Book I. Chapter Iii
*
"The Vishnu Purana", translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840],
p. 21
Chap. Iii.
Measure of time. Moments or Kshths, day and night; fortnight, month, year, divine year: Yugas, or ages: Mahyuga, or great age: day of Brahm: periods of the Manus: a Manwantara: night of Brahm, and destruction of the world: a year of Brahm: his life: a Kalpa: a Parrrdha: the past, or Pdma Kalpa: the present, or Vrha.
Maitreya.--How can creative agency be attributed to that Brahma, who is without qualities, illimitable, pure, and free from imperfection?
Parara.--The essential properties of existent things are objects of observation, of which no foreknowledge is attainable; and creation, and hundreds of properties, belong to Brahma, as inseparable parts of his essence, as heat, oh chief of sages, is inherent in fire 1. Hear then how
p. 22
the deity Nryna, in the person of Brahm, the great parent of the world, created all existent things.
Brahm is said to be born: a familiar phrase, to signify his manifestation; and, as the peculiar measure of his presence, a hundred of his years is said to constitute his life: that period is also called Param, and the half of it, Parrddham 2. I have already declared to you, oh sinless Brahman, that Time is a form of Vishnu: hear now how it is applied to measure the duration of Brahm, and of all other sentient beings, as well as of those which are unconscious, as the mountains, oceans, and the like.
Oh best of sages, fifteen twinklings of the eye make a Kshth; thirty Kshths, one Kal; and thirty Kals, one Muhrtta 3. Thirty Muhrttas
p. 23
constitute a day and night of mortals: thirty such days make a month, divided into two half-months: six months form an Ayana (the period of the sun's progress north or south of the ecliptic): and two Ayanas compose a year. The southern Ayana is a night, and the northern a day of the gods. Twelve thousand divine years, each composed of (three hundred and sixty) such days, constitute the period of the four Yugas, or ages. They are thus distributed: the Krita age has four thousand divine years; the Tret three thousand; the Dwpara two thousand; and the Kali age one thousand: so those acquainted with antiquity have declared. The period that precedes a Yuga is called a Sandhy, and it is of as many hundred years as there are thousands in the Yuga: and the period that follows a Yuga, termed the Sandhynsa, is of similar duration. The interval between the Sandhy and the Sandhynsa is the Yuga, denominated Krita, Tret, &c. The Krita, Tret, Dwpara, and Kali, constitute a great age, or aggregate of four ages: a thousand such aggregates are a day of Brahm, and fourteen Menus reign within that term. Hear the division of time which they measure 4.
p. 24
Seven Rishis, certain (secondary) divinities, Indra, Manu, and the kings his sons, are created and perish at one period 5; and the interval, called a Manwantara, is equal to seventy-one times the number of years contained in the four Yugas, with some additional years: this is the duration of the Manu, the (attendant) divinities, and the rest, which is equal to 852.000 divine years, or to 306.720.000 years of mortals, independent of the additional period 6. Fourteen times this period constitutes
p. 25
a Brhma day, that is, a day of Brahm; the term (Brhma) being the derivative form. At the end of this day a dissolution of the universe occurs, when all the three worlds, earth, and the regions of space, are consumed with fire. The dwellers of Maharloka (the region inhabited by the saints who survive the world), distressed by the heat, repair then to Janaloka (the region of holy men after their decease). When the-three worlds are but one mighty ocean, Brahm, who is one with Nryana, satiate with the demolition of the universe, sleeps upon his serpent-bed--contemplated, the lotus born, by the ascetic inhabitants of the Janaloka--for a night of equal duration with his day; at the close of which he creates anew. Of such days and nights is a year of Brahm composed; and a hundred such years constitute his whole life 7. One Parrddha 8, or half his existence, has expired, terminating with the Mah Kalpa 9 called Pdma. The Kalpa (or day of Brahm) termed Vrha is the first of the second period of Brahm's existence.
