Weaving in Europe, Near East and Indus-Sarasvatī Valley is primarily coiled basketry, either spiraled or sewn.§
-3000 Evidence of horses in South India.§
-3000 People of Tehuacan, Mexico, are cultivating maize.§
-3000 Śaiva Āgamas are recorded; time of the earliest Tamil Saṅgam (by traditional dating; see also -500).§
-2700 Tolkappiyam Tamil grammar is composed (traditional dating; see also -500).§
-2700 Seals of Indus-Sarasvatī Valley indicate Śiva worship, represented by Paśupati, Lord of Animals. §
-2600 Indus-Sarasvatī civilization reaches height it sustains until -1700. Spreading from Pakistan to Gujarat, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, it is the largest of the world’s three oldest civilizations, with links to Mesopotamia (possibly Crete), Afghanistan, Central Asia and Karnataka. Harappa and Mohenjo-daro each have populations of 100,000.§
-2600 Major portions of the Veda hymns are composed during the reign of Visvamitra I (Dating by S.B. Roy).§
-2600 Drying up of Drishadvati River of Vedic fame, along with possible shifting of the Yamuṇā to flow into the Gaṅgā.§
-2600 First Egyptian Pyramid under construction.§
-2500 Main period of Indus-Sarasvatī cities. Atharva Veda indicates culture relies heavily on rice and cotton, which were first cultivated in India. Ninety percent of sites are along the Sarasvatī, the region’s agricultural bread basket. Mohenjo-daro is a large peripheral trading center. Rakhigari and Ganweriwala on the Sarasvatī are as big as Mohenjo-daro. So is Dholavira in Kutch. Indus-Sarasvatī sites have been found as far south as Karnataka’s Godavari River and north into Afghanistan on the Amu Darya River.§
-2500 Reference to vernal equinox in Kṛittikā (Pleiades or early Taurus) from Yajur and Atharva Veda hymns and Brāhmaṇas. This corresponds to Harappan seals that show seven women (the Kṛittikās) tending a fire. §
-2350 Sage Gargya (born 2285), 50th in Purāṇic list of kings and sages, son of Garga, initiates method of reckoning successive centuries in relation to a nakshatra list he records in the Atharva Veda with Kṛittikā as the first star. Equinox occurs at Kṛittikia Pūrṇimā.§
-2300 Sargon founds Mesopotamian kingdom of Akkad, trades with Indus-Sarasvatī Valley cities.§
-2300 Indo-Europeans in Russia’s Ural steppelands develop efficient spoked-wheel chariot, using 1,000-year-old horse husbandry and freight-cart technology. §
-2051 Divodasa reigns to ‒1961, has contact with Babylon’s King Indatu (Babylonian chronology). Dating by S.B. Roy. §
-2050 Vedic people are settled in Iran (Persia) and Afghanistan. §
ca -2040 Prince Rāma born at Ayodhya, site of future Rāma temple (this and next two dates by S.B. Roy; see also -4000). §
-2033 Reign of Dasaratha, father of Lord Rāma. King Ravana, villain of the Rāmāyaṇa, reigns in Sri Lanka.§
-2000§
-2000 Indo-Europeans (Celts, Teutons, Slavs, Balts, Hellens, Italics) follow social usages and beliefs that parallel early Vedic patterns.§
-2000 Possible date of the first formulated Śaiva Āgamas.§
-2000 World population: 27 million. India: 5 million or 22 percent. India has roughly one fourth of human race through much of history.§
-1915 All Madurai Tamil Saṅgam is held at Thiruparankundram (according to traditional Tamil chronology).§
-1900 Late Vedic period ends, post Vedic period begins. (Early dating; see also -1000).§
-1900 Drying up of Sarasvatī River, end of Indus-Sarasvatī culture, end of the Vedic age. After this, the center of civilization in ancient India relocates from the Sarasvatī to the Gaṅgā, along with possible migration of Vedic peoples out of India to the Near East (perhaps giving rise to the Mitanni and Kassites, who worship Vedic Gods). The redirection of the Sutlej into the Indus causes the Indus area to flood. Climate changes make the Sarasvatī region too dry for habitation. (Thought lost, its river bed is finally photographed via satellite in the 1990s.)§
-1728-1686 Hammurabi, famous lawgiver, is king of Babylon.§
-1500§
-1500 Egyptians bury their royalty in the Valley of the Kings.§
-1500 Polynesians migrate throughout Pacific islands. §
-1500 Proposed date of submergence of the stone port city of Dwarka near Gujarat. Residents use iron and employ a script halfway between Harappan and Brahmi, India’s ancient pre-Sanskritic alphabet. [Findings from recent excavations by Dr. S.R. Rao, larger than Mohenjo-daro. Many identify it with the Dwarka of Kṛishṇa’s time, suggesting possible date of Lord Kṛishṇa. Indicates second urbanization phase of India between Indus-Sarasvatī sites like Harappa and later cities on the Gaṅgā.]§
-1500 Indigenous iron technology in Dwarka and Kashmir.§
-1500 Cinnamon is exported from Kerala to Middle East.§
-1450 End of Ṛig Veda Saṁhitā composition.§
-1450 Early Upanishads are composed during the next few hundred years, also Vedāṅgas and Sūtra literature.§
-1424 Mahābhārata War occurs (dated from reference in the Mahābhārata citing winter solstice at Dhanishṭha, which occurs around this time). Reign of Kaurava king Dhritarashtra and of Pandava king Yudhishthira. Time of Sage Yajnavalkya. (See now-preferred date at -3139. Subash Kak places the battle at -2449. Others give later dates, up to 9th century BCE.)§
-1424 Birth of Parikshit, grandson of Arjuna, and next king.§
-1350 At Boghaz Köy, Turkey, stone inscription of the treaty with Mitanni lists as divine witnesses the Vedic Deities Mitra, Varuṇa, Indra and the Nāsātyas (Aśvins).§
-1316 Mahābhārata epic poem is composed by Sage Vyasa.§
-1300§
-1300 Very early date (by S.B. Roy) for lifetime of Panini, whose Ashṭādhyāyī systematizes Sanskrit grammar in 4,000 rules. (Western scholars place him at -400 bce, or as late as 300 ce.) §
-1300 Revisions are made in the materials of Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa through 200 BCE. Purāṇas are edited up until 400 CE. Early smṛiti literature is composed over next 400 years. §
-1255 King Suchi of Magadha sets forth Jyotisha Vedāṅga, dating it by including an astronomical note that summer solstice is in Aśleshā Nakshatra. §
-1250 Moses leads 600,000 Jews out of Egypt. (Early traditional dating.)§
-1200 Approximate time of the legendary Greek-Trojan War celebrated in Homer’s epic poems, Iliad and Odyssey (ca -750).§
-1150 Nebuchadnezzar I of Isin, king of Babylon, throws off Elamite domination.§
-1000 Late Vedic period ends. Post-Vedic period begins. (Later dating, see also -1900).§
-1000 World population is 50 million, doubling every 500 years.§
-1000 Jewish king David (reigns to ca -962) rules a united kingdom in present-day Israel and parts of Jordan and Syria.§
-950 King Hiram of Tyre in Phoenicia, in treaty with Israel’s King Solomon (son of David), trades with the port of Ophir (Sanskrit: Supara) near modern Mumbai. Same trade with India goes back to Harappan era.§
-950 Jewish traders arrive in India in King Solomon’s merchant fleet. Later Jewish colonies find India a tolerant home.§
-950 Breakdown of Sanskrit as a spoken language occurs over the next 200 years. §
-900§
-900 Iron Age in India. Early sporadic use dates from at least -1500.§
ca -900 Earliest records of the holy city of Varanasi (one of the world’s oldest living cities) on the sacred river Gaṅgā.§
-900 Use of iron supplements bronze in Greece.§
-850 The Chinese are using the 28-nakshatra zodiac called Shiu, adapted from the Hindu jyotisha system. §
ca -800 Later Upanishads are recorded.§
-800 Later smṛiti (secondary Hindu scriptures) are composed, elaborated and developed during next 1,000 years. §
-776 First Olympic Games are held and documented in Greece.§
-750 Prākṛits (vernacular or “natural” languages) develop among India’s common peoples. Already flourishing in 500 BCE, Pāli and other Prākṛits are chiefly known from Buddhist and Jain works composed at this time.§
-750 Literary Sanskrit is refined over next 500 years, taking on its classical form.§
-700§
-700 Early Smārtism emerges from the syncretic Vedic brāhminical (priestly caste) tradition. (It flourishes today as a liberal sect alongside Śaiva, Vaishṇava and Śākta sects.)§
-623‒543 Life of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, born in Uttar Pradesh in a princely Śākya Śaivite family. (Date by Sri Lankan Buddhists. Indian and other scholars favor -563 to ‒483; Mahāyānists of China and Japan prefer -566 to ‒486 or later.) §
-605 Nebuchadnezzar II is king of Babylon (-605 to -562). His building program makes it the world’s largest and most magnificent city, slightly larger than present-day San Francisco.§
ca -600 Life of Zoroaster, founder of Zoroastrianism, original religion of the Persians. His Zend Avesta, holy book of that faith, has much in common with the Ṛig Veda, sharing many verses. Zoroastrianism makes strong distinctions between good and evil, setting the dualistic tone of God and devil which pervades all later Western religions.§
ca -600 Life of Susruta of Varanasi, the father of surgery. His āyurvedic treatises cover pulse diagnosis, hernia, cataract, cosmetic surgery, medical ethics, 121 surgical implements, antiseptics, toxicology, psychiatry, classification of burns, midwifery, surgical anesthesia, therapeutics of garlic and use of drugs to control bleeding. §
ca -600 The Ajīvikas, an ascetic, atheistic sect of naked sādhus is at its height, continuing in Mysore until the 14th century. Adversaries of Buddha and Mahavira, their philosophy is deterministic, holding that everything is inevitable.§
ca -600 Lifetime of Lao-tzu, founder of Taoism in China, author of Tao te Ching. Its esoteric teachings of simplicity and selflessness shape Chinese life for 2,000 years and permeate the religions of Vietnam, Japan and Korea. §
-599‒527 Lifetime of Mahavira Vardhamana, 24th Tīrthaṅkara, renaissance Jain master who stresses vegetarianism, asceticism and nonviolence. (Some place him 40 years later.)§
-560 In Greece, Pythagoras teaches math, music, vegetarianism and yoga, drawing from India’s wisdom ways.§
-550§
-551‒478 Lifetime of Confucius, founder of Confucianism. His teachings on social ethics form the basis of Chinese education, religion and ruling-class ideology.§
-518 Darius I of Persia (Iran) invades Indus Valley. This Zoroastrian ruler shows tolerance for local religions.§
ca -500 Lifetime of Kapila, founder of Sāṅkhya Darśana, one of six classical systems of Hindu philosophy. §
ca -500 Dams to store water are constructed in India.§
-500 World population reaches 100 million. India’s population is 25 million, 15 million of whom live in the Gaṅgā basin.§
ca -500 Over the next 300 years (according to later dating by Müller) numerous secondary Hindu scriptures (smṛiti) are composed: Śrauta Sūtras, Gṛihya Sūtras, Dharma Sūtras, Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaṇa and Purāṇas, etc.§
ca -500 Valmiki writes 29,000-verse Yoga Vāsishṭha.§
ca -500 Tamil Saṅgam age (-500 to 500) begins (see -3000). Sage Agastya writes Agattiyam, first known Tamil grammar (Kulkarni places him at -8576). Tolkappiyar (Kulkarni says -2700) writes Tolkappiyam Purananuru, on grammar, stating he is recording rules on poetry, rhetoric, etc., of earlier grammarians, indicating prior high development of Tamil. Gives rules for absorbing Sanskrit words. Other Saṅgam Age works are the poetical Paripadal, Pattuppattu, Ettuthokai Purananuru, Akananuru, Aingurunuru, Padinenkilkanakku. Some refer to worship of Vishṇu, Indra, Murugan and Supreme Śiva.§
ca -486 Ajatasatru (reign -486 to ‒458) ascends Magadha throne.§
-480 Ajita, a nāstika (atheist) who teaches a purely material explanation of life and that death is final, dies.§
-478 Prince Vijaya, exiled by his father, King Sinhabahu, sails from Gujarat with 700 followers. Founds Sinhalese kingdom in Sri Lanka. (From the Mahāvaṁsa chronicle, ca 500.)§
-469‒399 Lifetime of Athenian philosopher Socrates. §
-428‒348 Lifetime of Plato, Athenian disciple of Socrates. This great philosopher founds Athens Academy in -387.§
-400§
-400 Panini composes his Sanskrit grammar, the Ashṭādhyāyī (date by Western scholars; see Indian dates at -1300).§
ca -400 Lifetime of Hippocrates, Greek physician and “Father of medicine,” formulates Hippocratic oath, code of medical ethics still pledged by Western doctors.§
ca -350 Rainfall is measured by Indian scientists.§
-326 Alexander the Great of Macedon invades but fails to conquer Northwestern India. Soldiers’ mutiny forces him to retreat and he leaves India the same year. Greeks who remain intermarry with Indians. Mutual interaction influences both civilizations. Greek sculpture impacts Hindu styles. Bactrian kingdoms later promote Greek influence.§
-305 Chandragupta Maurya, founder of first pan-Indian empire (-324 to -184), expels Greek garrisons of Seleucus, founder of Seleucid Empire in Iran and Syria. At its height under Emperor Asoka (reign -273 to -232), the Mauryan Empire includes all India except the far South.§
