Part 5: The fifth spoke

Gaṇabhṛt Gautama bowed to the Blessed One and said: “The Blessed Ṛṣabha was at the end of the third spoke (of the wheel of time). In the fourth spoke in the avasarpiṇī there were twenty-three Arhats, beginning with Ajita and ending with you, Teacher of the World. Please tell what will happen in future in the fifth spoke called duḥṣamā (evil), Supreme Lord.”

The Master said: “The fifth spoke will begin three years, eight and one half months after my emancipation. When nineteen hundred and fourteen years have passed after my emancipation, on the eighth day of Caitra in the half-tithi Viṣṭi,^[1] in a Mleccha family there will be a king, known by three names, Kalkin, Rudra, and Caturmukha, in the city Pāṭalīputra. At that time the temple of Rāma and Kṛṣṇa in the city Mathurā will fall suddenly like an old tree blown down by wind.

Anger, conceit, deceit, and greed will always be innate in him, cruel-hearted, like worms in wood. Oppression by thieves and the king, fear of the king, loss of taste and smell, poor alms, plague and drouth will certainly take place then. Kalkin will be prince for eighteen years, lord for as many, and after that a cruel minded king.