Verse 1.83 [The span of Human Life in each Cycle]

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

अरोगाः सर्वसिद्धार्थाश्चतुर्वर्षशतायुषः ।
कृते त्रेतादिषु ह्येषामायुर्ह्रसति पादशः ॥ ८३ ॥

arogāḥ sarvasiddhārthāścaturvarṣaśatāyuṣaḥ |
kṛte tretādiṣu hyeṣāmāyurhrasati pādaśaḥ || 83 ||

During the Kṛta Cycle, men are free from disease, they have all their aims fulfilled, and their life lasts trhough four hundred years;—During the Tretā and other Cycles, their life becomes shortened, quarter by quarter.—(83).

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

By reason of the absence of vice, which is the cause of disease, men are ‘free from disease’; ‘disease’stands for sickness.—‘All,’ the four castes, have their desired purposes accomplished; ‘aim’ stands for purpose; or (it may mean) the results following from all their acts with purposes are duly obtained; on account of the absence of obstacles, all result are obtained without fail.

‘Their life lasts through four hundred years’—“But we find the highest age described as 1600 years, in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (3.16.7), where it is said ‘he lived for sixteen hundred years’.”

It is in view of this that it has been held that the term ‘hundred years’ here stands for the stages of life; the meaning thus being that ‘they live through all the four stages of life,’—man’s life is never shortened, they never die without having reached the fourth stage. That such is the meaning is shown by the fact that in the second half of the verse we have the assertion ‘vayo hrasati,’ ‘life becomes shortened’; this subsequent mention of the ‘shorterning of life’ would have some point only if the ‘lengthening of life’ were spoken of in the preceding sentence.

‘Quarter by quarter’—the term ‘quarter’ here does not stand for the fourth part, it stands only for part; the meaning being that ‘man’s life becomes shortened in part’, i.e. some die while they are young children, others on reaching youth, and others on attaining old age; and the full span of life is difficult to attain.—(83)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

‘Quarter by quarter’—The natural meaning is that men lived for 400 years during Kṛta, 300 years during Tretā, 200 years during Dvāpara and 100 years during Kali But in view of the assertion in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad of a man having lived for 1600 years (3.16.17) Medhātithi has been forced to remark that ‘quarter’ here stands for part, and not for the precise fourth part, and to explain the text to mean that ‘man’s life becomes shortened in part; some die while they are young children, others on reaching youth and others on attaining old age.’

The Aparārka (p. 1012) quotes the first line in support of the view that each cycle has a distinct character of its own.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(Verse 81-86)

See Comparative notes for Verse 1.81 (Dharma in the Kṛta-yuga).