Vanakkam Everyone,

A few weeks ago, I made an interesting discovery regarding the date of the Mahabharata war. Book 5, Section 74 mentions a list of kings who will be born at the beginning of the Kali Yuga:

Even as, when Dharma became extinct, Kali was born in the race of Asuras flourishing with prosperity and blazing with energy, so was born Udavarta among the Haihayas. Janamejaya among the Nepas, Vahula among the Talajanghas, proud Vasu among the Krimis, Ajavindu among

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the Suviras, Rushardhik among the Surashtras, Arkaja among the Valihas, Dhautamulaka among the Chinas, Hayagriva among the Videhas, Varayu among the Mahaujasas, Vahu among the Sundaras, Pururavas among the Diptakshas, Sahaja among the Chedis and Matsyas, Vrishaddhaja among the Praviras, Dharana among the Chandra-batsyas, Bigahana among the Mukutas and Sama among the Nandivegas. These vile individuals, O Krishna, spring up, at the end of each Yuga, in their respective races, for the destruction of their kinsmen.
This passage from the Mahabharata mentions a Chinese emperor named Dhautamulaka. The Chinese kept very accurate records of their emperors and dynasties, so if we can figure out who Dhautamulaka is, we can determine when the Kali Yuga started.

According to Srila Prabhupada's Vedabase, "dhauta" is Sanskrit for "clean", and "mulaka" is Sanskrit for "root". We need to find a Chinese emperor whose name means "clean root" and who caused destruction in his empire.

I found a very useful Chinese dictionary online. According to this dictionary, the Chinese word for "clean" is "Jie".

According to Wikipedia's list of Chinese emperors, there was a ruler named Jie who came at the end of the Xia dynasty. According to his Wiki page, King Jie lived from 1728 to 1675 BCE. It also says that he was a tyrant who engaged in drinking and womanizing. This fits his description in the Mahabharata perfectly.

Therefore, we can safely conclude that the Kali Yuga began at around 1700 BCE.