z:\ ambedkar\vol 04\vol4 06.indd MK SJ DK 23 9 2013/YS 9 11 2013 293
RIDDLE NO. 23
293
from the terms of Sankalpa which is a declaration which every Hindu makes even today before undertaking any religious ceremony. The Sankalpa is in the following terms [1] :
“On the auspicious day and hour, in the second Parardha of First Bramha, which is called the Kalpa of the White Boar, in the period of Vaivasvata Manu, in the Kali Yuga, in the country of Jambudvipa in Bharatavarsha in the country of Bharat, in the luni-solar cycle of the sixty years which begins with Pradhava and ends with Kshaya or Akshaya and which is current, as ordained by Lord Vishnu, in the year (name), of the cycle, in the Southern or the Northern Ayana, as the case may be, in the white or dark half, on the Tithi, I (name) begin to perform the rite (name) the object of pleasing the Almighty.”
The question we have to consider is why and how the Vedic Brahmins manage to keep the Kali Yuga going on when the astronomer had said it was closed. The first thing to do is to ascertain what is the original period of the Kali Yuga ? According to the Vishnu Purana:
“The Kritayuga comprises 4000 years, the Treta 3000; the Dwapara
2000 and the Kali 1000. Thus those that know the past have declared.”
Thus Kali Yuga originally covered a period of 1000 years only. It is obvious that even on this reckoning the Kali Yuga should have ended long ago even according to the reckoning of the Vedic Brahmins. But it has not. What is the resason ? Obviously, because the period originally covered by the Kali Yuga came to be lengthened. This was done in two ways.
Firstly, it was done by adding two periods called Sandhya and Sandhyamsa before and after the commencement and the end of a Yuga. Authority for this can be found in the same passage of the Vishnu Purana already referred to and which reads as follows:
“The period that precedes a Yuga is called Sandhya........ and the period which comes after a Yuga is called Sandhyamsa, which lasts for a like period. The intervals between these Sandhyas and Sandhyamsas are known as the Yugas called Krita, Treta and the like.”
What was the period of Sandhya and Sandhyamsa ? Was it uniform for all the Yugas or did it differ with the Yuga. Sandhya and Sandhyamsa periods were not uniform. They differed with each Yuga. The following table gives some idea of the four Yugas and their Sandhya and Sandhyamsa—
1 Shamshastry. Drapsa p. 84