ca -302 Kautilya (Chanakya), minister to Chandragupta Maurya, writes Arthaśāstra, a compendium of laws, procedures and advice for running a kingdom. §
-302 In Indica, Megasthenes, envoy of King Seleucus, reveals to Europe in colorful detail the wonders of Mauryan India: an opulent society with intensive agriculture, engineered irrigation and 7 castes: philosophers, farmers, soldiers, herdsmen, artisans, magistrates and counselors. §
-300§
ca -300 Chinese discover cast iron, known in Europe by 1300 ce.§
ca -300 Pāṇḍya kingdom (-300 to ‒1700 CE) is founded, builder of many of South India’s grandest temples, including Madurai Minakshi, Srirangam and Rameshwaram (ca 1600).§
ca -300 Pañcharātra Vaishṇava sect is prominent. All later Vaishṇava sects are based on the Pañcharātra beliefs (formalized by Sandilya around 100 CE).§
-297 Emperor Chandragupta abdicates; becomes Jain monk.§
-273 Asoka, the greatest Mauryan Emperor, grandson of Chandragupta, seizes power and rules until 232. He converts to Buddhism after his brutal conquest of Kalinga in -260, and several other countries. He excels at public works, sends diplomatic missions to Syria, Egypt, Cyrene (now Libya), Epirus and Greece; and Buddhist dharma missions to Sri Lanka, China and throughout Southeast Asia. In his 40-year reign, Buddhism becomes a world power. He records his work and teaching in inscriptions, the Rock and Pillar Edicts. India’s national emblem features the lion capital from his pillar at Sarnath.§
-251 Emperor Asoka sends his son Mahendra (-270 to ‒204) to spread Buddhism in Sri Lanka, where to this day he is revered as the national faith’s founding missionary.§
ca -251 The latest (Western) date for Panini’s grammar. (See -1300, -400.) §
-250§
ca -250 Lifetime of Maharishi Nandinatha, first known satguru in the Kailāsa Paramparā of the Nandinātha Sampradāya. His eight disciples are Sanatkumar, Sanakar, Sanadanar, Sananthanar, Sivayogamuni, Patanjali, Vyaghrapada and Tirumular (Sundaranatha).§
ca -221 Great Wall of China is built, ultimately 2,600 miles long, the only man-made object visible from the moon. §
ca -200 Lifetime of Rishi Tirumular, disciple of Maharishi Nandinatha and author of the 3,047-verse Tirumantiram, a summation of Śaiva Āgamas and Vedas, concisely articulating the Nandinātha Sampradāya teachings, founding South India’s monistic Śaiva Siddhānta school. §
ca -200 Lifetime of Saint Auvaiyar of Tamil Nadu, Gaṇeśa devotee, mystic poet and yogīnī (see also 800).§
ca -200 Lifetime of Patanjali, śishya of Nandinatha and brother monk of Tirumular. He writes the Yoga Sūtras at Chidambaram, in South India (Kulkarni dates him at -550).§
ca -200 Bhogar Rishi (one of 18 Tamil siddhars) shapes from nine poisons the mūrti enshrined in today’s Palani Hills temple in South India. He is from China or visits there.§
ca -200 Lifetime of Saint Tiruvalluvar, poet-weaver who lived near present-day Chennai, author of Tirukural, “Holy Couplets,” the classic Tamil work on ethics and statecraft (sworn on in today’s South Indian law courts).§
ca -200 Jaimini writes the Mīmāṁsā Sūtras.§
-150§
ca -150 Ajantā Buddhist Caves are begun near present-day Hyderabad. Construction of 29 monasteries and galleries continues to 650 CE. Famous murals are painted 600‒650 CE.§
-145 Chola Empire (-145 to ‒1300 CE) of Tamil Nadu is founded, noted for government organization and artistic accomplishment, including enormous irrigation works.§
-140 Emperor Wu begins three-year reign of China; worship of the Mother Goddess, Earth, attains importance.§
-130 Reign ends of Menander (Milinda), Indo-Greek king who converts to Buddhism.§
-117-116 Greek navigators Eudoxus of Cyzicus and Hippalus of Alexandria discover use of monsoon winds in the direct sea traffic (rather than coast wise) to and from India. This results in the great increase of Western commerce, especially under the early Roman Empire. §
-58 Vikrama Sāmvat Era Hindu calendar begins. §
-50 Kushāṇa Empire begins (-50 to -220 CE). This Mongolian Buddhist dynasty rules most of Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia. §
ca -10 Ilangovadikal, son of King Cheralathan of the Tamil Saṅgam age, writes outstanding epic Silappathikaram, classical Tamil treatise on music and dance.§
-4 Jesus of Nazareth (-4 to -30 CE), founder of Christianity, is born, traditionally in Bethlehem of Judea (dates according to current Biblical scholarship).§
Western calendar begins. C.E.—Common Era§
10 World population is 170 million. India’s is 35 million: 20.5 percent of world.§
-50§
ca 50 South Indians occupy Funan, Indochina. Kaundinya, an Indian brāhmin, is first king. Śaivism is state religion.§
53 A Christian legend places the death of Saint Thomas, one of Christ’s 12 Apostles, in Chennai. But history offers no evidence he ever came to India and shows that Bharat’s first Christian community was Kerala’s Syrian Malabar Church, founded in 345 by Thomas of Cana. §
ca 60 Emperor Ming-Ti (reign: 58‒76) converts to Buddhism and introduces the faith in China. Brings two monks from India who erect temple at modern Honan.§
69 A large Jewish community is established in Cochin.§
ca 75 A Gujarat prince named Ajisaka invades Java.§
78 Śaka Hindu calendar/era begins. §
ca 80 Jains divide, on points of rules for monks, into the Śvetāmbara, “White-clad,” and the Digambara, “Sky-clad.” §
ca 80‒180 Lifetime of Charaka, court physician to the Kushāṇa king, Kanishka. He formulates a code of conduct for doctors of āyurveda and writes Charaka Saṁhitā, a manual of medicine. §
ca 100 Lifetime of Sandilya, first systematic promulgator of the ancient Pāñcharātra doctrines. His Bhakti Sūtras, devotional aphorisms on Vishṇu, inspire a Vaishṇava renaissance. By 900 CE the sect has left a permanent mark on many Hindu schools. (The Saṁhitā of Sandilya and his followers, Pañcharātra Āgama, embodies the chief doctrines of present-day Vaishṇavas.) §
100§
100 Hsüen Tsang of China establishes trade routes to India and as far west as Rome, later known as the Silk Roads. (See alternate date: 630-644).§
105 Paper is invented in China. §
117 The Roman Empire reaches its greatest extent.§
125 Satakarni (reign: ca 106‒130) of Andhra’s Śātavāhana dynasty (-70–225) destroys Śaka kingdom of Gujarat.§
ca 175 Greek astronomer Ptolemy, known as Asura Maya in India, spreads the knowledge of solar astronomy, Sūrya Siddhānta, to Indian students.§
180 Mexican city of Teotihuacan has 100,000 population and covers 11 square miles. Grows to 250,000 by 500 CE.§
ca 200 Lifetime of Lakulisa, famed guru who leads a reformist movement within Pāśupata Śaivism.§
ca 200 Hindu kingdoms are established in Cambodia and Malaysia.§
205‒270 Lifetime of Plotinus, Egyptian-born monistic Greek philosopher and religious genius who transforms a revival of Platonism in the Roman Empire into what present-day scholars call Neo-Platonism, greatly influencing Islamic and European thought. He teaches ahiṁsā, vegetarianism, karma, reincarnation and belief in a Supreme Being that is both immanent and transcendent. §
ca 250 Pallava dynasty (ca 250‒885) is established in Tamil Nadu. They erect the Kailasa Kamakshi Temple complex at the capital of Kanchi and the great 7th-century stone monuments at Mahabalipuram. §
ca 275 Buddhist monastery Mahavihara is founded in Anuradhapura, capital of Sri Lanka.§
300§
350 Imperial Gupta dynasty (320‒540) flourishes. During this “Classical Age” norms of literature, art, architecture and philosophy are established. This North Indian empire promotes both Vaishṇavism and Śaivism and, at its height, rules or receives tribute from nearly all India. Buddhism also thrives under tolerant Gupta rule. §
ca 350 Licchavi dynasty (ca 350‒900) establishes Hindu rule in Nepal. Small kingdom becomes the major intellectual and commercial center between South and Central Asia.§
358 Huns, excellent archers and horsemen possibly of Turkish origin, invade Europe from the East.§
375 Maharaja Chandragupta II Vikramaditya, greatest Hindu monarch, reigns to 413, expanding the prosperous Gupta Empire northward beyond the Indus River.§
ca 380-460 Approximate lifetime of Kalidasa, the great Sanskrit poet and dramatist, author of Śākuntala and Meghadūta. (An earlier dating championed by some scholars is 50 BCE.)§
391 Roman Emperor Theodosius destroys Greek Hellenistic temples in favor of Christianity.§
400§
ca 400 Manu Dharma Śāstra is written. Its 2,685 verses codify cosmogony, four āśramas, government, domestic affairs, caste and morality. (Others prefer -600; Kulkarni gives 150 BCE for latest edition of a code in vogue since -7000.)§
ca 400 Polynesians sailing in open outrigger canoes reach as far as Hawaii and Easter Island.§
ca 400 Chaturaṅga, the Indian forerunner of chess, has evolved from ashṭapāda, a board-based race game, into a four-handed war game played with a die. Later, in deference to the Laws of Manu which forbid gambling, players discard the die and create shatrañj, a two-sided strategy game.§
ca 400 Vatsyayana writes Kāmasūtra, the famous text on erotics.§
419 Moche people of Peru build a Sun temple 150 feet high using 50 million bricks.§
ca 430 Hindu ancestors of present-day Romanī people, or Gypsies, leave Rajasthan, Sindh and other areas of India, move to Persia and gradually on to reach Europe ca 800.§
438‒45 Council of Ferrara-Florence, Italy, strengthens the Roman Catholic stance against the doctrine of reincarnation. §
ca 440 Ajanta cave frescoes (long before Islam) depict Buddha as Prince Siddhārtha, wearing chūḍīdara pyjama and a prototype of the “Nehru shirt.” §
450‒535 Life of Bodhidharma of South India, 28th patriarch of India’s Dhyāna Buddhist sect, founder of Ch’an Buddhism in China (520), known as Zen in Japan. §
ca 450 Hephthalite invasions (ca 450‒565) take a great toll in North India. These “White Huns” (or Hūṇas) from the borders of China may or may not be related to Europe’s Hun invaders. §
ca 450 As the Gupta Empire declines, Indian sculptural style evolves and continues until the 16th century. The trend is away from the swelling modeled forms of the Gupta period toward increasing flatness and linearity.§
453 Attila the Hun dies after lifetime of plundering Europe.§
499 Aryabhata I (476‒ca 550), Indian astronomer and mathematician, using Hindu (“Arabic”) numerals accurately calculates pi (π) to 3.1416, and the solar year to 365.3586805 days. A thousand years before Copernicus, Aryabhata propounds a heliocentric system with elliptically orbiting planets and a spherical Earth spinning on its axis, explaining the apparent rotation of the heavens. His Āryabhaṭīya contains history’s first exposition on plane and spherical trigonometry, algebra and arithmetic.§
500§
ca 500 Mahāvaṁsa, a Pāli text chronicling Sri Lankan history from -500, is written, probably by Buddhist monk Mahanama. A sequel, Chulavaṁśa, continues the history to 1500. §
ca 500 Sectarian folk traditions are revised, elaborated and reduced to writing as the Purāṇas, Hinduism’s encyclopedic compendium of culture and mythology. §
500 World population is 190 million. India’s is 50 million: 26.3 percent of world.§
510 Hephthalite Mihirakula from beyond Oxus River crushes imperial Gupta power. Soon controls much of North-Central India. §
ca 533 Yasovarman of Malva and Isanavarman of Kanauj defeat and expel the Hephthalites from North India. §
ca 543 Pulakesin I founds Chālukya Dynasty (ca 543‒757; 975–1189) in Gujarat and later in larger areas of West India. §
548 Emperor Kimmei officially recognizes Buddhism in Japan by accepting a gift image of Buddha from Korea. §
553 Council of Constantinople II denies doctrine of soul’s existence before conception, implying that reincarnation is incompatible with Christian belief. §
565 The Turks and Persians defeat the Hephthalites. §
570‒632 Lifetime of Mohammed of the Quraysh Bedouin tribe, founder of Islam. Begins to preach in Mecca, calling for an end to the “demons and idols” of Arab religion and conversion to the ways of the one God, Allah.§
ca 590‒671 Lifetime of Śaiva saint Nayanar Tirunavukkarasu, born into a farmer family at Amur, now in South Arcot, Tamil Nadu. He writes 312 songs, totalling 3,066 Tirumurai verses. Cleaning the grounds of every temple he visits, he exemplifies truly humble service to Lord Śiva. His contemporary, the child-saint Nayanar Sambandar, addresses him affectionately as Appar, “Father.” §
ca 598‒665 Lifetime of Brahmagupta, pre-eminent Indian astronomer, who writes on gravity and sets forth the Hindu astronomical system in his Brāhma Sphuṭa Siddhānta. Two of 25 chapters are on sophisticated mathematics.§
600§
ca 600 Religiously tolerant Pallava king Narasinhavarman builds China Pagoda, a Buddhist temple, at the Nagapatam port for Chinese merchants and visiting monks.§
