Canto XLVI - The computation of Brahmā’s life

Mārkaṇḍeya moralizes on Brahmā and Prakṛti—and describes Viṣṇu and Śiva as special forms of Brahmā—He explains how human and divine years are reckoned, the duration of the four ages, the Kṛta, the Tretā, the Dvāpara and the Kali, and of a Manvantara, and the length of Brahmā’s day and life.

Krauṣṭuki spoke:

Adorable Sir! thou hast related to me correctly the genesis of the egg, and thou hast told me of the birth of the mighty Soul Brahmā within the egg of Brahmā. I wish to hear this from thee, O scion of Bhṛgu’s race, when things are not created, and nothing exists, everything having been destroyed by Time at the end of the dissolution of the Universe.

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:

When all this universe becomes dissolved in Nature,^[1] this dissolution is designated ‘natural’^[2] by the wise. When the Imperceptible subsists within itself, and when all modification is suspended, Nature and the Soul^[3] subsist with sameness of character. Then both darkness and goodness subsist in equipoise, neither being in excess or in deficiency, and permeated by each other. Just as oil exists in sesamum seeds, or as ghee in milk, so passion also exists permeant within darkness and goodness.

The day of the Supreme Lord^[4] lasts from the birth of Brahmā, as long as the two half paras which compose his life;^[5] and his night during the dissolution is of the same duration.^[6] Now at the dawn of day he awakes, he who is the origin of the universe, who is without beginning, who is the cause of all things, whose soul transcends thought; every one else works in an inferior way.

The Supreme God, quickly enters into Nature and the Soul, as the lord of the universe, and agitates them with his intense supernatural power. Just as love, or a breeze of Spring, entering into young women tends to produce agitation, so does he, who is the embodiment of supernatural power. When Pradhāna is agitated, the god Brahmā is born and is contained within the cavity of the egg, as I have already told thee. At first he is the agitator; as the husband of Nature, he is the thing to be agitated; and he exists with contraction and expansion even in the state of Pradhāna. He is born, though he is the birth-place of the universe; though devoid of qualities, he possesses the quality of passion; when he assumes the character of Brahmā, he engages in creation.

In the character of Brahmā he creates mankind; then possessing an excess of goodness, he becomes Viṣṇu and protects them righteously; then, with darkness preponderating in him, he as Rudra dissolves the whole universe with its three worlds, and sleeps. He possesses the three qualities, and yet he is destitute of qualities. Just as he is at first the pervading Soul, then the preserver, and lastly the destroyer,^[7] so he takes appellations which designate him as Brahmā, Viṣṇu or Śiva. As Brahmā he creates the world; and as Rudra he destroys them; and as Viṣṇu he holds a neutral position. These are the three conditions of the Self-existent. Passion and Brahmā; darkness and Rudra; goodness and Viṣṇu the lord of the world: these indeed are the three deities; these indeed are the three qualities. These verily are mutually paired, and are mutually dependant: they are not separated for a moment; they do not forsake one another.

Thus Brahmā, the four-faced god of gods, is anterior to the universe: assuming the quality of passion, he engages in creation.

Brahmā who is adored as Hiraṇyagarbha, the first of the gods, and without beginning, who sits in the middle of the lotus-like earth, was born in the beginning. One hundred years is the full length of life for him, the high-souled, according to the true Brāhmya computation. Hear from me how it is reckoned.

A kāṣṭhā is said to be composed of fifteen winks of the eyelids; and thirty kāṣṭhās make a kalā; and thirty such kalās make a muhūrta. A day and night among men contain, it has been settled, thirty muhūrtas; and with thirty days are reckoned the two lunar fortnights and the month; of six months consists the sun’s half-yearly course; the two half-yearly courses on the south and north of the equator coinpose the year. Such a year is a day and night of the gods;^[8] the day thereof is the sun’s northern half-yearly course.

Now of twelve thousand divine years consist the four ages named the Kṛta, the Tretā, &c. Hear from me how they are divided.