p. 26
this page consists entire of footnotes
Footnotes
21:1 Agency depends upon the Rja guna, the quality of foulness or passion, which is an imperfection. Perfect being is void of all qualities, and is therefore inert:
Omnis enim per se divom natura necesse est
Immortali vo summa cum pace fruatur:
but if inert for ever, creation could not occur. The objection is rather evaded than answered. The ascribing to Brahma of innumerable and unappreciable properties is supported by the commentator with vague and scarcely applicable texts of the Vedas. 'In him there is neither instrument nor effect: his like, his superior, is nowhere seen. That supreme soul is the subjugator of all, the ruler of all, the sovereign of all.' In various places of the Vedas also it is said that his power is supreme, and that wisdom, power, and action are his essential properties. The origin of creation is also imputed in the Vedas to the rise of will or desire in the Supreme: 'He wished I may become manifold, I may create creatures.' The Bhgavata expresses the same doctrine: 'The Supreme Being was before all things alone, the soul and lord of spiritual substance: in consequence of his own will he is secondarily defined, as if of various minds.' This will however, in the mysticism of the Bhgavata, is personified as My: 'She (that desire) was the energy of the Supreme, who was contemplating (the untreated world); and by her, whose name is My, the Lord made the universe.' This, which was at first a mere poetical personification of the divine will, came, in such works as the Bhgavata, to denote a female divinity, coequal and coeternal with the First Cause. It may be doubted if the Vedas authorize such a mystification, and no very decided vestige of it occurs in the Vishnu Purna.
22:2 This term is also applied to a different and still more protracted period. See b. Vi. C. 3.
22:3 The last proportion is rather obscurely expressed: 'Thirty of them (Kals) are the rule for the Muhrtta.' The commentator says it means that thirty Kals make a Ghatik (or Ghari), and two Ghatiks a Muhrtta; but his explanation is gratuitous, and is at variance with more explicit passages elsewhere; as in the Matsya: 'A Muhrtta is thirty Kals.' In these divisions of the twenty-four hours the Krma, Mrkandeya, Matsya, Vyu, and Linga Purnas exactly agree with our authority. In Manu, I. 64, we have the same computation, with a difference in the first article, eighteen Nimeshas being one Kashth. The Bhavishya P. follows Manu in that respect, and agrees in the rest with the Padma, which has,
15 Nimeshas
= 1 Kshth
30 Kshths
= 1 Kal
30 Kals
= 1 Kshana
12 Kshanas
=1 Muhrtta
30 Muhrttas
= 1 day and night.
In the Mahbhrata, Moksha Dherma, it is said that thirty Kals and one-tenth, or, according to the commentator, thirty Kals and three Kshths, make a Muhrtta. A still greater variety, however, occurs in the Bhgavata and in the Brahma Vaivartta P. These have,
2
Paramnus
= 1 Anu
3
Anus
= 1 Trasarenu
3
Trasarenus
= 1 Truti
100
Trutis
= 1 Vedha
3
Vedhas
= 1 Lava
3
Lavas
= 1 Nimesha
3
Nimeshas
= 1 Kshana
5
Kshanas
= 1 Kshth
15
Kshths
= 1 Laghu
15
Laghus
= 1 Nrik
2
Nriks
= 1 Muhrtta
6 or 7
Nriks
= 1 Yama, or watch of the day or night.
Allusions to this or either of the preceding computations, or to any other, have not been found in either of the other Purnas: p. 23 yet the work of Gopla Bhatta, from which Mr. Colebrooke states he derived his information on the subject of Indian weights and measures (a. R. 5. 105), the Sankhya Parimna, cites the Varha P. for a peculiar computation, and quotes another from the Bhavishya, different from that which occurs in the first chapter of that work, to which we have referred. The principle of the calculation adopted by the astronomical works is different: it is, 6 respirations (Prna) = 1 Vikal; 60 Vikals = 1 Danda; 60 Dandas =1 sydereal day. The Nimesha, which is the base of one of the Paurnic modes, is a twinkle of the eye of a man at rest; whilst the Paramnu, which is the origin of the other, and apparently more modern system, considering the works in which it occurs, is the time taken by a Paramnu, or mote in the sunbeam, to pass through a crevice in a shutter. Some indications of this calculation being in common currency, occur in the Hindustani terms Renu (Trasarenu) and Lamhu (Laghu) in Indian horometry (a. R. 5. 81); whilst the more ordinary system seems derived from the astronomical works, being 60 Tilas = 1 Vipala; 60 Vipalas = 1 Pala; 60 Palas = 1 Danda or Ghari. "Ibid".