ca 600‒900 Twelve Vaishṇava Alvar saints of Tamil Nadu flourish, writing 4,000 songs and poems (assembled in their canon Nalayira Divya Prabandham) praising Nārāyaṇa, Rāma and narrating the affairs of Kṛishṇa and the gopīs. §
ca 600 Life of Banabhatta, Śākta master of Sanskrit prose, author of Harshācharita (Story of Harsha) and Kādambarī.§
606 Buddhist Harshavardhana, reigning 606‒644, establishes first great kingdom after the Hephthalite invasions, eventually ruling all India to the Narmadā River in the South. §
ca 610 Mohammed begins prophecies, flees to Mecca in 622. §
ca 630 Vagbhata writes Ashṭāṅga Saṅgraha on āyurveda. §
630‒34 Chālukya Pulakesin II becomes Lord of South India by defeating Harshavardhana, Lord of the North. §
630‒44 Chinese pilgrim Hsüen Tsang (Xuan-zang) travels in India, recording his copious observations. Population of Varanasi is 10,000, mostly Śaiva. Nalanda Buddhist university (his biographer writes) has 10,000 residents, including 1,510 teachers, and thousands of manuscripts. (Alternate date: 100.)§
641‒45 Arab Muslims conquer Mesopotamia, Egypt and Persia. §
650§
ca 650 Lifetime of Nayanar Śaiva saint Tirujnana Sambandar. Born a brāhmin in Tanjavur, he writes 384 songs totalling 4,158 verses that make up the first three books of Tirumurai. At 16, he disappears into the sanctum of Nallur temple, near Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu. §
ca 650 More than 60 Chinese monks have traveled to India and her colonies. Four hundred Sanskrit works have been translated into Chinese; 380 survive to the present day.§
686‒705 Reign of Pallava king Rajasinha. He inherits the stone-carving legacy of Emperor Mahendra and his son, Narasinha, who began the extensive sculptural works in the thriving seaport of Mahabalipuram.§
ca 700 Over the next hundred years the 2,095-square-mile Indonesian island of Bali receives Hinduism from its neighbor, Java.§
712 Muslims conquer Sind region (Pakistan), setting up base for pillaging expeditions that drain North India’s wealth.§
732 Franks prevent Muslim conquest of Europe, stopping Arabs at Poitiers, France, northwest limit of Arab penetration.§
739 Chālukya armies beat back Arab Muslim invasions at Navasari in modern Maharashtra. §
750§
ca 750‒1159 Pāla dynasty arises in Bihar and Bengal, last royal patrons of Buddhism, which they help establish in Tibet.§
ca 750 Rashṭrakuta dynasty carves Kailasa temple out of a rock hill at Ellora.§
ca 750 A Hindu astronomer and mathematician in Baghdad translates into Arabic Brahmagupta’s Brāhma Sphuṭa Siddhānta (treatise on astronomy), transmitting decimal notation and use of zero to the Arab world.§
ca 750 Lifetime of Bhavabhuti, Sanskrit dramatist, second only to Kalidasa. Writes Mālatī-Mādhava, a Śākta work.§
ca 750 Valmiki writes 29,000-verse Yoga Vāsishṭha. §
ca 750 A necklace timepiece, kadikaram in Tamil, is worn by an emperor (according to scholar M. Arunachalam).§
788 Adi Sankara (788‒820) is born in Malabar. The famous Smārta monk-philosopher writes mystic poems and scriptural commentaries, including Viveka Chūḍāmaṇi, and regularizes ten monastic orders called Daśanāmī. Preaches Māyāvāda Advaita, emphasizing the world as illusion and God as the sole Reality. §
800§
ca 800 Bhakti revival curtails Buddhism in South India. In the North, Buddha is revered as Vishṇu’s 9th incarnation.§
ca 800 Life of Nammalvar, greatest of Alvar saints. His poems shape beliefs of Southern Vaishṇavas to the present day.§
ca 800 Lifetime of Vasugupta, modern founder of Kashmīr Śaivism, a monistic, meditative school.§
ca 800 Lifetime (by later dating) of Auvaiyar, saint of Tamil Nadu, Gaṇeśa devotee, author of Auvai Kural. She is associated with the Lambika kuṇḍalinī school. (An earlier strong traditional date for Auvaiyar of 200 BCE is from a story about her and Saint Tiruvalluvar as contemporaries. A third reference places her around 1000. Auvaiyar means “venerable, learned lady;” some believe there were three different Auvaiyars.)§
ca 800 Lifetime of Karaikkalammaiyar, one of the 63 Śaiva saints of Tamil Nadu. Her mystical, yogic hymns, preserved in Tirumurai, remain popular to the present day.§
ca 800 Lifetime of Andal, girl saint of Tamil Nadu. Writes devotional poetry to Lord Kṛishṇa, disappears at age 16.§
ca 825 Nayanar Tamil saint Sundarar is born into a family of Ādiśaiva temple priests in Tirunavalur in present-day South Arcot. His 100 songs in praise of Śiva (the only ones surviving of his 38,000 songs) make up Tirumurai book 7. His Tiru Tondattohai poem, naming the Śaiva saints, is the basis for Saint Sekkilar’s Periyapurāṇam. §
ca 825 Vasugupta discovers the rock-engraved Śiva Sūtras.§
846 Vijayalaya re-establishes his Chola dynasty, which over the next 100 years grows and strengthens into one of the greatest South Indian Empires ever known.§
850§
ca 850 Śrī Vaishṇava sect established in Tamil Nadu by Acharya Nathamuni, forerunner of the great theologian Ramanuja. §
ca 850 Life of Manikkavasagar, Śaiva Samayāchārya saint, born in Tiruvadavur, near Madurai, into a Tamil brāhmin family. Writes famed Tiruvasagam, 51 poems of 656 verses in 3,394 lines, chronicling the soul’s evolution to God Śiva. Tirupalli-eluchi and Tiruvembavai are classic examples of his innovative style of devotional songs.§
875 Muslim conquests extend from Spain to Indus Valley.§
885 Cholas kill Aparajita, king of the Pallavas, in battle.§
ca 900 Lifetime of Matsyendranatha, exponent of the Nātha sect emphasizing kuṇḍalinī yoga practices.§
ca 900 Under the Hindu Malla dynasty (ca 900‒1700) of Nepal, legal and social codes influenced by Hinduism are introduced. Nepal is broken into several principalities.§
ca 900‒1001 Lifetime of Sembiyan Ma Devi, queen of Maharaja Gandaraditta Chola from 950 to 957. A loyal patron of Śaivism, she builds ten temples and inspires and influences her grand-nephew, son of Sundara Chola, who as King Rajaraja I becomes a great temple-builder.§
900 Mataramas dynasty in Indonesia reverts to Śaivism after a century of Buddhism, building 150 Śaiva temples.§
ca 950 Lifetime of Gorakshanatha, Nātha yogī who founds the order of Kanphaṭha Yogīs and Gorakshanātha Śaivism, the philosophical school called Siddha Siddhānta.§
ca 950‒1015 Lifetime of Kashmīr Śaiva guru Abhinavagupta.§
960 Chola king Vira, after having a vision of Śiva Naṭarāja, commences enlargement of the Śiva temple at Chidambaram, including the construction of the gold-roofed shrine. The enlargement is completed in 1250 CE.§
985 Rajaraja I (reign 985‒1014) ascends the South Indian Chola throne and ushers in a new age of temple architecture exemplified at Tanjavur, Darasuram, Tirubhuvanam and Chidambaram. Pallava architectural influences (dominant vimānas, inconspicuous gopuras) fade.§
1000§
ca 1000 Lifetime of Gorakshanatha, Nātha yogī who founds the order of Kanphaṭha Yogīs and Gorakshanātha Śaivism, the philosophical school called Siddha Siddhānta.§
ca 1000 Gorakshanatha writes Siddha Siddhānta Paddhati, “Tracks on the Doctrines of the Adepts.” In 353 verses he explains the nature of God and universe, structure of chakras, kuṇḍalinī force and methods for realization.§
1000 World population is 265 million. India’s is 79 million, 29.8 percent of world.§
ca 1000 Vikings reach North America, landing in Nova Scotia.§
ca 1000 Polynesians arrive in New Zealand, in the last stage in the greatest migration and navigational feat in history, making them the most widely spread race on the planet.§
1001 Turkish Muslims sweep through the Northwest under Mahmud of Ghazni, defeating Jayapala of Hindu Śāhi Dynasty of South Afghanisthan and Punjab at Peshawar. This is the first major Muslim conquest in India.§
ca 1010 Tirumurai, Tamil devotional hymns of Śaiva saints, is collected as an anthology by Nambiandar Nambi.§
1017 Mahmud of Ghazni sacks Mathura, birthplace of Lord Kṛishṇa, and establishes a mosque on the site during one of his 17 Indian invasions for holy war and plunder.§
1017‒1137 Life of Ramanuja of Kanchipuram, Tamil philosopher-saint of Śrī Vaishṇava sect that continues bhakti tradition of South Indian Alvar saints. His strongly theistic, nondual Viśishṭādvaita Vedānta philosophy restates Pañcharātra tradition. Foremost opponent of Sankara’s system, he dies at age 120 while head of Srirangam monastery.§
1018‒1060 Lifetime of Bhojadeva Paramara, Gujarati king, poet, artist and monistic Śaiva Siddhānta theologian. §
1024 Mahmud of Ghazni plunders Somanath Śiva temple, destroying the Śivaliṅga and killing 50,000 Hindu defenders. He later builds a mosque on the remaining walls. §
1025 Chola ruler Maharaja Rajendra I sends victorious naval expeditions to Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia, initiating decline of Mahāyāna Buddhist empire of Srivijaya.§
ca 1040 Chinese invent the compass and moveable type and perfect the use of gunpowder, first invented and used in India as an explosive mixture of saltpetre, sulfur and charcoal to power guns, cannons and artillery.§
1050§
ca 1050 Lifetime of Srikantha, promulgator of Śiva Advaita, a major philosophical school of Śaivism.§
ca 1130‒1200 Lifetime of Nimbarka, Telugu founder of the Vaishṇava Nimandi sect holding dvaitādvaita, dual-nondual, philosophy. He introduces the worship of Kṛishṇa together with consort Rādhā. (Present-day Nimavats revere Lord Vishṇu Himself, in the form of the Haṁsa Avatāra, as the originator of their sect.)§
ca 1130 Lifetime of Sekkilar, Tamil chief minister under Chola Emperor Kulottunga II (reign 1133‒1150) and author of Periyapurāṇam, 4,286-verse epic hagiography of the 63 Śaiva saints, which is book 12 of the Tirumurai.§
ca 1150 Life of Basavanna, renaissance guru of the Vīra Śaiva sect, stressing free will, equality, service to humanity and worship of the Śivaliṅga worn around the neck.§
ca 1150 Khmer ruler Suryavarman II completes Angkor Wat temple (in present-day Cambodia), where his body is later entombed and worshiped as an embodiment of Vishṇu. This largest Hindu temple in Asia is 12 miles in circumference, with a 200-foot high central tower.§
ca 1162 Mahadevi is born, Śaiva ascetic saint of Karnataka. She wrote 350 majestic and mystical poems.§
1175 Toltec Empire of Mexico crumbles.§
1185 Mohammed of Ghur conquers Punjab and Lahore.§
1191 Eisai founds Rinzai Zen sect in Japan after study in China.§
1193 Qutb ud-Din Aybak, a freed slave and first Muslim Sultan of Delhi, establishes Mamluk Dynasty (1193‒1290). §
1197 Great Buddhist university of Nalanda is destroyed by Muslim Ikhtiyār uddin.§
1200§
1200 All of North India is now under Muslim domination.§
1200 India population reaches 80 million.§
ca 1200 An unknown author writes Yoga Yājñavalkya.§
1215 King John is forced to grant the Magna Carta, giving greater rights to the people of England.§
1227 Mongol Emperor Genghis Khan, conqueror of a vast area from North China to Iran and Central Asia, the largest empire the world has yet seen, dies.§
1230‒60 Suryā temple is constructed at Konarak, Orissa.§
1238‒1317 Lifetime of Ananda Tirtha Madhva, venerable Vaishṇava dualist and opponent of Śankara’s Māyāvādin Advaita philosophy. He composes 37 works and founds the Dvaita Vedānta school, the Brahma Vaishṇava Sampradāya and its eight monasteries, ashṭamaṭha, in Udupi.§
1250§
ca 1250 Lifetime of Meykandar, Śaiva saint who founds the Meykandar school of pluralistic Śaiva Siddhānta. His 12-sūtra Śivajñānabodham becomes the core scripture.§
1260 Meister Eckhart, the German mystic, is born.§
1268‒1369 Lifetime of Vedanta Desikar, gifted Tamil scholar and poet who founds the Vadakalai, a sect of Vaishṇavism headquartered at Kanchipuram.§
1270‒1350 Lifetime of Namadeva, foremost poet-saint of Maharashtra’s Vārkarī (“pilgrim”) Vaishṇava school, disciple of Jnanadeva. He and his family compose a million verses in praise of Lord Viṭhobā (Vishṇu).§
1272 Marco Polo visits India en route to China.§
1274 Council of Lyons II declares that souls go immediately to heaven, purgatory or hell; interpreted by Catholic fathers as condemning the doctrine of reincarnation.§
1275‒96 Lifetime of Jnanadeva, Nātha-trained Vaishṇava saint, founder of the Vārkarī school, who writes Jñāneśvarī, a Marāṭhi verse commentary on Bhagavad Gītā, which becomes Maharashtra’s most popular book.§
1279 Muktabai is born, Mahārashtran Vārkarī saint and Nātha yoginī, known for her 100 sacred verses.§
1280 Mongol (Yuan) dynasty (1280‒1368) installed in China, under which the bulk of translation of works from Sanskrit into Chinese is completed.§
1296 Ala-ud-din, second sultan of the Khilji dynasty, rules most of India after his General Kafur conquers the South, extending Muslim dominion all the way to Rameshwaram.§
1300§
