Yuga cycle

This article is about Hindu ages. Not to be confused with Buddhist ages, Greek ages, or Jain ages.

A Yuga Cycle (a.k.a. chatur yuga, maha yuga, etc.) is a cyclic age (epoch) in Hindu cosmology. Each cycle lasts for 4,320,000 years (12,000 divine years[a]) and repeats four yugas (world ages): Krita (Satya) Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga.[4]

As a Yuga Cycle progresses through the four yugas, each yuga's length and humanity's general moral and physical state within each yuga decrease by one-fourth. Kali Yuga, which lasts for 432,000 years, is believed to have started in 3102 BCE.[5][6] Near the end of Kali Yuga, when virtues are at their worst, a cataclysm and a re-establishment of dharma occur to usher in the next cycle's Krita (Satya) Yuga, prophesied to occur by Kalki.[7]

There are 71 Yuga Cycles in a manvantara (age of Manu) and 1,000 Yuga Cycles in a kalpa (day of Brahma).[6]

  1. ^ Burgess 1935, pp. 285, 286, chapter XII verse 34-36.
  2. ^ Burgess 1935, pp. 288, 289, chapter XII verse 45-51: The Surya Siddhanta identifies the vernal equinox with the First Point of Aries and hence does not distinguish between the sidereal and tropical year.
  3. ^ Burgess 1935, pp. 8, 9, chapter I verse 13,14.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Godwin 2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Merriam-Webster was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Springer measurements was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster 1999, p. 629 (Kalki): At the end of the present Kali age, when virtue and religion have disappeared into CHAOS and the world is ruled by unjust men, Kalki will appear to destroy the wicked and usher in a new age. ... According to some myths, Kalki's horse will stamp the earth with its right foot, causing the tortoise that supports the world to drop into the deep. Then Kalki will restore the earth to its initial purity.


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