23:4 These calculations of time are found in most of the Purnas, with some additions occasionally, of no importance, as that of the year of the seven Rishis, 3030 mortal years, and the year of Dhruva, 9090 such years, in the Linga P. In all essential points the computations accord, and the scheme, extravagant as it may appear, seems to admit of easy explanation. We have, in the first place, a computation of the years of the gods in the four ages, or, p. 24
Krita
Yuga
4000
Sandhy
400
Sandhynsa
400
4800
Tret
Yuga
3000
Sandhy
300
Sandhynsa
300
3600
Dwpara
Yuga
2000
Sandhy
200
Sandhynsa
200
2400
Kali
Yuga
1000
Sandhya
100
Sandhynsa
100
1200
12000.
[paragraph continues] If these divine years are converted into years of mortals, by multiplying them by 360, a year of men being a day of the gods, we obtain the years of which the Yugas of mortals are respectively said to consist:
4800 x 360
= 1.728.000
3600 x 360
= 1.296.000
2400 x 360
= 864.000
1200 x 360
= 432.000
4.320.000 a Mahyuga.
[paragraph continues] So that these periods resolve themselves into very simple elements: the notion of four ages in a deteriorating series expressed by descending arithmetical progression, as 4, 3, 2, 5; the conversion of units into thousands; and the mythological fiction, that these were divine years, each composed of 360 years of men. It does not seem necessary to refer the invention to any astronomical computations, or to any attempt to represent actual chronology.
24:5 The details of these, as occurring in each Manwantara, are given in the third book, c. 1 and 2.
24:6 'One and seventy enumerations of the four ages, with a surplus.' A similar reading occurs in several other Purnas, but none of them state of what the surplus or addition consists; but it is, in fact, the number of years required to reconcile two computations of the Kalpa. The most simple, and probably the original calculation of a Kalpa, is its being 1000 great ages, or ages of the gods: ### Bhavishya P. Then 4.320.000 years, or a divine age, x 1000 = 4320.000.000 years, or a day or night of Brahm,. But a day of Brahm is also seventy-one times a great age multiplied by fourteen: 4.320.000 x 71 x 14= 4.294.080.000, or less than the preceding by 25.920.000; and it is to make up for this deficiency that a certain number of years must be added to the computation by Manwantaras. According to the Srya Siddhnta, as cited by Mr. Davis (a. R. 2. 231), this addition consists of a Sandhi to each Manwantara, equal to the Satya age, or 5.728.000 years; and one similar Sandhi at the commencement of the Kalpa: thus p. 25 4.320.000 x 71 = 306.720.000 + 1.728.000 = 308.448.000 x 14 = 4318.272.000 + 1.728.000 = 4320.000.000. The Pauranics, however, omit the Sandhi of the Kalpa, and add the whole compensation to the Manwantaras. The amount of this in whole numbers is 1.851.428 in each Manwantara, or 4.320.000 x 71= 306.720.000 + 1.851.428 = 308.571.428 x 14 = 4319.999.992; leaving a very small inferiority to the result of the calculation of a Kalpa by a thousand great ages. To provide for this deficiency, indeed, very minute subdivisions are admitted into the calculation; and the commentator on our text says, that the additional years, if of gods, are 5142 years, 10 months, 8 days, 4 watches, 2 Muhrttas, 8 Kals, 17 Kshths, 2 Nimeshas, and 1/7th; if of mortals, 1.851.428 years, 6 months, 24 days, 12 Nris, 12 Kals, 25 Kshthas, and 10 Nimeshas. It will be observed, that in the Kalpa we have the regular descending series 4, 3, 2, with cyphers multiplied ad libitum.