ca 1300 Lifetime of Janabai, Mahārashtran Vārkarī Vaishṇava woman saint who writes a portion of Namadeva’s million verses to Viṭhobā (Vishṇu).§
ca 1300 The Ānanda Samucçhaya is written, 277 stanzas on hatha yoga, with discussion of the chakras and nādīs.§
1300 Muslim conquerors reach Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari) at the southernmost tip of India and build a mosque there.§
1317‒72 Life of Lalla of Kashmir, Śaiva renunciate and mystic poet. She contributes significantly to the Kashmiri language.§
1336 Vijayanagara Empire (1336‒1646) of South India is founded. European visitors are impressed by the opulence and sophistication of its 17-square-mile capital.§
1345 Aztecs establish advanced civilization in Mexico.§
1346‒90 Life of Krittivasa, translator of Rāmāyaṇa into Bengali.§
1347 Plague called the Black Death spreads rapidly, killing 75 million worldwide before receding in 1351.§
ca 1350 Svatmarama writes Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā.§
ca 1350 Lifetime of Appaya Dikshita, South Indian philosopher-saint whose writings reconcile Vaishṇavism and Śaivism. He advances Śiva Advaita and other Śaiva schools and compiles a temple priests’ manual still used today.§
1398 Tamerlane (Timur) invades India with 90,000 cavalry and sacks Delhi because its Muslim ruler was too tolerant of Hindu idolatry. A Mongolian admirer of Sufism, he was one of the most ruthless of all conquerors.§
1399 Haridwar, Gaṅgā pilgrimage town, is sacked by Timur.§
1400§
ca 1400 Goraksha Upanishad is written.§
1414 Hindu prince Paramesvara of Malaysia converts to Islam.§
1414‒80 Life of Gujarāti Vaishṇava poet-saint Narasinha Mehta.§
1415 Bengali poet-singer Baru Chandidas writes Śrīkṛishṇakīrtana, a collection of exquisite songs praising Kṛishṇa.§
1429 Joan of Arc, age 17, leads French to victory over English.§
ca 1433 China cloisters itself from the outside world by banning further voyages to the West, forming the first “bamboo curtain.”§
1440‒1518 Lifetime of Kabir, Vaishṇava reformer who has both Muslim and Hindu followers. (His Hindi songs remain immensely popular to the present day.)§
ca 1440 Johannes Gutenberg (ca 1400‒1468) invents the West’s first moveable-type printing press in Germany.§
1450?‒1547 Lifetime of Mirabai, Vaishṇava Rajput princess saint who, married at an early age to the rāṇa of Udaipur, devotes herself to Kṛishṇa and later renounces worldly life to wander through India singing to Him beautiful mystic compositions that are sung to the present day. §
1469‒1538 Lifetime of Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism, originally a reformist Hindu sect stressing devotion, faith in the guru, repetition of God’s name and rejection of renunciation and caste. (Most present-day Sikhs consider themselves members of a separate religion.)§
1478 Spanish Inquisition begins. Over the next 20 years, Christians burn several thousand persons at the stake.§
1479‒1531 Lifetime of Vallabhacharya, a married Telugu brāhmin saint who teaches pushṭimārga, “path of love,” and a lofty nondual philosophy, Śuddhādvaita Vedānta, in which souls are eternally one with Brahman. Vallabhacharya’s Vaishṇavism worships Kṛishṇa in the form of Śrī Nāthjī.§
1480§
1483‒1563 Lifetime of Surdas, sightless Hindi bard of Agra, whose hymns to Kṛishṇa are collected in the Sūrsagar.§
1486‒1543 Life of Chaitanya, Bengali founder of popular Vaishṇava sect which proclaims Kṛishṇa Supreme God and emphasizes saṅkīrtan, group chanting and dancing.§
1492 Looking for India, Christopher Columbus lands on San Salvador island in the Caribbean, thus “discovering” the Americas and proving the Earth is round, not flat.§
1498 Portugal’s Vasco da Gama sails around Cape of Good Hope to Calcutta, first European to find sea route to India. Portuguese Catholics soon capture Goa (1510) and other places, beginning conquest and exploitation of India by Europeans.§
1500§
ca 1500 Life of Arunagirinathar, Tamil saint, author of Tiruppugal hymns; emphasizes feeding the hungry during a time of Muslim oppression and disrupted family life.§
ca 1500 Buddhist and Śaiva Hindu princes are forced off Java by invading Muslims. They resettle on neighboring Bali, with their overlapping priesthoods and vast royal courts: poets, dancers, musicians and artisans. Within 100 years they construct what many call a fairytale kingdom.§
1500 World population 425 million; 105 million live in India.§
1503‒1566 Lifetime of Nostradamus, French physician and astrologer who wrote Centuries (1555), a book of prophecies.§
1509‒1529 Reign of Maharaja Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara Empire in Andhra Pradesh.§
1510 Portuguese Catholics conquer Goa to serve as capital of their Asian maritime empire, beginning conquest and exploitation of India by Europeans.§
1517 Luther begins Protestant Reformation in Europe.§
ca 1520 Poet-saint Purandardas (1480‒1564) of the Vijayanagara court systematizes Karnatik music.§
1526 Mughal conqueror Babur (1483‒1530) defeats the Sultan of Delhi and captures the Koh-i-noor diamond. Occupying Delhi, by 1529 he founds the Indian Mughal Empire (1526‒1761), consolidated by his grandson Akbar.§
1528 Emperor Babur destroys temple at Lord Rāma’s birthplace in Ayodhya, erects Babri Masjid (mosque). §
1532‒1623 Life of monk-poet Tulsidas, author of Rāmacharitamānasa (1574-77) (based on Rāmāyaṇa). It advances Rāma worship in the North.§
1542 Spanish Jesuit priest Francis Xavier (1506‒1552), most successful Catholic missionary, lands in Goa. First to train and employ native clergy in conversion efforts, he brings Catholicism to India, Malay Archipelago and Japan.§
1544‒1603 Life of Dadu, ascetic saint of Gujarat, founder of Dādūpantha, which is guided by his Bānī poems in Hindi.§
1556 Akbar (1542‒1605), grandson of Babur, becomes third Mughal Emperor at age 13. Disestablishes Islam as state religion and declares himself impartial ruler of Hindus and Muslims; encourages art, culture, religious tolerance.§
1565 Muslim forces defeat and utterly destroy the city of Vijayanagara. Empire finally collapses in 1646. §
1565 Polish astronomer Copernicus’ (1473‒1543) heliocentric system, in which Earth orbits the sun, gains popularity in Europe among astronomers and mathematicians. (See Aryabhata, 499.)§
1569 Akbar captures fortress of Ranthambor, ending Rājput independence. Soon controls nearly all of Rajasthan.§
1570§
ca 1570 Ekanatha (1533-99), Vārkarī Vaishṇava saint and mystic composer, edits Jnanadeva’s Jñāneśvarī and translates Bhāgavata Purāṇa, advancing Marāthi language.§
1588 British Navy destroys the Spanish Armada off the coast of Calais, France, to become rulers of the high seas.§
1589 Akbar rules half of India, shows tolerance for all faiths.§
1595 Construction is begun on Chidambaram Temple’s Hall of a Thousand Pillars in South India, completed in 1685.§
ca 1600 “Persian wheel” to lift water by oxen is adopted, one of few farming innovations since Indus Valley civilization.§
1600 Royal Charter forms the East India Company, setting in motion a process that ultimately results in the subjugation of India under British rule. §
1603‒4 Guru Arjun compiles Ādi Granth, Sikh scripture.§
1605 Akbar the Great dies at age 63. His son Jahangir succeeds him as fourth Mughal Emperor.§
1605 Sikh Golden Temple (Harimandir) at Amritsar, Punjab, is finished; covered with gold leaf two centuries later.§
1608‒49 Lifetime of Tukaram, beloved Vārkarī sant famed for his abhaṅgas, “unbroken hymns,” to Kṛishṇa. Considered greatest Marāṭhi spiritual composer.§
1608‒81 Lifetime of Ramdas, mystic poet, Sivaji’s guru, Marāṭhi saint, who gives Hindus the dhvaja, saffron flag. §
1610 Galileo of Italy (1564‒1642) perfects the telescope and with it confirms the Copernican theory. Catholic Inquisition condemns him a heretic for his assertions.§
1613‒14 British East India Company sets up trading post at Surat.§
1615‒18 Mughals grant Britain right to trade and establish factories in consideration for English navy’s protection of the Mughal Empire against Portuguese sea power. §
1619 Jaffna kingdom is annexed and Sri Lanka’s ruling dynasty deposed by Portuguese Catholics who, between 1505 and 1658, destroy most of the island’s Hindu temples. §
1619 First black slaves from Africa are sold in Virginia.§
1620§
1620 English pilgrims land and settle at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts.§
1627‒80 Life of Sivaji, valiant general and tolerant founder of Hindu Marāṭha Empire (1674‒1818). Emancipates large areas confiscated by Muslims, returning them to Hindu control. First Indian ruler to build a major naval force. §
ca 1628‒88 Lifetime of Kumaraguruparar, prolific poet-saint of Tamil Nadu who founds monastery in Varanasi to propound Śaiva Siddhānta philosophy.§
1630 Over the next two years, millions starve to death as Shah Jahan (1592‒1666), fifth Mughal Emperor, drains the royal treasury to buy jewels for his “Peacock Throne.”§
1647 Shah Jahan completes Taj Mahal in Agra on the Yamunā River. Its construction has taken 20,000 laborers 15 years, at a total cost equivalence of US$25 million.§
1649 Red Fort is completed in Delhi by Shah Jahan.§
1650§
ca 1650 Dharmapura Aadheenam, Śaiva monastery, founded near Mayuram, South India, by Guru Jnanasambandar.§
ca 1650 Robert de Nobili (1577‒1656), Italian Jesuit missionary noted for fervor and intolerance, arrives in Madurai, declares himself a brāhmin, dresses like a Hindu monk. He is credited with composing a Veda-like Sanskrit scripture extolling Jesus.§
ca 1650 Two yoga classics, Śiva Saṁhitā and Gheraṇḍa Saṁhitā, are written.§
1654 A Tamil karttanam is written and sung to celebrate recovery installation of the Tiruchendur Murugan mūrti.§
1658 Zealous Muslim Aurangzeb (1618‒1707) becomes Mughal Emperor. His discriminatory policies toward Hindus, Marāṭhas and the Deccan kingdoms contribute to the dissolution of the Mughal Empire by 1750.§
1660 Frenchman François Bernier reports India’s peasantry is living in misery under Mughal rule.§
1664 Great Plague of London kills 70,000, 15 percent of population.§
1675 Aurangzeb executes Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur, beginning the Sikh-Muslim feud that continues to this day.§
1679 Aurangzeb levies jizya tax on non-believers, Hindus.§
1680‒1747 Lifetime of Italian Jesuit missionary Costanzio Beschi, who preached for 36 years in Tamil Nadu. Under the name of Viramamunivar, he lived in Indian fashion and attained proficiency in the Tamil language. His long poem Tembāvaṇi retells Biblical stories in ornate style.§
1682‒1722 Peter the Great rules in Russia.§
1688 Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb demolishes all temples in Mathura, said to number 1,000. (During their 500-year reign, Muslim rulers destroy roughly 60,000 Hindu temples throughout India, constructing mosques on 3,000 of those sites.)§
1700§
1700 World population is 610 million. India population is 165 million: 27 percent of world.§
ca 1770‒1840 Life of the Rishi from the Himalayas, guru of Kadaitswami and first historically known satguru of the Nandinātha Sampradāya’s Kailāsa Paramparā since Tirumular.§
1705‒42 Lifetime of Tayumanavar, Tamil Śaiva poet-saint and devotional yogic philosopher of Tiruchirappalli.§
1708 Govind Singh, tenth and last Sikh guru, is assassinated. §
1708‒37 Jai Singh II builds astronomical observatories in Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Benares and Mathura.§
1718‒75 Lifetime of Ramprasad, Bengali Śākta poet-saint. §
ca 1725 Jesuit Father Hanxleden compiles the first Sanskrit grammar in a European language. §
ca 1750 Śākta songs of Bengali poets Ramprasad Sen and Kamalakanta Bhattacharya glorify Her as loving Mother and Daughter and stimulate a rise in devotional Śāktism.§
1751 Robert Clive, age 26, seizes Arcot in modern Tamil Nadu as French and British fight for control of South India.§
1760 Śaiva sannyāsīs fight Vaishṇava vairāgīs in tragic battle at Hardwar Kumbha Mela; 18,000 monks are killed.§
1760 Israel ben Eliezer (Besht), liberal founder of Hasidic Judaism, dies. §
1761 Afghan army of Ahmad Shah Durrani routs Hindu Marātha forces at Panipat, ending Marātha hegemony in North India. As many as 200,000 Hindus are said to have died in the decisive eight-hour battle.§
1764 British defeat the weak Mughal Emperor and gain full control of Bengal, richest province of India.§
1769 Prithivi Narayaṇ Shah, ruler of Gorkha principality, conquers the Nepal Valley and moves capital to Kathmandu, establishing the present-day Hindu nation of Nepal.§
1773 British East India Company obtains monopoly on the production and sale of opium in Bengal.§
1780§
ca 1780‒1830 Golden era of Karnatic music. Composers include Sastri Tyagaraja Swamigal, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Sama Sastri. §