Now the Kṛta age is said to have contained four thousand years; its commencing twilight was four hundred years, and the closing twilight was of the same duration. The Tretā age was three thousand divine years; and three hundred years was its commencing twilight, which was indeed of that duration, and its closing twilight was of the same duration. The Dvāpara age was two thousand years; and its commencing twilight is declared to have been two hundred years, and its closing twilight was two hundred years. The Kali age is a thousand divine years, O brahman; two hundreds of years are called its commencing and closing twilights;

This period of twelve thousand divine years is called a yuga; it has been laid down by the poets; a thousand times this period are called one of Brahma’s days.

In one of Brahmā’s days, O brahman, there may be fourteen Manus. They live according to their portions; that thousand is divided among them. The gods, the seven ṛṣis, and Indra, Manu, and the kings his sons, are created with Manu and pass to dissolution with him in regular order. Seventy-one repetitions of the four ages, with a fraction in excess, constitute a manvantara; hear from me its computation in human years. Thirty full crores reckoned duly, O brahman, and sixty-seven lakhs more by reckoning, and twenty thousands—this is the period of seventy-one times the four ages without the excess fraction; this is called a manvantara. Hear it from me in divine years; eight hundred thousands of years by divine reckoning,^[9] and fifty-two thousands of years more in addition. A day of Brahma is declared to be this period multiplied fourteen times.^[10] At its termination the dissolution is declared by the wise to be the necessary result, O brahman.

The Bhūrloka, the Bhuvarloka and the Svarloka are perishable and pass^[11] to dissolution; and the Maharloka stands, yet the dwellers therein by reason of the heat go to the Janaloka. And Brahmā sleeps indeed during the night in the three worlds which have been dissolved into one ocean. That night is of exactly the same duration. At its termination creation begins again. And so passes one of Brahmā's years, and a hundred years is the whole. For a hundred of his years is denominated a Para; and a Parārdha or half a Para is well-known to be composed of fifty years. So then a Parārdha of his life has elapsed, O brahman; at the close of which occurred the Mahākalpa, which is famed as the Pādma. Of the second Parārdha which is now passing, O brahman, the first kalpa (or cycle) ordained is this one called the Yārāha.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Prakṛti.

[2]:

Prākṛta.

[3]:

Puruṣa.

[4]:

Pareśa.

[5]:

The text seems incorrect; a better reading obtained from a MS. belonging to Babn Nagendra Chandra Basn of Calcutta is utpatter for utpattir, and āyurvai for āyuṣo. See verse 42.

[6]:

The same MS. reads tat-samaḥ samayo instead of tat-samā saṃyame; with practically the same meaning.

[7]:

Lāvaka (from lū), one who cuts to pieces, one who destroys. Would not lāyaka (from lī) be better, one who brings on the dissolution?

[8]:

Thus one divine year = 360 human years.

[9]:

This line as it stands in the text seems incorrect. The four ages contain 12,000 divine years or 4,320,000 human years, and 71 times this period contain 8,52,000 divine years, or 300,720,000 human years. This latter period agrees with the enumeration in verso 36 (viz., 30,67,20,000 years), but instead of the former the text gives 8,000 + 52,000, i.e , 60,000 divine years, unless we read śata-sahasrāṇi for varṣa-sahasrāṇi. Yutam, however, seems wrong as regards both grammar and meaning.

[10]:

This does not agree with verse 31, if we take the words “this period” to refer to verses 35, 36 and 37. In verse 31 one of Brahma’s days is said to be 12,000,000 divine years or 4,320,000,000 human years, but 14 times the period mentioned in the latter verses contain 11,928,000 divine years, or 4,294,080,000 human years. We must bring in here the excess fraction referred to in verse 34, which by calculation is found to be ³⁄₇; thus 71 ³⁄₇ times the yuga of 12,000 divine years = 857,142 ⁶⁄₇ divine years of the manvantara and 14 times this last period exactly = 12,000,000 divine years of Brahmā’s day. Similarly with regard to human years.

[11]:

For āyāti read āyānti ?