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Purana Manvantara - Cosmic Cycles

The fourth section of the Puranas, the manvantara, deals with the 'periods of the different Manus.' These form part of a chronological system which is purely hypothetical. Manu, according to Brahminical authority, was literally the first man in the present manvantara or man-period. He taught the code of laws to his son Bhrigu, who promulgated them to the Rishis. A total of 14 Manu Periods, with 15 intervening periods each of 1,728,000 years, comprise one short day of Brahman of 4,320,000,000 years. Each one of the fourteen Manvantaras has its own leader or Manu, and Avayambhara Manu, the leader of the present wave of humanity, was the seventh Manu, thus fixing the present at about the middle of the Kalpa. The duration of the manvantaras is variously given, but at any rate from the point of view of the Vishnu Purana the first six manus who are named belong to the past, the seventh is the manu of the present manu-period, and seven more are yet to come.

Manvantarani the Manu-period of time, ie great periods, each of which have a Manu as ancestor of the human race and vamsanucarita the history of the dynasties. A Manu-period is 71 MahaYugas, each of 4,320,000 years, for a total of 306,720,000 years. The Matsya Purana states that at the end of the Kali age of the Svayambhuva Manu period, there will be born a chastiser of the irreligious people and that his Gotra name will be Candrama and individual name, Pramati. With that, the first group of gods also comes to and end. It is said that a Manu's period of reign is 4,32000 Manusyarvarsas.

Time, like soul and matter, is a phase of the Supreme Spirit As Brahma wakes or sleeps, the universe wakes or sleeps also. Each day and each night of Brahma is an 'aeon' (kalpa) and is equivalent to a thousand 'great ages' (mahaytiga), that is to say, 1000 x 4,320,000 mortal years. During an 'aeon' fourteen Manus or 'fathers of mankind' appear, each presiding over a period of seventy-one 'great ages' with a surplus. Each 'great age' is further divided into four 'ages' {yuga) of progressive deterioration like the golden, silver, brazen, and iron ages of Greek and Roman mythology. These are named, from the numbers on the dice, Krita, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali, and are accordingly supposed to last for periods represented by the proportion 4:3:2:1. Sectarian zeal leads some of the Puranas to assert that an 'aeon' of Brahma is but'the twinkling of an eye' in the endurance of Siva or Vishnu.

There are few things in India which so thoroughly influence the life, habits, and character of the people as do their many conceptions about chronology. A very unique thing about the Hindu chronology is that it revolves in cycles. The Kali-yuga or Hindu astronomical era began on Friday, 18 February 3102 BC, on the 588,466th day of the Julian Period. It is often used in dates, and precedes the Vikrama Sam vat by 3044 years and the Saka era by 3179 years. In the Brahma-Purana Lord Krishna predicted that this Golden Age will start 5000 years after the beginning of the Kali Yuga, and will last for 10000 years. In the ancient texts it was extensively mentioned that the kali yuga was started in the Mahabharatha times with the exit of Krishna from this world. For some reason modern history accepted the beginning of the kali yuga at 3102 BC but placed the Mahabharatha times around 1000 BC, that too without a certainty.

The beginning of the Chakra or cycle of 2700 years must be dated back by 975 years to BC 4077. But the genealogical lists of the Puranas point to a still earlier period, as they place Krishna in the 52nd generation after Brahma. Allowing twenty-five years to a generation the Hindu date of the creation would be thrown back by upwards of 1300 years before the Kali-Yuga, or to BC 4400.

The Four Yugas, or ages, which comprise one Maha-Yuga [of 4,320,000 years], consist of the Satya Yuga [also called Sat Yuga, Krta Yuga and Krita Yuga - the Golden Age or age of Truth, of 1,728,000 years], Treta-Yuga [the Silver Age of 1,296,000 years], Dwapara-Yuga [the Bronze Age of 864,000 years], and Kali-Yuga [the Iron Age of 432,000 years]. It is everywhere claimed that the best things of India were found in the remote past. The Sattiayuga — the golden age — will return again. It is next in the procession, but there are about 427,000 long years before this Kali yuga comes to an end.

The first era in the mahayuga is called Sattia yuga, or the era of truth. During this period the cow of righteousness stands upon four legs, and all living beings are good, beautiful, and happy. This indeed is the golden age of Hinduism. But, alas, its last departure was some four million years ago, and it will not return, they say, for nearly half a million years more. Then it is followed by "the silver age," in which the cow is said to stand on three legs only. In other words, virtue and happiness have suffered diminution, and evil and misery have crept into human life. If in the previous age asceticism was the crowning glory, in this second age knowledge is supreme. This is said to be the time of Rama's exploits and trials. Then comes the bronze era, the so-called period of Krishna's incarnation and "goings." The poor cow of virtue has suffered still further limitations and has but two legs to stand upon in this yuga. This is called the age of sacrifice — the time when sacrifice has pre-eminence as a source of power in salvation. Then comes the iron age, the time of evil, par excellence, in which the cow has been reduced to the last extremity and has to stand upon one leg. The gradual deterioration of the ages finds here its culmination.