1781 George Washington routs British at Yorktown, Virginia.§
1781‒1830 Lifetime of Sahajanandaswami, Gujarati founder of the Swāminārāyaṇ sect (with 1.5 million followers today).§
1784 Judge and linguist Sir William Jones founds Calcutta’s Royal Asiatic Society. First such scholastic institution. §
1786 Sir William Jones uses the Ṛig Veda term Āryan (“noble”) to name the parent language of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and Germanic tongues. Nostratic is a more recent term for this hypothetical parent language of Indo-European and certain other languages previously deemed totally unrelated. §
1787‒95 British Parliament impeaches Warren Hastings, Governor General of Bengal (1774‒85) for misconduct.§
1787 British Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade is formed, marking the beginning of the end of slavery. §
1789 French Revolution begins with storming of the Bastille.§
1792 Britain’s Lord Cornwallis, Governor General of India, defeats Tipu Sahib, Sultan of Mysore and most powerful ruler in South India, main bulwark of resistance to British expansion in India.§
1793 Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin in the US, vastly increasing cotton production, proliferating slavery required to process it.§
1796 Over two million worshipers compete for sacred Gaṅgā bath at Kumbha Mela in Hardwar. Five thousand Śaiva ascetics are killed in tragic clash with Sikh ascetics.§
1799 Sultan Tipu is killed in battle against 5,000 British soldiers who storm and raze his capital, Srirangapattinam.§
1800§
1803 Second Anglo-Marāṭha war results in British Christian capture of Delhi and control of large parts of India.§
1803 India’s population estimated at 200 million.§
1803‒82 Lifetime of Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet who helps popularize Bhagavad Gītā and Upanishads in US. §
1804‒91 Lifetime of renaissance guru Kadaitswami, born near Bangalore, sent to Sri Lanka by the Rishi from the Himalayas to strengthen Śaivism against Catholic incursion.§
1807 Importation of slaves is banned in the US through an act of Congress motioned by Thomas Jefferson.§
1809 British strike a bargain with Ranjit Singh for exclusive areas of influence.§
1812 Napoleon’s Grand Army retreats from Moscow. Out of a 500,000-strong invasion force only 20,000 survive.§
1814 First practical steam locomotive is built.§
1817‒92 Lifetime of Bahaullah, Mirza Husayn ’Ali, founder of Baha’i faith (1863), a major off-shoot religion of Islam.§
1818‒78 Lifetime of Sivadayal, renaissance founder of the esoteric reformist Rādhāsoamī Vaishṇava sect in Agra. §
1820 First Indian immigrants arrive in the US.§
1822‒79 Life of Arumuga Navalar of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, renaissance activist who propounds Advaita Siddhānta, writes first Hindu catechism and translates Bible into Tamil to enable Hindus a faithful comparison to the Vedas and Agamas.§
1823‒74 Life of Ramalingaswami, Tamil saint, renaissance founder of Vadalur’s “Hall of Wisdom for Universal Worship.”§
1824‒83 Lifetime of Swami Dayananda Sarasvati, renaissance founder of Arya Samaj (1875), Hindu reformist movement stressing a return to the values and practices of the Vedas. Author of Satya Prakash, “Light on Truth.”§
1825§
1825 First massive emigration of Indian contract workers from Chennai is to Reunion and Mauritius islands. §
1828 Ram Mohan Roy (1772‒1833) founds Adi Brahmo Samaj in Calcutta. Influenced by Islam and Christianity, he denounces polytheism, idol worship; repudiates the Vedas, avatāras, karma and reincarnation, caste and more.§
1831‒91 Lifetime of Russian mystic Madame H.P. Blavatsky, founder of Theosophical Society in 1875, bringing aspects of psychism, Buddhism and Hinduism to the West.§
1831 British Christians defeat Ranjit Singh’s forces at Balakot, in Sikh attempt to establish a homeland in N.W. India.§
1833 Slavery is abolished in British Commonwealth countries, giving impetus to abolitionists in United States.§
1834‒79 Lifetime of Sir Mutu Coomaraswamy, brings Śaiva Siddhânta to England, is first Asian knighted by Queen Victoria. Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy is his son.§
1835 Macaulay’s Minute furthers Western education in India. English is made official government and court language.§
1835 Mauritius receives 19,000 immigrant indentured laborers from India. Last ship carrying workers arrives in 1922.§
1836§
1836‒86 Lifetime of Sri Paramahansa Ramakrishna, God-intoxicated Bengali Śākta saint, guru of Swami Vivekananda. He exemplifies the bhakti dimension of Śākta Universalism.§
1837 Britain formalizes emigration of Indian indentured laborers to supply cheap labor under a system more morally acceptable to British Christian society than slavery, declared illegal in the British Empire in 1833.§
1837 Kālī-worshiping Thugees are suppressed by British.§
1838 British Guyana receives its first 250 Indian laborers.§
1838‒84 Life of Keshab Chandra Sen, Hindu reformer who founds Brahma Samaj of India, a radical offshoot of the Adi Brahmo Samaj of Ram Mohan Roy. §
1840§
1840‒1915 Lifetime of Satguru Chellappaswami of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, initiated at age 19 by Siddha Kadaitswami as next satguru in the Nandinātha Sampradāya’s Kailāsa Paramparā.§
1840 Joseph de Gobineau (1816‒1882), French sociologist, writes The Inequality of Human Races. Proclaims the “Āryan race” superior to other great strains and lays down the aristocratic class-doctrine of Āryanism that later provides the basis for Adolf Hitler’s Āryan racism. §
1841 First US chair of Sanskrit and Indology established at Yale University; American Oriental Society founded in 1842.§
1842‒1901 Life of Eknath Ranade, founder of Prarthana Samaj. His social-reform thinking inspires Gokhale and Gandhi.§
1843 British conquer the Sind region (present-day Pakistan). §
1845 Trinidad receives its first 197 Indian immigrant laborers.§
1846 British forcibly separate Kashmir from the Sikhs and sell it to the mahārāja of Jammu for £1,000,000.§
1849 Sikh army is routed by the British at Amritsar.§
1850 First English translation of the Ṛig Veda by H.H. Wilson, first holder of Oxford’s Boden Chair, founded “to promote the translation of the Scriptures into English, so as to enable his countrymen to proceed in the conversion of the natives of India to the Christian religion.”§
1851 Sir M. Monier-Williams (1819‒99) publishes English-Sanskrit Dictionary. His completed Sanskrit-English Dictionary is released after three decades of work in 1899, weeks after his death. 1853‒1920 Lifetime of Sri Sarada Devi, wife of Sri Ramakrishna. §
1853 Max Müller (1823–1900), German Christian Orientalist in England, advocates the term Āryan to name a hypothetical primitive people of Central Asia, the common ancestors of Hindus, Persians and Greeks. Müller speculates that this “Āryan race” divided and marched West to Europe and East to India and China around 1500 BCE. Their language, Müller avers, developed into Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Germanic, etc., and all ancient civilizations descended primarily from this Āryan race. §
1856 Catholic missionary Bishop Caldwell coins the term Dravidian to refer to South Indian Caucasian peoples.§
1857§
1857 First Indian Revolution, the “Sepoy Mutiny” (native troops of the Army of the East India Company), is quashed within months as the British retake Delhi, then inflict bloody retribution and plunder throughout North India for atrocities at Kanpur. Britain introduces direct rule through the India Office, a British department of state—ending the 100-year reign of the East India Company.§
1858 India has 200 miles of railroad. By 1869 5,000 miles of steel track are installed by British railroad companies. In 1900, total track is 25,000 miles, and by World War I, 35,000 miles. By 1970, at 62,136 miles, it is the world’s greatest train system. Unfortunately, this vastly depletes India’s forests.§
1859 Charles Darwin publishes controversial book, The Origin of Species, propounding his “natural selection” theory of evolution and laying the foundations of modern biology.§
1860 S/S Truro and S/S Belvedere dock in Durban, S. Africa, carrying first indentured servants (from Chennai and Calcutta) to work sugar plantations. With contracts of five years and up, thousands emigrate over next 51 years.§
1861 American Civil War begins in Charleston, S. Carolina.§
1861‒1941 Lifetime of Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.§
1863‒1902 Life of Swami Vivekananda, dynamic renaissance missionary to West and catalyst of Hindu revival in India.§
1869‒1948 Lifetime of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Indian nationalist and Hindu political activist who develops the strategy of nonviolent disobedience that forces Christian Great Britain to grant independence to India (1947).§
1870§
1870 Doctrine of papal infallibility is asserted by the Vatican.§
1872‒1964 Lifetime of Satguru Yogaswami, Nātha renaissance sage of Sri Lanka, Chellappaswami’s successor in the Nandinātha Sampradāya’s Kailāsa Paramparā.§
1872‒1950 Life of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Bengali Indian nationalist and renaissance yoga philosopher. His 30-volume work discusses the “superman,” the Divinely transformed individual soul. Withdraws from the world in 1910 and founds international ashram in Pondicherry.§
1873‒1906 Lifetime of Swami Rama Tirtha, who lectures throughout Japan and America spreading “practical Vedānta.”§
1875 Madame Blavatsky founds Theosophical Society in New York, later headquartered at Adyar, Chennai, where Annie Besant, president (1907‒1933), helps revitalize Hinduism with metaphysical defense of its principles.§
1876 British Queen Victoria (1819‒1901), head of Church of England, is proclaimed Empress of India (1876-1901).§
1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.§
1876‒1890 Max Müller, pioneer of comparative religion as a scholarly discipline, publishes 50-volume Sacred Books of the East, English translations of Indian and Oriental scriptures.§
1877‒1947 Lifetime of Sri Lanka’s Ananda Coomaraswamy, foremost interpreter of Indian art and culture to the West.§
1879 Incandescent lamp is invented by American Thomas Edison (1847-1931). He patents more than a thousand inventions, among them the microphone (1877) and the phonograph (1878). In New York, Edison installs the world’s first central electric power plant (1881-82).§
1879 The Leonidas, first emigrant ship to Fiji, adds 498 Indian indentured laborers to the nearly 340,000 already working in other British Empire colonies.§
1879‒1966 Lifetime of Sadhu T.L. Vaswani, altruistic Sindhi poet and servant of God, founds several Hindu missions in India and seven Mira Educational Institutions.§
1879‒1950 Lifetime of Sri Ramana Maharshi, Hindu Advaita renunciate renaissance saint of Tiruvannamalai, S. India. §
1880§
1882‒1927 Lifetime of Hazrat Inayat Khan, Indian-born Muslim mystic, instrumental in bringing Sufism to the West. §
1884‒1963 Lifetime of Swami Ramdas, known as Papa, Indian saint and devotee of Lord Rāma.§
1885 A group of middle-class intellectuals in India, some of them British, found the Indian National Congress to be a voice of Indian opinion to the British government. This is the origin of the later Congress Party.§
1885 First automobile powered by an internal combustion engine is produced by Karl Benz in Mannheim, Germany. Henry Ford makes his first car in 1893 in the US and later invents assembly line production. §
1886 René Guénon is born, first European philosopher of some note to become a Vedāntin. §
1887‒1963 Lifetime of Swami Sivananda, Hindu universalist renaissance guru, author of 200 books, founder of Divine Life Society, with 400 branches worldwide in present day.§
1888 Max Müller, revising his stance, writes, “Āryan, in scientific language, is utterly inapplicable to race. If I say Āryans, I mean neither blood nor bones, nor hair nor skull; I mean simply those who spoke the Āryan language.”§
1888‒1975 Lifetime of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, renowned Tamil panentheist, renaissance philosopher, eminent writer; free India’s first Vice-President and second President.§
1890§
1891 The Maha Bodhi Society, an organization to encourage Buddhist studies in India and abroad, is founded in Sri Lanka by Buddhist monk Anagarika Dharmapala.§
1893 Swami Vivekananda represents Hinduism at Chicago’s Parliament of the World’s Religions, first ever interfaith gathering, dramatically enlightening Western opinion as to the profundity of Hindu philosophy and culture.§
1893‒1952 Life of Paramahamsa Yogananda, universalist Hindu, renaissance founder of Self Realization Fellowship (1925) in US, author of famed Autobiography of a Yogī (1946), popular book globalizing India’s spiritual traditions.§