25:7 The Brahma Vaivartta says 108 years, but this is unusual. Brahm's life is but a Nimesha of Krishna, according to that work; a Nimesha of iva, according to the Saiva Purna.
25:8 In the last book the Parrddha occurs as a very different measure of time, but it is employed here in its ordinary acceptation.
25:9 In theory the Kalpas are infinite; as the Bhavishya: 'Excellent sages, thousands of millions of Kalpas have passed, and as many are to come.' In the Linga Purna, and others of the Saiva division, above thirty Kalpas are named, and some account given of several, but they are evidently sectarial embellishments. The only Kalpas usually specified are those which follow in the text: the one which was the last, or the Pdma, and the present p. 26 or Vrha. The first is also commonly called the Brhma; but the Bhgavata distinguishes the Brhma, considering it to be the first of Brahm's life, whilst the Pdma was the last of the first Parrddha. The terms Man, or great Kalpa, applied to the Padma, is attached to it only in a general sense; or, according to the commentator, because it comprises, as a minor Kalpa, that in which Brahm was born from a lotus. Properly, a great Kalpa is not a day, but a life of Brahm; as in the Brahma Vaivartta: 'Chronologers compute a Kalpa by the life of Brahm. Minor Kalpas, as Samvartta and the rest, are numerous.' Minor Kalpas here denote every period of destruction, or those in which the Samvartta wind, or other destructive agents, operate. Several other computations of time are found in different Purnas, but it will be sufficient to notice one which occurs in the Hari Vana, as it is peculiar, and because it is not quite correctly given in M. Langlois' translation. It is the calculation of the Mnava time, or time of a Menu.
10
divine years
= a day and night of a Menu.
10
Mnava days
= his fortnight.
10
Mnava fortn.
= his month.
12
Mnava months
= his season.
6
Mnava seasons
= his year.
Accordingly the commentator says 72000 divine years make up his year. The French translation has, "dix annes des dieux font un jour de Menu; dix jours des dieux font un pakcha de Menu," for if ten "years" make a "day", ten "days" can scarcely make a "fortnight".
"The Vishnu Purana", translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840],
p. 21
Chap. Iii.
Measure of time. Moments or Kshths, day and night; fortnight, month, year, divine year: Yugas, or ages: Mahyuga, or great age: day of Brahm: periods of the Manus: a Manwantara: night of Brahm, and destruction of the world: a year of Brahm: his life: a Kalpa: a Parrrdha: the past, or Pdma Kalpa: the present, or Vrha.
Maitreya.--How can creative agency be attributed to that Brahma, who is without qualities, illimitable, pure, and free from imperfection?
Parara.--The essential properties of existent things are objects of observation, of which no foreknowledge is attainable; and creation, and hundreds of properties, belong to Brahma, as inseparable parts of his essence, as heat, oh chief of sages, is inherent in fire 1. Hear then how
p. 22
the deity Nryna, in the person of Brahm, the great parent of the world, created all existent things.
Brahm is said to be born: a familiar phrase, to signify his manifestation; and, as the peculiar measure of his presence, a hundred of his years is said to constitute his life: that period is also called Param, and the half of it, Parrddham 2. I have already declared to you, oh sinless Brahman, that Time is a form of Vishnu: hear now how it is applied to measure the duration of Brahm, and of all other sentient beings, as well as of those which are unconscious, as the mountains, oceans, and the like.
Oh best of sages, fifteen twinklings of the eye make a Kshth; thirty Kshths, one Kal; and thirty Kals, one Muhrtta 3. Thirty Muhrttas
p. 23
constitute a day and night of mortals: thirty such days make a month, divided into two half-months: six months form an Ayana (the period of the sun's progress north or south of the ecliptic): and two Ayanas compose a year. The southern Ayana is a night, and the northern a day of the gods. Twelve thousand divine years, each composed of (three hundred and sixty) such days, constitute the period of the four Yugas, or ages. They are thus distributed: the Krita age has four thousand divine years; the Tret three thousand; the Dwpara two thousand; and the Kali age one thousand: so those acquainted with antiquity have declared. The period that precedes a Yuga is called a Sandhy, and it is of as many hundred years as there are thousands in the Yuga: and the period that follows a Yuga, termed the Sandhynsa, is of similar duration. The interval between the Sandhy and the Sandhynsa is the Yuga, denominated Krita, Tret, &c. The Krita, Tret, Dwpara, and Kali, constitute a great age, or aggregate of four ages: a thousand such aggregates are a day of Brahm, and fourteen Menus reign within that term. Hear the division of time which they measure 4.
