The Rishi (sage) Atreya is mentioned as Atreya Punarvasu, Krishnatreya and Chandrabhagi (because of her mother’s name i.e. Chandrabhaga). He is the descendant of Atri (one among the Saptarishi or the seven sages) and the disciple of the sage Bhardwaja. He was the guru of six disciples namely Agnivesha, Bhela, Jatukarna, Parashara, Harita and Ksharapani which are renowned for their particular samhita (compendium).
Bhela proposes that Atreya hailed from the Gandhara region which is Kandhar (Afganisthan) in present days. He also adds that Atreya was contemporary to the Rajarsi Nagnajit of Gandhara. Nagnajit has been quoted to Satapatha brahamana (part of Yajurveda) which was written in about 3000 BC (Sahnkar Bal Krishan Dixit). Modern historian suggest that Satapatha brahamana was written around 800 BC.
The Mahabharata (Sanskrit epic of Ancient India) mentioned about the Krishnatreya as a physician, which means the that Atreya was prior to the origin of Mahabharata which is not older than 400 BCE, which shows the age of Atreya is before the age of India’s great epic i.e. before 400 BCE. The Vedas are also correlated with Mahrishi (super sage) Veda Vyasa that is again the writter of mahabharata. The oldest veda i.e. Riga veda is about 1500-1200 BCE of age.
In Buddha scriptures, the two centers of eductaion in India were east (Banaras) and west (Takshila). Historian Dr. Hoernle proposes that Atreya was a teacher in Takshila while some other approves this teacher as Bhikshu Atreya (here the teacher of Takshila is very much resembles to Bikshu Atreya instead of Atreya Punarvasu).
So, as per many direct and indirect evidences suggestes the period of Atreya to be about 1000 BC i.e. 3000 years back.