1894 Gandhi drafts first petition protesting the indentured servant system. Less than six months later, the British announce the halt of indentured emigration from India.§
1894‒1994 Lifetime of Swami Chandrasekharendra, venerated Śaṅkarāchārya saint of Kanchi monastery in South India.§
1894‒1969 Lifetime of Meher Baba of Poona, silent sage whose mystical teachings stress love, self-inquiry and God consciousness.§
1896‒1982 Lifetime of Anandamayi Ma, God-intoxicated yoginī and mystic Bengali saint. Her spirit lives on in devotees.§
1896 Nationalist leader and Marāṭhi scholar Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1857‒1920) initiates Gaṇeśa Visarjana and Śivājī festivals to fan Indian nationalism. He is first to demand complete independence, Pūrṇa Svarāj, from Britain. §
1896‒1977 Lifetime of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. In 1966 he founds International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in the US.§
1896 American humorist Mark Twain writes Following the Equator, describing his three-month stay in India, during a voyage to Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, South Africa and England. According to him, and his critics, it is one of his finest works.§
1897 Swami Vivekananda founds Ramakrishna Mission.§
1898‒1907 Cholera epidemic claims 370,000 lives in India. §
1900§
1900 World population is 1.6 billion. India population is 290 million: 17.8 percent of world.§
1900 India’s tea exports to Britain reach 137 million pounds.§
1900‒77 Uday Sankar of Udaipur, dancer and choreographer, adapts Western theatrical techniques to Hindu dance, popularizing his ballet in India, Europe and the US.§
1905 Lord Curzon, arrogant British Viceroy of India, resigns.§
1905 Sage Yogaswami, age 33, is initiated by Chellappaswami at Nallur, Sri Lanka; later becomes the next preceptor in the Nandinātha Sampradāya’s Kailāsa Paramparā.§
1906 Muslim League political party is formed in India.§
1906 Dutch Christians overcome Bali after Puputan massacres in which Hindu Balinese royal families are murdered.§
1908‒82 Lifetime of Swami Muktananda, a guru of the Kashmīr Śaiva school who founds Siddha Yoga Dham to promulgate Indian mysticism, kuṇḍalinī yoga and philosophy.§
1909‒69 Lifetime of Dada Lekhraj (1909‒1969), Hindu founder of Brahma Kumaris, an international social reform movement stressing meditation and world peace. §
1909 Gandhi and assistant Maganlal agitate for better working conditions and abolition of indentured servitude in South Africa. Maganlal continues Gandhi’s work in Fiji.§
1912§
1912 Anti-Indian racial riots on the US West Coast expel large Hindu immigrant population.§
1913 New law prohibits Indian immigration to South Africa, primarily in answer to white colonists’ alarm at competition of Indian merchants and expired labor contracts.§
1914 US government excludes Indian citizens from immigration. Restriction stands until 1965. §
1914 Austria’s Archduke Francis Ferdinand is assassinated by Serb nationalists. Chain reaction leads to World War I.§
1914 Swami Satchidananda is born, founder of Integral Yoga Institute and Light of Truth Universal Shrine in the US.§
1917 Following the Bolshevik Revolution, communists under Lenin seize power in Russia, one sixth of Earth’s land mass.§
1917 Last Hindu Indian indentured laborers are brought to British Christian colonies of Fiji and Trinidad.§
1917‒93 Life of Swami Chinmayananda, Vedāntist writer, lecturer, Hindu renaissance founder of Chinmaya Mission and co-founder of the Vishva Hindu Parishad. §
1918 World War I ends. Death toll estimated at ten million.§
1918 Spanish influenza epidemic kills 12.5 million in India, 21.6 million worldwide. §
1918 Sadhu J.P. Vaswani is born in Hyderabad, charismatic orator, mystic, poet, philosopher, humanitarian leader. §
1918 Sirdi Sai Baba, saint to Hindus and Muslims, dies at approximately age 70.§
1919 Brigadier Dyer orders Gurkhā troops to shoot unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, killing 379. Massacre convinces Gandhi that India must demand full independence from oppressive British Christian rule.§
1920§
1920 Gandhi formulates satyāgraha, “truth power,” strategy of noncooperation and nonviolence against India’s Christian British rulers. Later resolves to wear only simple dhotī to preserve India’s homespun cotton industry.§
1920 System of Indian indentured servitude is abolished following grassroots agitation by Gandhi.§
1920 Ravi Shankar is born in Varanasi. Sitār master, composer and founder of National Orchestra of India, he inspires Western appreciation of Indian music.§
1922 Pramukh Swami is born, renaissance traditionalist Hindu, head of Bochasanwasi Swaminarayan Sanstha Sangh.§
1922 Tagore’s school at Santiniketan (founded 1901) is made into Visva Bharati University. Becomes a national university in 1951.§
1923 US law excludes Indian nationals from naturalization.§
1924 Sir John Marshall (1876‒1958) discovers relics of Indus Valley ancient Hindu civilization. Begins systematic large-scale excavations. §
1925 K.V. Hedgewar (1890‒1949) founds Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist movement.§
1926 Satya Sai Baba is born, charismatic universalist Hindu renaissance guru, educationalist, worker of miracles.§
1927 Sivaya Subramuniyaswami is born in Oakland, California, 162nd satguru in the Nandinātha Sampradāya’s Kailāsa Paramparā and author of this book.§
1927 Maharashtra bars tradition of dedicating girls to temples as Devadāsīs, ritual dancers. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa soon follow suit. Twenty years later, Tamil Nadu bans devotional dancing and singing by women in its thousands of temples and in all Hindu ceremonies.§
1927 & 34 Indians are admitted as jurors and court magistrates in India.§
1928 Hindu leader Jawaharlal Nehru drafts plan for a free India; becomes president of Congress Party in 1929.§
1929 Chellachiamman, saint of Sri Lanka, dies. She was mentor to Sage Yogaswami and Kandiah Chettiar.§
1930§
1931 Sri Chinmoy is born in Bengal, yogī, artist, self-transcendence master and United Nations peace ambassador.§
1931 2.5 million Indians reside overseas; largest communities are in Sri Lanka, Malaya, Mauritius and South Africa.§
1931 Dr. Karan Singh is born, son and heir apparent of last mahārāja of Kashmir; becomes parliamentarian, Indian ambassador to the US and global Hindu spokesman.§
1934 Paul Brunton’s instantly popular A Search in Secret India makes known to the West such illumined holy men as Sri Chandrasekharendra and Ramana Maharshi.§
1936‒1991 Lifetime of Srimati Rukmini Devi, founder Kalakshetra—a school of Hindu classical music, dance, theatrical arts, painting and handicrafts—in Chennai.§
1938 Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is founded in Mumbai by K.M. Munshi to conserve, develop and diffuse Indian culture.§
1939 Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”), manifesto of Nazism, published 1925, sells 5 million copies in 11 languages. It reveals his racist Āryan, anti-Semitic ideology, strategy of revenge and National-Socialist (Nazi) rise to power. §
1939 World War II begins September 1 as Germany invades Poland. §
1939 Maria Montessori (1870‒1952), renowned Italian physician and “discoverer of the child,” spends nine years in India teaching her kindergarten method and studying Hinduism through the Theosophical Society in Adyar.§
1939 Mohammed Ali Jinnah, President of the All-India Muslim League from 1934 to his death in 1947, calls for a separate Muslim state. His firm stand at the time of independence is instrumental in the formation of Pakistan.§
1940§
1942 At sites along the lost Sarasvatī River in Rajasthan, archeologist Sir Aurel Stein finds shards with incised characters identical to those on Indus Valley seals.§
1945 Germany surrenders to Allied forces. Ghastly concentration camps are discovered where 6 million Jews were killed.§
1945 US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, ending World War II. Total war dead is 60 million.§
1945 The United Nations is founded by the four Allied nations and China to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” §
1947 India gains independence from Britain August 15. Leaders agree to partition into India and Pakistan despite Gandhi’s opposition (as chronicled in a letter to Lord Mountbatten that surfaced in 1996: “I pointed [out] the initial mistake of the British being party to splitting India into two. It is not possible to undo the mistake.”) Death toll is 600,000 in dual exodus of 14 million. §
1948§
1948 The last British troops leave India February 28 in a procession through the city of Mumbai culminating at the Gateway to India, a monument erected to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911.§
1948 Britain grants colony of Sri Lanka Dominion status and self-government under Commonwealth jurisdiction.§
1948 Establishment of Sarva Seva Sangh, Gandhian movement for new social order (Sarvodaya). §
1948 Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated January 30th in Poona by Nathuram Godse, 35, editor-publisher of Mahāsabhā, a Hindu weekly, in retaliation for Gandhi’s concessions to Muslim demands and agreeing to partition 27 percent of India to create the new Islamic nation of Pakistan. §
1949 Sri Lanka’s Sage Yogaswami initiates Sivaya Subramuniyaswami as his successor in Nandinātha Sampradāya’s Kailāsa Paramparā. Subramuniyaswami founds Saiva Siddhanta Church and Yoga Order the same year.§
1949 India’s new Constitution, authored chiefly by B.R. Ambedkar, declares there shall be no “discrimination” against any citizen on the grounds of caste, jāti, and that the practice of “untouchability” is abolished.§
1950§
1950 Wartime jobs in West, taking women out of home, have led to weakened family, delinquency, cultural breakdown.§
1950s-60s Tours of Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan lead to worldwide popularization of Indian music.§
1950 India is declared a secular republic. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (1947-1964) is determined to abolish caste and industrialize the nation. Constitution makes Hindi official national language; English to continue for 15 years; 14 major state languages are recognized.§
1951 India’s Bharatiya Janata Sangh (BJP) party is founded.§
1955‒6 Indian government enacts social reforms on Hindu marriage, inheritance, guardianship, adoption, etc§
1955 Albert Einstein (1879‒1955), brilliant German physicist, author of the Theory of Relativity theory, dies. He declared Lord Śiva Naṭarāja the best metaphor for the workings of the universe. §
1956 India’s government reorganizes states according to linguistic principles and inaugurates second Five-Year Plan.§
1956 Swami Satchidananda makes first visit to America.§
1957 Sivaya Subramuniyaswami founds Himalayan Academy in San Francisco and opens there the United States’ first Hindu temple.§
1959 Dalai Lama flees Tibet and finds refuge in North India as China invades his Buddhist nation.§
1959 The transistor makes computers smaller and faster than prototypes like the 51-foot-long, 8-foot high Mark I, containing ¾-million parts and 500 miles of wire, invented for the US Navy in 1944 by IBM’s Howard Aiken. From the 1960s onward, integrated circuitry and microprocessors will empower these descendants of the 5,000-year-old abacus to revolutionize technology.§
1960§
1960 Since 1930, 5 percent of immigrants to US have been Asians, while European immigrants have constituted 58 percent.§
1960 Border war with China shakes India’s nonaligned policy.§
1961 India forcibly reclaims Goa, Daman and Diu from the Portuguese. Goa became a state of India in 1987.§
1963 US President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. §
1963 Hallucinogenic drug culture arises in the US. Hindu gurus decry the false promise and predict “a chemical chaos.” §
1964 India’s Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a Hindu religious nationalist movement, is founded to counter secularism.§
1964 Rock group, the Beatles, practice Transcendental Meditation (TM), bringing fame to Maharshi Mahesh Yogi. §
1965 US immigration law cancels racial qualifications and restores naturalization rights. Admits 170,000 Asians yearly.§
1966 Jawaharlal Nehru’s daughter, Indira Gandhi, becomes prime minister of India, world’s largest democracy, succeeding Lal Bahadur Sastri who took office after Nehru’s death in 1964. §
1968 US civil rights leader Martin Luther King is assassinated.§
1969 US astronaut Neil Armstrong sets foot on the moon.§
1970§
1970 Kauai Aadheenam, site of Kadavul Hindu Temple, Saiva Siddhanta Church headquarters and San Marga Sanctuary, is founded February 5 on Hawaii’s Garden Island by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. §
