RIDDLE NO. 24
THE RIDDLE OF THE KALI YUGA
The Units into which time is broken up for the purposes of reckoning it which are prevalent among the Hindus have not deserved the attention which their extraordinary character call for. This is a matter which forms one of the principal subject matter of the Puranas. There are according to the Puranas five measures of time (1) Varsha, (2) Yuga, (3) Maha Yuga,
(4) Manwantara and (5) Kalpa. I will draw upon the Vishnu Purana to show what these units are.
To begin with the Varsha. This is how the Vishnu Purana explains it [1 ] :
“Oh best of sages, fifteen twinklings of the eye make a Kashtha; thirty Kalas, one Muhurtta; thirty Muhurttas 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 same is explained in greater details at another place in the Vishnu Purana [2] .
“Fifteen twinklings of the eye (Nimedhas) make a Kashtha; thirty Kashthas, a Kala; Thirty Kalas, a Muhurtta (forty-eighty minutes); and thirty Muhurttas, a day and night; the portions of the day are longer or shorter, as has been explained; but the Sandhya is always the same in increase or decrease, being only one Muhurtta. From the period that a line may be drawn across the Sun (or that half his orb is visible) to the expiration of three Muhurttas (two hours and twenty-four minutes), that interval is called Pratar (morning),
1 Wilson’s Vishnu Purana pp. 22-23.
2 Ibid.
This is another version entitled ‘The Riddle of the Kali Yuga’. The copy available with us is a carbon copy having no corrections or modifications by the author. This chapter contains 40 pages.—Ed.