Chapter 8 - Division of Time

1. Janamejaya said:—O you highly intelligent twice-born one, you should enumerate the Yugas and mention the extent of Brahma’s day.

2. Vaishampayana said:—O subduer of enemies, hear, I shall enumerate the days of Brahma by the same calculation by which men make divisions of day and night.

3-4. Five Nimeshas make one Kastha, thirty Kashthas make one Kala and thirty Kalas make one Muhurtta. And the intelligent consider thirty Muhurttas constituting one day and night comprising the motion of the sun and moon. Such days and nights daily take place in all the countries around the mount Meru.

5. Fifteen days and nights make one Paksha (fortnight); two fortnights make one month—two months make one Ritu (season).

6. Three Ritus make one Ayana and two Ayanas make one year. Those, conversant with the science of enumeration, divide Ayana (course) into two—northern and southern.

7. Those, who have mastered (the various divisions of) time, consider a month, consisting of two fort-nights, as the one day and night of the ancestral manes.

8. The dark-half of the month is their day and the light half is their night. Therefore, O king, Sradhas, for the departed manes, are performed in the dark half of the month.

9. That which is considered as a Samvatsara (year) for human beings is a day and night for the celestials. Of them the northern course is considered by the learned as their day and the southern course as their night.

10. When a celestial year is multiplied ten-fold it is considered as one day and night of Manu. A day and a night, when multiplied ten-fold, constitute one Paksha (fortnight) of Manu.

11. A Paksha, when multiplied tenfold, forms one month; and twelve months are regarded by the wise, discriminating truth, as forming a season of Manu. Three Ritus (seasons) make one Ayana and two Ayanas make one Samvatsara (year).

12. Their four thousand years constitute the extent of Krita Yuga (golden age). O king, four hundred years form the Sandhya^[1] and four hundred such form the Sandhyamsha^[2].

13. The extent of the Treta Yuga is three thousand years. Its Sandhya and Sandhyamsha severally extend over three hundred years.

14. It is said that the duration of Dvapara Yuga is two thousand years. Its Sandhya and Sandhyamsha are said to extend each over two hundred years.

15. The wise have enumerated the duration of Kali Yuga as extending over a thousand years. Its Sandhya and Sandhyamsha too extend over one hundred years each.

16. I have thus described the extent of Yugas comprising twelve thousand years. Hear, from me, the enumeration of Yugas measured by celestial Ayanas.

17-18. Krita, Treta, Dvapara and Kali these are the four Yugas. O foremost of kings, with such seventy-one Yugas one Manvantara is completed. So is said by those who are versed in the science of enumeration. The Ayana, that has been mentioned before, is two-fold, northern and southern.

19-20. When one Manu disappears his Ayana is completed, and then another reigns. In this way when many a Manu rise and disappear one Samvatsara of Brahma is completed. His one Samvatsara has been described by the truth-observing ascetics as consisting of one million of years.

21-23. Brahma’s one day is said to be tantamount to one Kalpa. The earth, with her mountains, woods, and forests, sinks into water in the night which is enumerated by the wise as extending over a thousand Yugas. O foremost of Bharatas, at the completion of that one thousand Yugas, Brahma’s one day is completed and the termination of a Kalpa is said to be brought about. I have thus described to you the preceding seventy Yugas.

24. Krita, Treta and other Yugas are said to constitute one Manvantara. I have also described to you fourteen Manus, enhancing their (own) glory.

25. O king, all these patriarchs were masters of the Vedas and Puranas. Even the chanting of their glories is crowned with success.

26. At the termination of a Manvantara sets in the dissolution (of the universe) after which again begins the work of creation. Even with hundred years I cannot enumerate this period,

27. O foremost of Bharatas, during these Man wantaras, the termination of the creation and destruction of creatures is brought about. This I have heard.

28. At that time there exist the gods with gross and subtle elements and the seven Rishis, who carry on penances, lead a life of celibacy and are endued with the knowledge of scriptures.

29-31. One Kalpa terminates with the completion of a thousand Yugas. Then scorched by the rays of the sun, all the creatures, placing the lord Brahma before them, and accompanied by the Adityas, approached the omnipotent lord Narayana, the foremost of gods, ever engaged in Yoga, the master of Yogins, unborn, eternal, the soul of all, who repeatedly engenders all creatures at various Kalpas. He is the unseen and eternal God to whom belongs the whole universe.

32. Then there sets in night when all are converted into one ocean. They all sleep in the belly of Narayana for one thousand years of Brahma.

33. That extent of time goes by the name of night when the Grandfather (Brahma) enters upon the Yoga of sleep.

34. After the expiration of that night extending over a thousand Yugas awakes the Divine Brahma, the Grand-father of all.

35-37. Desirous of engendering progeny again he sets his mind on the work of creation. There comes into existence the same ancient recollection, the same character, the same energy for action, the same abode for the gods, but only a change in order of things takes place. O foremost of Bharatas, then are born again at the commencement of Yuga, the celestials saints, Yakshas, Gandharvas, Pishachas, serpents and Rakshas, that had (before) been consumed by the rays of the sun.

38. As the signs of various seasons are changed with the change of cycles, so the various orders of creations are metamorphosed in Brahma’s night.

39-40. Having come out (of the lotus navel of Narayana) Prajapati engages, for sooth, in the work of creation. O my child, O foremost of Bharatas, those gods, men and saints, who renouncing all attachment for the body, and being pure of mind, are united with Great Brahman, are never born in the next cycle.

41-42. Having divided his own day into a thousand Yugas (cycles) and his night into an equal number of cycles in due order, the Divine Brahma, the ordainer of all, well-versed in the enumeration of time, creates and destroys the creatures again and again.

43. The Great God the Lord Narayana, Hari exists both in his subtle and gross form. I shall relate the history of Manu Vaivasvata born of a portion of his energy.

44. O foremost of Bharatas, hear the ancient story of the highly effulgent Manu described incidentally along with the description of Vrishni race.

45. Here the omnipotent, Great Lord, Hari was born for the destruction of all the demons and the behoof of all the worlds.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The period that elapses between the expiration of one Yuga or age and the commencement of another.

[2]:

The period at the end of each Yuga.