1971 Rebellion in East Pakistan (formerly Bengal). Ten million Bengalis, mainly Hindus, flee to India. Indo-Pak border clashes escalate to war. India defeats West Pakistan. East Pakistan becomes independent Bangladesh.§
1972 A Historical Atlas of South Asia is produced by Joseph E. Schwartzberg, Shiva G. Bajpai, Raj B. Mathur, et al. §
1972 Muslim dictator Idi Amin expels Indians from Uganda.§
1973 Neem Karoli Baba, Hindu mystic and siddha, dies.§
1974 India detonates a “nuclear device.”§
1974 Watergate scandal. US President Nixon resigns.§
1975 Netherlands gives independence to Dutch Guyana, which becomes Surinam; one third of Hindus (descendants of Indian plantation workers) emigrate to Netherlands for better social and economic conditions.§
1977 One hundred thousand Tamil Hindu tea-pickers expatriated from Sri Lanka are shipped to Chennai, South India.§
1979 Sivaya Subramuniyaswami founds HINDUISM TODAY international journal to promote Hindu solidarity.§
1980 Two million attend grand South Indian counterpart to Kumbha Mela of Prayag, the Mahāmagham festival, held every 12 years in Kumbhakonam on the river Kāverī. §
1981 India is home to half the world’s cattle: 8 cows for every 10 Indians.§
1981 Deadly AIDS disease is conclusively identified.§
1981 First Bharata natyam dance in a temple since 1947 Christian-British ban on Devadāsīs is held at Chidambaram; 100,000 attend the performance arranged by Sivaya Subramuniyaswami.§
1983§
1983 Violence between Hindu Tamils and Buddhist Singhalese in Sri Lanka marks beginning of Tamil rebellion by Tiger Freedom Fighters demanding an independent nation called Eelam. Prolonged civil war results. §
1984 Balasarasvati, eminent classical Karnatic singer and Bharata natyam dancer of worldwide acclaim, dies.§
1984 Since 1980, Asians have made up 48 percent of immigrants to the US, with the European portion shrinking to 12 percent.§
1984 Indian soldiers under orders from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi storm Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar and crush rebellion. She is assassinated this year by her Sikh bodyguards in retaliation. Her son Rajiv takes office. §
1986 Swami Satchidananda dedicates Light of Truth Universal Shrine (LOTUS) at Yogaville in Virginia, USA.§
1986 Jiddu Krishnamurti, anti-guru guru, quasi-existentialist philosophical Indian lecturer and author, dies. §
1986 Delhi’s World Religious Parliament bestows title Jagadāchārya, “World Teacher,” on five spiritual leaders for their efforts in promoting Hinduism outside India: Swami Chinmayananda (Mumbai); Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (Hawaii); Yogiraj Amṛit Desai (Pennsylvania); Paṇḍit Tej Ramji Sharma (Kathmandu); Swami Jagpurnadas Maharaj (Mauritius).§
1987 Coup by Col. S. Rabuka, a Methodist, deposes Fiji’s Indian-dominated government; 1990 constitution guarantees political majority to ethnic (mostly Christian) Fijians.§
1988 General Ershad declares Islam the state religion of Bangladesh, outraging the 12-million (11 percent) Hindu population.§
1988 US allows annual influx of 270,000 Asian immigrants. §
1988 First Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival is held at Oxford University, England. Hindus discuss international cooperation with 100 religious leaders and 100 parliamentarians.§
1989 Christians spend US$165 million yearly to convert Hindus.§
1989 The Berlin Wall is taken down November 9. Germany is reunited October 3, 1990. Warsaw Pact is dissolved. §
1990§
1990 Under its new democratic constitution, Nepal remains the world’s only country with Hinduism as the state religion.§
1990 300,000 Hindus flee Muslim persecution in Kashmir Valley. Armed militancy begins struggle to end Indian rule and merge with Pakistan as a purely Islamic region. More than 25,000 people are killed over the next 12 years. §
1990 Foundation stones are laid in Ayodhya (near Babri Masjid) for new temple at birthplace of Lord Rāma, as Hindu nationalism rises.§
1990 Vatican condemns Eastern mysticism as false doctrine in letter by Cardinal Ratzinger approved by Pope John Paul II, to purge Catholic monasteries, convents and clergy of involvement with Eastern meditation, yoga and Zen.§
1990 Co-sponsored by the Supreme Soviet, Second Global Forum of Spiritual Leaders and Parliamentarians for Human Survival, in Moscow, gives stage for Hindu thinking. Sringeri sannyāsin Swami Paramananda Bharati concludes Forum with Vedic peace prayer in Kremlin Hall, leading 2,500 world leaders in chanting Aum three times. §
1990 Communist leadership of USSR collapses, to be replaced by 12 independent democratic nations.§
1991§
1991 Hindu Renaissance Award is established by HINDUISM TODAY and awarded to Swami Paramananda Bharati of Sringeri Matha as “1990 Hindu of the Year.”§
1991 Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated in May. §
1991 Indian tribals, ādivāsīs 45 million strong.§
1991 In Bangalore, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami commissions architect Sri V. Ganapati Sthapati to carve the Chola-style, white-granite, Iraivan Temple, a project guided by Sri Sri Sri Trichy Swami and Sri Sri Balagangadharanathaswami. When shipped to Kauai, Hawaii, Iraivan will be the West’s first all-stone Āgamic temple. §
1992 Swami Chidananda Saraswati, head of Parmarth Niketan Trust, is named 1991 Hindu of the Year for his Encyclopedia of Hinduism project.§
1992 World population reaches 5.2 billion; 17 percent, or 895 million, live in India. Of these, 85 percent, or 760 million, are Hindu. §
1992 Third Global Forum of Spiritual Leaders and Parliamentarians meets in Rio de Janeiro in conjunction with Earth Summit (UNCED). Hindu views of environment and values inform 70,000 delegates planning global future. §
1992 Hindu radicals demolish Babri Masjid built in 1548 on Rama’s birthplace in Ayodhya by Muslim conqueror Babur after he destroyed a Hindu temple marking the site. The monument was a central icon of Hindu grievances against Muslim destruction of 60,000 temples.§
1993 Swami Chinmayananda is named 1992 Hindu of the Year, for lifetime of dynamic service to Sanātana Dharma worldwide—attains mahāsamādhi July 26, at age 77. §
1993 Swami Brahmananda Sarasvati, renowned yoga scholar, and Swami Vishnu-devananda, author of world’s most popular manual on haṭha yoga, reach parinirvāṇa.§
1993 Chicago’s centenary Parliament of the World’s Religions convenes in September. Presidents’ Assembly, 25 world-faith representatives, forms to perpetuate the effort.§
1994§
1994 Harvard University study identifies over 800 Hindu temples open for worship in the United States.§
1994 Mata Amritanandamayi (1953–) charismatic woman saint of Kerala, is named 1993 Hindu of the Year.§
1994 All India pays homage to Kanchi’s beloved peripatetic tapasvin sage, Srila Sri Sankaracharya Chandrasekharendra Saraswati, who passes away January 7, during his 100th year.§
1994 Hindu Heritage Endowment, first Hindu international trust, is founded by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. §
1995 January 30: 45 million gather at Prayag festival, world’s largest gathering.§
1995 Sri Swami Satchidananda named 1994 Hindu of the Year.§
1995 August: National seminar of 43 Indian historians and archeologists fixes “the date of Bhārata War at 3139-38 BCE to be the true ‘sheet anchor’ of Indian chronology.” §
1995 September: India’s Supreme Court declares that Ramakrishna Mission is Hindu, overturning its 1980 petition for legal status as a non-Hindu minority religion.§
1995 September: the Milk Miracle: for 24 hours, Lord Gaṇeśa icons, first in India, then in nearly every country where Hindus reside, sip milk, offered with a spoon by devotees. Tens of millions flock to temples. Delhi’s vast stocks of milk, a million liters, is sold out within hours. §
1995 October: World Hindu Conference convenes in South Africa. President Nelson Mandela attends. §
1996 Sri Pramukh Swami Maharaj is named Hindu of the Year for 1995, when he founded massive temple in London.§
1996 One-third (700,000) of Sri Lanka’s Tamils have scattered globally as 13-year-old civil war continues.§
1997§
1997 Sri Satya Sai Baba is named 1996 Hindu of the Year.§
1997 Sastri Pandurang Athavale, 76, wins the Uus$1.21-million Templeton Prize for his movement of bringing nearness to God to India’s downtrodden. §
1998 Sri Chinmoy is named 1997 Hindu of the Year.§
1998 Fiji’s new constitution helps abolish racial discrimination. In a unifying move, after 28 years of infighting, all Fijians, including Indians, Chinese and Europeans, will all now officially be known as Fiji Islanders. §
1998 December 20: B.V. Raman, whom fellow astrologer K.N. Rao called the greatest teacher of astrology in 400 years, dies at 86. Editor of Astrological Magazine since 1936, he challenged the trend of his countrymen to blindly adopt foreign values and reject India’s own traditions, especially astrology.§
1998 December 26: Sri Ram Swarup, born in 1920, renaissance seer, founder of Voice of India, among 20th century’s most influential Hindu thinkers, makes his transition. §
1998 Maneka Gandhi, writer and environmentalist, widow of Sanjay Gandhi, who presents weekly TV shows in India, breaks ground for animal rights in August, inaugurating the Mysore chapter of People for Animals, boldly speaking against ritual sacrifice as barbaric and uncivilized. §
1998 Sri Swami Buaji Maharaj, at 109, is named 1998 Hindu of the Year.§
1999§
1999 TERI, a think tank for sustainable development, warns of India’s massive environmental degradation since 1947. Activists seek to stop hazardous dam projects and teach principles of eco-ethics, eco-culture and eco-dharma through such programs as the Badrinatha reforestation project. §
1999 India’s sacred art of painting is honored as senior masters like B.G. Sharma and Sri Indra Sharma, publish color large-format books of their life work. §
1999 Christian campaigns gain force in India to convert the most “unreached nucleus of people in the world.” Hindu resentment erupts in sporadic violence. §
1999 In Kashmir, massacres of Hindus by Muslim insurgents are so common that they attract attention only when large numbers die. §
1999 With the waning of rationalism and of Christianity, Paganism experiences a renaissance in Europe as people return to the old Gods, reestablish pre-Christian holy sites and practice the faith openly.§
1999 Hindu awareness and anti-defamation groups begin speaking out as never before, against insults to Hindu traditions and sensibilities, such as the use of Deity images by shoe manufacturers. §
1999 Educators for nonviolent child-rearing, such as Kris Bhat, author of Guide to Indo-American Parenting, are offering viable alternatives to corporal punishment; while principalities gradually ban hitting children in schools.§
1999 Just outside Washington, D.C., in Lanham, Maryland, Hindus throng to celebrate the consecration of large Murugan temple. §
1999 India’s ruling party is the BJP, the most prominent member of the Sangh Pariwar, a network of organizations ideologically affiliated with the large Hindu activist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). §
1999 August 28: the foundation is poured for the Iraivan Temple in Hawaii, using a revolutionary “fly-ash” concrete mix designed to last 1,000 years. §
1999 October 26: respected meditation guru, author and philosoper Sri Eknath Eswaran, founder of Blue Mountain Center, passes away at age 88. §
1999 Pope John Paul II visits India and unwittingly galvanizes opposition to Christian conversion efforts by openly stating that the Church’s sole mission in India is the conversion of all Hindus.§
1999 Ma Yoga Shakti, 73, one of the first global yoga teachers, is named Hindu of the Year 1999, as a pioneer in bringing India’s ancient wisdom to the world. §
2000§
2000 January 1: India’s version of the Statue of Liberty—a majestic 133-foot-tall granite statue of Saint Tiruvalluvar, author of the ethical masterpiece, Tirukural—is unveiled at the southernmost tip of the continent. §
2000 The traditional garb of Hindu men, once disdained and all but abandoned, is making a splash in social circles through the efforts of trendy designers.§
2000 The well-prepared-for Y2K computer disaster, feared to wreak havoc at midnight of the millennium, passes with virtually no incident. Other millennium doomsday fears also fade into oblivion. §
2000 Dozens of South Asian women’s organizations are now established across America to help victims of the global problem of domestic violence. §
2000 Devotees of charismatic Indira Bettiji Goswami (Jiji) flock to Baroda to celebrate opening of palatial Sri Nathji temple, Manjalpur Mandir, in June. §