p. 24
Seven Rishis, certain (secondary) divinities, Indra, Manu, and the kings his sons, are created and perish at one period 5; and the interval, called a Manwantara, is equal to seventy-one times the number of years contained in the four Yugas, with some additional years: this is the duration of the Manu, the (attendant) divinities, and the rest, which is equal to 852.000 divine years, or to 306.720.000 years of mortals, independent of the additional period 6. Fourteen times this period constitutes
p. 25
a Brhma day, that is, a day of Brahm; the term (Brhma) being the derivative form. At the end of this day a dissolution of the universe occurs, when all the three worlds, earth, and the regions of space, are consumed with fire. The dwellers of Maharloka (the region inhabited by the saints who survive the world), distressed by the heat, repair then to Janaloka (the region of holy men after their decease). When the-three worlds are but one mighty ocean, Brahm, who is one with Nryana, satiate with the demolition of the universe, sleeps upon his serpent-bed--contemplated, the lotus born, by the ascetic inhabitants of the Janaloka--for a night of equal duration with his day; at the close of which he creates anew. Of such days and nights is a year of Brahm composed; and a hundred such years constitute his whole life 7. One Parrddha 8, or half his existence, has expired, terminating with the Mah Kalpa 9 called Pdma. The Kalpa (or day of Brahm) termed Vrha is the first of the second period of Brahm's existence.
p. 26
this page consists entire of footnotes
Footnotes
21:1 Agency depends upon the Rja guna, the quality of foulness or passion, which is an imperfection. Perfect being is void of all qualities, and is therefore inert:
Omnis enim per se divom natura necesse est
Immortali vo summa cum pace fruatur:
but if inert for ever, creation could not occur. The objection is rather evaded than answered. The ascribing to Brahma of innumerable and unappreciable properties is supported by the commentator with vague and scarcely applicable texts of the Vedas. 'In him there is neither instrument nor effect: his like, his superior, is nowhere seen. That supreme soul is the subjugator of all, the ruler of all, the sovereign of all.' In various places of the Vedas also it is said that his power is supreme, and that wisdom, power, and action are his essential properties. The origin of creation is also imputed in the Vedas to the rise of will or desire in the Supreme: 'He wished I may become manifold, I may create creatures.' The Bhgavata expresses the same doctrine: 'The Supreme Being was before all things alone, the soul and lord of spiritual substance: in consequence of his own will he is secondarily defined, as if of various minds.' This will however, in the mysticism of the Bhgavata, is personified as My: 'She (that desire) was the energy of the Supreme, who was contemplating (the untreated world); and by her, whose name is My, the Lord made the universe.' This, which was at first a mere poetical personification of the divine will, came, in such works as the Bhgavata, to denote a female divinity, coequal and coeternal with the First Cause. It may be doubted if the Vedas authorize such a mystification, and no very decided vestige of it occurs in the Vishnu Purna.
22:2 This term is also applied to a different and still more protracted period. See b. Vi. C. 3.
22:3 The last proportion is rather obscurely expressed: 'Thirty of them (Kals) are the rule for the Muhrtta.' The commentator says it means that thirty Kals make a Ghatik (or Ghari), and two Ghatiks a Muhrtta; but his explanation is gratuitous, and is at variance with more explicit passages elsewhere; as in the Matsya: 'A Muhrtta is thirty Kals.' In these divisions of the twenty-four hours the Krma, Mrkandeya, Matsya, Vyu, and Linga Purnas exactly agree with our authority. In Manu, I. 64, we have the same computation, with a difference in the first article, eighteen Nimeshas being one Kashth. The Bhavishya P. follows Manu in that respect, and agrees in the rest with the Padma, which has,
15 Nimeshas
= 1 Kshth
30 Kshths
= 1 Kal
30 Kals
= 1 Kshana
12 Kshanas
=1 Muhrtta
30 Muhrttas
= 1 day and night.