Every deviation from the established custom, every vice, every crime, in fact, everything wicked, is set down by the ordinary Hindu to the ascending power of the Lord of the Kali age. Out of this belief comes another equally portentous danger, viz. that of easily yielding to the temptations of the time, and of a readiness to participate in the common sins of the day. For, say many, are not these immoralities and evils an integral part of the time; and, if so, what harm is there in our partaking of them? Or, at least, is it not our best interest to harmonize ourselves with the essentially evil environment of our age rather than vainly to combat the sins of the day and to strive to no purpose to remove them?

Each yuga, maha-yuga, and karpa is followed by a period of more or less complete destruction. The achievements of each period are forgotten, because its results are obliterated or consumed by a mighty cataclysm. And thus no gain acquired in any past age is available for the coming epoch. In this way, the whole idea of the puranic chronology is the most effective ever devised by man in any land to bring discouragement and despair into the heart of the people who live under it.

Regarding the origin of the Maha-Yuga, it appeared to be the invention of the astronomers founded on the precession of the equinoxes. It may be objected that the division into four Yugas and their duration are mentioned both in the Code of Manu and in the Mahabharata. A human year is only a day with the gods, and four thousand years of the gods, each consisting of about three hundred and sixty such days, make up a Divine age, and four Divine ages make an age of the gods, while it requires a thousand such Divine ages to make a single day of Brahma, and as many to make his night. Again, some have said that it requires a thousand of Brahma's days to make an hour of Vishnu, and six hundred thousand such hours to make a period of Rudra.

The Four Yugas equal a total of 4,320,000 human years, and this is called a "maha-yuga." There are seventy-one of these great epochs in a "Manuvanthara" or the period of one Manu, or human progenitor. And there are many of these Manus with their periods. For instance, there are fourteen of them required in order to cover the time called "Karpa" or one day in the life of Brahma. And after Brahma has spent his modest day everything is destroyed and his godship spends an equal period in sleep and rest. Then begins another Brahmaic day, in which a new succession of Manus spend, with their progeny, their interminable epochs. And thus one series of epochs follows another, sandwiched in by equally long spaces of lifeless darkness. And this goes on until Brahma has completed his divine life of one hundred years; and then comes the final dissolution. Having gone on as far as this, there is no reason why the imagination should rest at this point; and so Vishnu Purana, which, of course, is composed in praise of that god, claims that one day of Vishnu is equal to the whole life of Brahma. No one can bring within the range of his thought or imagination one tithe of the years, divine or human, which are included in this marvellous chronology. A billion years are but as a day to the Hindu mind.

The oldest eras described by the astronomers are the Saptarshi-Kal, or cycle of the seven Rishis; the Barhaspatya-Manas, or sixty and twelve year cycles of Jupiter; and the Kali-Yuga, or beginning of the Kali-Age. Not one of these mounts up to the exaggerated periods of thousands of millions of years like the systems invented by the astronomers. The oldest of them, the Saptarshi-Kal, ascends only to BC 4077, or perhaps to 6777 BC, while the Barhaspatya-Mana and the Kali-Yuga reach only a little beyond 3000 BC. In Alexander's time the Hindus did not claim a greater antiquity than BC 6777. The extravagant system of Yugas and Mahayugas, Manwantaras, and Kalpas, was an invention of the astronomers, which they based on their newly-acquired knowledge of the precession. Now the only early eras used in Northern India, of which detailed accounts still remain, are the cycle of the seven Rishis, the two cycles of Jupiter, and the Kali-Yuga.

The Sapt-Rishi-Kal, or "Cycle of the Seven Rishis," called also the Saptarshi and Sat Rikhi Kal, is so named after the seven stars of the constellation of the Great Bear. Both Parasara and Aryabhata assumed that the revolutions of the Seven Rishis began with the commencement of the Kalpa of 4,320,000,000 years [the actual age of the Solar System is presently estimated to be 4,500,000,000 years]; and that the number of their revolutions in this period was 1,599,998. But they differ slightly in the number of years elapsed before the beginning of the Kali-Yuga, which the former makes 1,972,944,000, while the latter has 1,969,920,000.