2000 August 25: Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami receives the U Thant Peace Award from The Peace Meditation at the United Nations and addresses 1,200 spiritual leaders gathered for the UN Millennium Peace Summit with the message, “For peace in the world, stop the war in the home.” §
2000 October 29: massive cyclone rips through Orissa, leaving 20 million homeless, killing 20,000 people and 700,000 cattle. Swaminarayan Fellowship sadhus are instrumental in relief efforts in the devastated Indian state. §
2000 Youth Symposium in Mauritius highlights typical concerns that Hindu youth are everywhere gathering to discuss: rituals, marriage, Hindu identity, Western influence, parental pressure and community service. §
2000 Sri Lanka’s Hindu diaspora has established strong, practicing religious communities around the globe, particularly in Europe and Canada. Thousands worship in dozens of temples and publicly celebrate grand festival processions in municipal streets. §
2000 Kenya-born Mansukh Patel of the Netherlands, with a following across Europe, exemplifies a new breed of teachers of Dharma, reaching out with a message of compassion, courage and self-dependence rooted in tradition. §
2000 Indian archeologists agree to help Vietnam restore the famous seventh-century Hindu Cham temples damaged and neglected during years of war. UNESCO declares them a World Heritage Site. §
2000 Since 1900, 75 percent of Earth’s crop plant varieties have been lost; thousands of species of birds, mammals, fish and invertebrates face extinction due to the ravaging of Earth by man. “Most biological systems, which have sustained life on the planet for millions of years, will collapse some time during the next century,” warns the Union of Concerned Scientists. §
2000 Best-selling author and TV celebrity Deepak Chopra, probably the most famous Indian living in the West, has made the ancient sciences of āyurveda, yoga and meditation user-friendly to the American mainstream.§
2000 Sri Swami Chidananda Saraswati, venerated, sagely elder President of the Divine Life Society, is named Hindu of the Year 2000.§
2000 Ten million Bangladesh Hindus have fled to India over the last 50 years to escape sustained persecution and periodic riots. Percentage of Hindus has fallen from 53% in 1872, to 32% in 1900, to 22% in 1947, to 10% in 2000.§
2000 The first crematorium in North America designed to serve the needs of Sikhs and Hindus is established in Delta, British Columbia, featuring windows through which up to 2,000 people can watch the body burn to ashes. §
2000 Russia, dominated by the Orthodox Russian Church, bans quasi-Hindu groups and other minorities as “destructive cults.” Black-listed groups include ISKCON, Ananda Marga and Brahma Kumaris.§
2000 Hindu themes, especially karma and reincarnation, are more and more evident in major motion pictures—like Sixth Sense and Unbreakable by Indian director M. Night Shyamalan. §
2000 Āyurveda, India’s holistic healing system, is gaining global respect, as allopathic medicine fails to fulfill the quest for good health and relief from illness. Centers are popular all through the West, and medical pilgrims flock to clinic/resorts in India, particularly Kerala, for treatment. §
2000 December: Delhi’s High Court strikes down a provision for corporal punishment in the Delhi School Education Act, saying it “violates the constitutional right guaranteeing equality and protection of life and personal liberty.”§
2001§
2001 January: 70 million, history’s largest human gathering, worship at Kumbha Mela 2001, Allahabad, at the confluence of the Gangā and Yamuṇā. §
2001 January 22: massive earthquake in Gujarat near Ahmedabad kills 20,000 and damages 7,000 villages. Huge relief and rehabilitation effort ensues.§
2001 At Harvard University, Professor Arvind Sharma launches a vanguard course, “Common Misconceptions in the Study of Indic Civilization,” to explore misrepresentations held by Western historians and archeologists. §
2001 Popular, dynamic Pontiff Sri Bharati Tirthaswami continues the resurgence of Sringeri Math, first and foremost of the four cardinal spiritual centers founded by Adi Sankara in the ninth century.§
2001 Among 100,000 Hindu university students in the US, many are studying, practicing and sharing their faith with others through chapters of the Hindu Students Council, now established at 56 colleges and five high schools. Summer-camp intensives are another way students of the Hindu diaspora learn about their religion and share their experiences with others.§
2001 Sri Sambamurthy Sivachariar is named Hindu of the Year 2001 for a lifetime of service and leadership as a Śaiva temple priest and for his efforts to overcome problems that lead many Hindu priests worldwide to leave the priesthood: lack of respect, poor working conditions and low pay. §
2001 April: an unprecedented conference of US āyurvedic schools, practioners and enthusiasts convened by the California Association of Ayurvedic Medicine, founded in 1998, is lauded as “the real birth of āyurveda in the West.”§
2001 June 2: His Majesty King Birendra and most of Nepal’s royal family are murdered, gunned down in the royal palace by the king’s oldest son, Crown Prince Dipendra. The king’s brother, Prince Gyanendra, is crowned king.§
2001 July 22: The VHP’s Hindu Sangam Cultural Festival in Milpitas, California, draws 15,000, the largest Hindu gathering ever held on the West Coast.§
2001 Hindu websites proliferate on the Internet for ashrams, schools, resources and temples, where you can even sponsor and attend pūjās online. This and CD technology also boosts accessibility and popularity of Indian music. Hindu leaders and devotees worldwide now communicate easily via e-mail.§
2001 Vāstuvidyā, Vedic architecture, is in renaissance, with interest and support on many fronts, including Kerala’s Vastuvidya Gurukulam at Aranmula. §
2001 August: Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, six assisting monks and 65 students board the MS Amsterdam for “2001 Northern European and Russian Innersearch,” Gurudeva’s 19th travel-study program since 1967.§
2001 HINDUISM TODAY magazine inaugurates Hindu Press International (HPI), providing daily news on Hindu events freely by e-mail and on the Internet. §
2001 Studies at Dholavira help to further dispel the “Āryan Invasion” theory, even among diehard believers. The latest Indus Valley site discovered, this well-planned city of 250 acres near the Indo-Pakistan border reveals no evidence of such an invasion. §
2001 Hindu religious television channels are established in India, broadcasting presentations by gifted preachers like Morari Bapu all over the nation. Newspapers and magazines are running regular articles on Hindu concepts.§
2001 The first Hindu prime minister of Trinidad, Basdeo Panday, is sworn into his second term, holding his hand not on the Bible, but the Bhagavad Gītā.§
2001 September 11: Two jetliners, hijacked by Muslim terrorists, destroy the World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 in a devastating blow to US economy and morale. A third plane cripples the Pentagon. The US and allies pulverize the Taliban/Al Qaeda network in Afghanistan. Hindus and other East Asians in the US are victimized in sporadic anti-Muslim backlash.§
2001 November 12: beloved Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyswami, author of this book, passes away, leaving a half-century legacy of work that sparked a Hindu renaissance and a global fellowship led by a monastic order from six nations to continue his vision. His appointed successor, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, ascends the Pīṭham in Hawaii.§
2001 Newsweek reports on a new scientific field, neuro-theology, which theorizes that the area of the brain governing self-identity quiets down during meditation, leaving the perception of being “one with all of creation.”§
2002§
2002 February 27: 54 Hindus in Godhra, mostly women and children, are massacred by armed Muslims. Vicious riots across Gujarat leave 1,000 dead and 100,000 Muslims in refugee camps. The Hindu ideal of nonviolence faces the acid test as leaders divide on condemning or condoning the carnage.§
2002 Efforts by Hindus to build new Rama Temple at Ayodhya are increased, exacerbating tensions with Muslims who also revere the site.§
2002 Dada J. P. Vaswani, spiritual head of the Sadhu Vaswani Mission in Pune, is named 2002 Hindu of the Year for an exemplary lifetime of spreading the dharma through eloquent oratory, soul-stirring publications and a loving, saintly presence that transcends race, creed, politics and nationality.§
2002 Hinduism continues to get stronger in most countries of the old diaspora: Fiji, Guyana, Trinidad, Mauritius and Malaysia; and migrant communities from these lands—like the Suriname Hindus to Holland and Guyanese to New York—are maintaining their faith and identity. §
2002 Sanskrit studies gain popularity in the West, and in India at institutions like the Sanskrit Sansthan of Uttar Pradesh, which offers Vedic courses on yajña, samskāras, pūjā and jyotisha to young adults in 60 centers.§
2002 Millions of visitors to New York City are learning the ways of Hindu worship in temple, home and village from Stephen Huyler’s other-worldly exhibit, “Meeting God,” at the American Museum of Natural History. §
2002 June 12: Six Hindus participate in the World Council of Religious Leaders in Bangkok, forming a charter emphasizing their role in working with the UN to mitigate global conflicts and working locally to ease poverty, preserve the environment and break down religious barriers. §
2002 June 13: Prabhushri Swami Amar Jyoti, 73, founder of four Jyoti Ashrams in the US and India, attains mahāsamādhi.§
2002 Gallop Poll: 25 percent of all Americans believe in reincarnation.§
2002 August 21: Swami Satchidananda, founder of Integral Yoga Institute and Light of Truth Universal Shrine in Virginia, attains mahāsamādhi at age 87.§
2002 In a new trend, Christian activists in the West are opposing the teaching of yoga and meditation in schools because of their basis in Eastern religion.§
2002 Survey of youth in Holland, home to 80,000 Hindus, reveals a poor knowledge of Hinduism and a decided leaning away from old traditions, though 90 percent did affirm that Hindus should be proud of their religion. §
2002 The VHP establishes the Veda Vidya Peetham in Panjal, Kerala, to allow five elders, among the last living experts of the Jaiminīya Sāma Veda tradition, to teach this unique system of Sanskrit chanting to young students. §
2002 Following a global trend to bolster Hinduism’s declining priesthood by accepting non-brāhmins, 57 non-brāhmin men and boys receive the sacred thread ceremony and commence training in Nandipulam, Kerala. §
2002 Havana, fire ritual, is popular in the diaspora, especially Śrī Mahā Rudra Yajña, with communities gathering en masse to chant Śrī Rudram.§
2002 HINDUISM TODAY publishes “Medical Ethics,” an article presenting for the first time a summary of Hindu āyurvedic perspectives on end-of-life issues, birth issues and other medical concerns facing modern man. §
2002 The Malaysia Hindu Sangam seeks to inspire local temples to conduct discourses, social service programs and religious classes, echoing a global concern over the dearth of Hindu education for youth. Christian evangelism, suicide, conversion to Islam, discrimination and poverty are dire problems Hindus face in this Islamic nation.§
2002 The Tamil Nadu state government begins Sunday spiritual classes in 63 Hindu shrines to teach children sacred songs and scripture.§
2002 The Comprehensive Oxford Dictionary, the most authoritative dictionary of the English language, adds 600 new Indian entries to its 20-volume tenth edition, such as Hindutva, panchayat, puri and dosa. §
2002 Hindu Megatrends 2002: Updating its 1989 analysis, HINDUISM TODAY cites nine megatrends: 1) from Hindu meekness to Hindu pride; 2) from village awareness to global awareness; 3) from East only to both East and West; 4) from a spiritual leadership of men only, to men and women; 5) from temple decline to renovation; 6) from introversion to extroversion; 7) from limited tools to abundant resources; 8) from colony to superpower; 9) from the agricultural to the technological era; 10) from major blows to fewer setbacks. §
2050 Arnold Toynbee (1889‒1975) predicted that in 2000 the West will still dominate Earth, but in the 21st century India will conquer her conquerors. Religion worldwide will regain its earlier importance, and world events will return to the East where civilization originated.§
2094 Will Durant foretold in The Story of Civilization, “India will teach us the tolerance and gentleness of mature mind, understanding spirit and a unifying, pacifying love for all human beings.”§
