CHAPTER X.

THE PURANIC DIVISIONS OF TIME.

THE three main divisions of time employed in the Hindu Scriptures are YUGAS, MANVANTARAS, and KALPAS. [**] These will now be described.

There are four Yugas, which together extend to 12,000 divine years. Their respective duration is as follows:--

The Krita Yuga

= 4,800

divine years.

The Treta Yuga

= 3,600

" "

The Dvapara Yuga

= 2,400

" "

The Kali Yuga

= 1,200

" "

"One year of mortals is equal to one day of the gods." As 360 is taken as the number of days in the year--

The Krita Yuga

= 4,800 x 360

=

1,728,000

years of mortals.

The Treta, Yuga

= 3,600 x 360

=

1,296,000

" "

The Dvapara Yuga

= 2,400 x 360

=

864,000

" "

The Kali Yuga

= 1,200 x 360

=

432,000

" "

One Mahayuga, or Great Age, including the four lesser Yugas, therefore, being 12,000 divine years = 4,320,000 years of mortals. "A thousand such Mahayugas are a

day of Brahma," and his nights are of equal duration; a Kalpa, therefore, or Day, of Brahma extends over 4,320,000,000 ordinary years. "Within each Kalpa 14 Manus reign; a Manvantara, or period of a Manu, therefore, is consequently one-fourteenth part of a Kalpa, or day of Brahma.

"In the present Kalpa, six Manus, of whom Swyambhuva was the first, have already passed away; the present being Vaivasata. In each Manvantara (period of a Manu), seven Rishis, certain deities, an Indra and a Manu, and the kings, his sons, are created and perish. A thousand systems of the four Yugas occur coincidentally with these fourteen Manvantaras, and consequently about 71 systems of four Yugas elapse during each Manvantara, and measure the lives of the Manus and the deities of the period. At the close of this day of Brahma, a collapse of the universe takes place, which lasts through a night of Brahma, equal in duration to his day, during which period the worlds are converted into one great ocean, when the lotus-born god (Brahma), expanded by his deglutition of the universe, and contemplated by the Yogis and gods in Janaloka, sleeps on the serpent Sesha. At the end of that night he awakes and creates anew.