In the Mahbhrata, Moksha Dherma, it is said that thirty Kals and one-tenth, or, according to the commentator, thirty Kals and three Kshths, make a Muhrtta. A still greater variety, however, occurs in the Bhgavata and in the Brahma Vaivartta P. These have,
2
Paramnus
= 1 Anu
3
Anus
= 1 Trasarenu
3
Trasarenus
= 1 Truti
100
Trutis
= 1 Vedha
3
Vedhas
= 1 Lava
3
Lavas
= 1 Nimesha
3
Nimeshas
= 1 Kshana
5
Kshanas
= 1 Kshth
15
Kshths
= 1 Laghu
15
Laghus
= 1 Nrik
2
Nriks
= 1 Muhrtta
6 or 7
Nriks
= 1 Yama, or watch of the day or night.
Allusions to this or either of the preceding computations, or to any other, have not been found in either of the other Purnas: p. 23 yet the work of Gopla Bhatta, from which Mr. Colebrooke states he derived his information on the subject of Indian weights and measures (a. R. 5. 105), the Sankhya Parimna, cites the Varha P. for a peculiar computation, and quotes another from the Bhavishya, different from that which occurs in the first chapter of that work, to which we have referred. The principle of the calculation adopted by the astronomical works is different: it is, 6 respirations (Prna) = 1 Vikal; 60 Vikals = 1 Danda; 60 Dandas =1 sydereal day. The Nimesha, which is the base of one of the Paurnic modes, is a twinkle of the eye of a man at rest; whilst the Paramnu, which is the origin of the other, and apparently more modern system, considering the works in which it occurs, is the time taken by a Paramnu, or mote in the sunbeam, to pass through a crevice in a shutter. Some indications of this calculation being in common currency, occur in the Hindustani terms Renu (Trasarenu) and Lamhu (Laghu) in Indian horometry (a. R. 5. 81); whilst the more ordinary system seems derived from the astronomical works, being 60 Tilas = 1 Vipala; 60 Vipalas = 1 Pala; 60 Palas = 1 Danda or Ghari. "Ibid".
23:4 These calculations of time are found in most of the Purnas, with some additions occasionally, of no importance, as that of the year of the seven Rishis, 3030 mortal years, and the year of Dhruva, 9090 such years, in the Linga P. In all essential points the computations accord, and the scheme, extravagant as it may appear, seems to admit of easy explanation. We have, in the first place, a computation of the years of the gods in the four ages, or, p. 24
Krita
Yuga
4000
Sandhy
400
Sandhynsa
400
4800
Tret
Yuga
3000
Sandhy
300
Sandhynsa
300
3600
Dwpara
Yuga
2000
Sandhy
200
Sandhynsa
200
2400
Kali
Yuga
1000
Sandhya
100
Sandhynsa
100
1200
12000.
[paragraph continues] If these divine years are converted into years of mortals, by multiplying them by 360, a year of men being a day of the gods, we obtain the years of which the Yugas of mortals are respectively said to consist:
4800 x 360
= 1.728.000
3600 x 360
= 1.296.000
2400 x 360
= 864.000
1200 x 360
= 432.000
4.320.000 a Mahyuga.
[paragraph continues] So that these periods resolve themselves into very simple elements: the notion of four ages in a deteriorating series expressed by descending arithmetical progression, as 4, 3, 2, 5; the conversion of units into thousands; and the mythological fiction, that these were divine years, each composed of 360 years of men. It does not seem necessary to refer the invention to any astronomical computations, or to any attempt to represent actual chronology.
24:5 The details of these, as occurring in each Manwantara, are given in the third book, c. 1 and 2.
