LONGEVITY DURING MAHABHARATA PERIOD

Assumptions on the life-expectancy of ancient people
There are several myths about the length of life of ancient people. Some Puranas say that in old days people lived up to a 1000 years and some times 10,000 years! There was also the concept of Chiranjeevees, viz those who live for ever!. What is the reality behind all these? Is there any truth in the belief that people live less in this modern age and lived longer in the ancient age? Some of these are pure fiction but there is some truth in the longevity of certain individuals. A few thousand years back there was no pollution. The atmosphere was clear. The air, water and food were all pure and poison free. People in those days also had to be more physically active. So their bodies were fine-tuned to live up to 120 years of age. No body died in those days due to blood pressure or diabetes. So I consider living up to 100 years was not a problem in those days. I also believe that the number of people who attained the age of 120 was higher in those days compared to what we see today. A lucky few among the ancients lived up to 130. Usually people who lead an ascetic life were able to control their body functions so that their body clock ticked slowly enabling them to live up to 120 or 130 years. There was also practice of Yoga. Yoga is a very ancient practice and I have no doubt that it was practiced during the period of Mahabharata too. Yoga was practiced by ascetics and warriors alike. There was also an efficient system of medicine called Ayurveda which specialized in revitalizing the body when it turned old, making the body youthful again. Ayurveda andYoga exist today also but their efficiency is reduced. Herbal medicines used in Ayurveda also is subject to pollution now. Yoga also is practiced today with less accuracy.
So I consider that a 100 year old during the Mahabharata era was as healthy as today's 70 year old. However there is danger in generalizing this to every individual. People also age faster due to constant mental agitation. People like Santanu and Dhritatashtra subjected themselves to mental agitation and aged faster. Others like Vichitravirya and Pandu died early in their life due to diseases and con-genital weaknesses in their body. Thus premature deaths due to weak body and disease also were not uncommon in those days. Chitrangada and Abhimanyu died early in battle-fields. Battles were another cause for death (premature or otherwise) of many people in those days. Epics also indicate that in those days there was high level of infant mortality. Out of eight sons of Ganga by Santanu only Devavrata, the eight, survived. Out of eight sons of Devaki only Krishna survived.
On a side note:- Mythological explanation is that mother herself killed her sons by drowning them into river as they were born and spared only the 8th one Devavrata. But the reality seems to be that they were born dead or became dead soon after their birth, so that their bodies were drowned into river. In case of Krishna, instead of the mother, the blame for killing the babies was put on their maternal uncle Kansa. For more about this see the article on Mahabharata-episode2.
Thus we can conclude that though there were high infant-mortality in those days, once people started living, they lived long. People may die due to some weakness in the body due to birth defects or if they were unlucky to catch some contagious disease. They may also die in war or in an accident. Otherwise, if left to live, they lived up to 120 years without any health problems. If the person belongs to the warrior class we can discount some ten years from his life, due to wear and tear of his body, on account of the physical exertion in battles. If on the other hand the person is a sage leading an ascetic life, we can add ten more years to his normal life of 120 years, enabling him to live up to 130 years. Thus we can safely assume that the life-expectancy of Bhishma (MAHABHARATA) who was a warrior was a minimum of 110 years and a maximum of 120 years. Similarly we can assume that the life-expectancy of Vyasa who was a sage was a minimum of 120 years and a maximum of 130 years.