24:6 'One and seventy enumerations of the four ages, with a surplus.' A similar reading occurs in several other Purnas, but none of them state of what the surplus or addition consists; but it is, in fact, the number of years required to reconcile two computations of the Kalpa. The most simple, and probably the original calculation of a Kalpa, is its being 1000 great ages, or ages of the gods: ### Bhavishya P. Then 4.320.000 years, or a divine age, x 1000 = 4320.000.000 years, or a day or night of Brahm,. But a day of Brahm is also seventy-one times a great age multiplied by fourteen: 4.320.000 x 71 x 14= 4.294.080.000, or less than the preceding by 25.920.000; and it is to make up for this deficiency that a certain number of years must be added to the computation by Manwantaras. According to the Srya Siddhnta, as cited by Mr. Davis (a. R. 2. 231), this addition consists of a Sandhi to each Manwantara, equal to the Satya age, or 5.728.000 years; and one similar Sandhi at the commencement of the Kalpa: thus p. 25 4.320.000 x 71 = 306.720.000 + 1.728.000 = 308.448.000 x 14 = 4318.272.000 + 1.728.000 = 4320.000.000. The Pauranics, however, omit the Sandhi of the Kalpa, and add the whole compensation to the Manwantaras. The amount of this in whole numbers is 1.851.428 in each Manwantara, or 4.320.000 x 71= 306.720.000 + 1.851.428 = 308.571.428 x 14 = 4319.999.992; leaving a very small inferiority to the result of the calculation of a Kalpa by a thousand great ages. To provide for this deficiency, indeed, very minute subdivisions are admitted into the calculation; and the commentator on our text says, that the additional years, if of gods, are 5142 years, 10 months, 8 days, 4 watches, 2 Muhrttas, 8 Kals, 17 Kshths, 2 Nimeshas, and 1/7th; if of mortals, 1.851.428 years, 6 months, 24 days, 12 Nris, 12 Kals, 25 Kshthas, and 10 Nimeshas. It will be observed, that in the Kalpa we have the regular descending series 4, 3, 2, with cyphers multiplied ad libitum.
25:7 The Brahma Vaivartta says 108 years, but this is unusual. Brahm's life is but a Nimesha of Krishna, according to that work; a Nimesha of iva, according to the Saiva Purna.
25:8 In the last book the Parrddha occurs as a very different measure of time, but it is employed here in its ordinary acceptation.
25:9 In theory the Kalpas are infinite; as the Bhavishya: 'Excellent sages, thousands of millions of Kalpas have passed, and as many are to come.' In the Linga Purna, and others of the Saiva division, above thirty Kalpas are named, and some account given of several, but they are evidently sectarial embellishments. The only Kalpas usually specified are those which follow in the text: the one which was the last, or the Pdma, and the present p. 26 or Vrha. The first is also commonly called the Brhma; but the Bhgavata distinguishes the Brhma, considering it to be the first of Brahm's life, whilst the Pdma was the last of the first Parrddha. The terms Man, or great Kalpa, applied to the Padma, is attached to it only in a general sense; or, according to the commentator, because it comprises, as a minor Kalpa, that in which Brahm was born from a lotus. Properly, a great Kalpa is not a day, but a life of Brahm; as in the Brahma Vaivartta: 'Chronologers compute a Kalpa by the life of Brahm. Minor Kalpas, as Samvartta and the rest, are numerous.' Minor Kalpas here denote every period of destruction, or those in which the Samvartta wind, or other destructive agents, operate. Several other computations of time are found in different Purnas, but it will be sufficient to notice one which occurs in the Hari Vana, as it is peculiar, and because it is not quite correctly given in M. Langlois' translation. It is the calculation of the Mnava time, or time of a Menu.
10
divine years
= a day and night of a Menu.
10
Mnava days
= his fortnight.
10
Mnava fortn.
= his month.
12
Mnava months
= his season.
6
Mnava seasons
= his year.
Accordingly the commentator says 72000 divine years make up his year. The French translation has, "dix annes des dieux font un jour de Menu; dix jours des dieux font un pakcha de Menu," for if ten "years" make a "day", ten "days" can scarcely make a "fortnight".
