Hindu Feasts, Fasts and Ceremonies/Appendix A
APPENDIX A
The Kaliyuga
[We are enabled to place before our readers to-day[1] an admirable article on the Kaliyuga from the pen of a learned Hindu gentleman. The word “Kaliyuga” is constantly cropping up in native writings and speeches, and is likely to do so still more in the future, but a perusal of this article will explain the belief, for a superstition it cannot fairly be called, based as it is on writings held sacred by the people. That extraordinary divine, Dr. Cumming, used to startle periodically worthy British matrons and susceptible young men and maidens by proving to his and their complete satisfaction that the end of the world was near at hand. His prophecies were the result of abstruse mathematical calculations based on his interpretation of certain scriptural texts; but, so far as we are aware, he never brought forward such strong evidence as is furnished in the Puranic writings which fixes the exact hour of the dawn of the Last Day at 2 A.M. on the 25th November, 1899. The point, however, on which particular stress is to be laid is the difficulty that must naturally exist in dealing with people who honestly believe in this Kaliyuga story during such a crisis as the present. Even the most sceptical will read with some surprise of the evils accompanying the close of this age, as described in the Vishnu Purana. They tally so closely with recent changes in the social order of Hindu life—Editor, The Madras Mail.]
A Yuga in Sanskrit (in Heb. Olim, in Gr.Aion, and in Lat. AEvum) means an age of the world. Four Yugas are recognised by the Hindu mythology, the Krita, the Treta, the Dvapara and the Kali. All these four-Yugas joined together constitute a great age, or an aggregate of four ages (Mahayuga). A thousand such aggregates area day of Brahma. Let us give the number of years allotted to each Yuga in the years of the gods and in the years of men. The first rule is that a year of men is equal to a day of the gods. The following table gives the years of the four Yugas according to both these calculations:—
| Yugas. | Divine years. | Years of Mortals. | |
| Krita | … | 4,800 |
4,800x360=1,728,000
|
| Treta | … | 3,600 |
3,600x360=1,296,000
|
| Dvapara | … | 2,400 |
2,400x360=864,000
|
| Kali | … | 1,200 |
1,200x360=482,000
|
| ––––––––––––––––––––––––– | |||
| Total (a Mahayuga) 4,320,000 |
Daivikanam Yuganam tu sahasram parisamkhyaya | Brahmam-ekamaharjneyam tavati | ratrir-eva cha. At the end of this day a dissolution of the universe will occur, when all the three worlds, earth and the regions of space will all be consumed by fire. The three worlds then become but one mighty ocean. Brahma will sleep for a night, of equal duration with his day, on this ocean and at its close will create the world anew. A year of Brahma is composed of 360 such days and nights and a hundred such years constitute his whole life, which is called a Kalpa. Brahmanaschayusha Kalpa kalpavidbhih nirupitah. Such, in brief, is the belief of the Hindus regarding the ages and the duration of the world and full details of this belief will be found in Books I, IV, V and VI of the Vishnu Purana.
What is the object of Brahma in thus destroying the whole universe and recreating it? The Hindu philosophy most beautifully explains it:—
Sarva-bhutani Kaunteya
rakritam yanti mamikam |
Kalpa-kshaye punas-tani
Kalpadau visrijamy-aham ||
"I absorb the whole universe in myself at the end of the Kalpa and at its commencement I create it again," says Brahma. Volumes are written in the several Puranas about the merits and demerits of each Yuga, or age. The brief way to remember the whole subject would be to imagine Virtue to have four legs. In the Krita; or the first Yuga, Virtue walks on all her four legs. In the Treta, or the second Yuga, she walks only on three of her legs ; in the Dvapara on two, and in the last age, the Kaliyuga, on only one leg. After this brief remark about the Hindu notions of the age of the universe, its destruction and recreation, let us confine ourselves on the present occasion to the full description of the Kaliyuga, the fourth Hindu age which is current now, and in which Virtue is said to walk only on one of her four legs. The Kaliyuga era commenced in 3102 B.C. and we are now in the year 4998 of the Kaliyuga ; i.e. 4,997 years of the Kaliyuga have already passed away and the year current 4998 commenced on the 12th April, 1896. The year 5000 of the Kaliyuga will commence on the 12th April 1899, A.D. and end on the 11th April 1900. The belief of the orthodox Hindus from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin that this, their fourth, era is one of vice, wickedness and misery is universal, and is recorded in almost each and every one of their Puranas. It is also strongly believed that the year 5000 of the Kaliyuga will be a year of doom and ruin. Let us dwell at length on both these beliefs.
In Book IV of the Vishnu Purana it is stated that Kali feared to set his feet on this world as long as it was purified by the touch of the sacred feet of Krishna.
Yâvat sapâda padmâbhyâm
Sprisan-âste Ramâpatih |
Tâvat Kalir vai prithivîm
Parâkrântum na ch-âsakat ||
royal garments? Are you not ashamed of your conduct towards these poor creatures, one of which you have already deprived of its three legs and the other you have starved to death? I must put you at once to death.” The Emperor then asked the ox and the cow to relate their history. After some reluctance the ox said that he was Justice (or Virtue, Dharma) who walked on his four legs of (1) contemplation upon God, (2) purity of life, (3) mercy towards living beings, and (4) truth in the Krita yuga or first Hindu age; that he had lost his three legs at the rate of one at the end of every Yuga and that he had his only leg, truth, left remaining at the commencement of the Kali era and that lord of the Kaliyuga was already aiming at his fourth leg. The Emperor learnt the cow to be the goddess Earth who was reduced to that condition by the departure of Krishna from this world of men. Parikshit was horrified at what he saw and heard, and aimed his death dealing sword at the Sudra, when, wonder of wonders! he threw away his royal garments, assumed his true form and falling down before the Emperor, begged for his life. This Sudra was Kali himself. Parikshit was a true hero and a genuine sprout of the Pandava family. His motto was, never kill a fallen enemy. So he spared Kali’s life on condition that he left his dominions at once. But Kali begged for some place to live in. He was asked by the Emperor to find his abode in gambling houses, in taverns, in women of unchaste lives, in slaughtering places and in gold. And Kali agreed to do so. So, as long as Parikshit reigned over the Bharata (India) Kali confined himself only to these five places; but after the reign of that just Emperor, Kali made his way to other places like wild fire and established his power throughout the length and breadth of the whole world. This, in short, is the legend of the setting in of the Kaliyuga.
In India when a young boy or girl happens to break, in eating or dress, the orthodox rules of caste, his or her parents will say: ‘O! It is all the result of the Kaliyuga.” If a Hindu becomes a convert to any other religion, or if any atrocious act is committed the Hindu will observe: ‘‘O! It is the ripening of Kali.” Every deviation from the established custom. every vice, every crime, in fact everything wicked, is set down by the ordinary Hindu to the ascending power of the Lord of the Kali age. These notions entertained by the people must not be entirely set down to be wholly superstitious. In every one of the Hindu Puranas the Kaliyuga (or the dark age) 1s described as the worst period of everything wrong, unhappy or miserable. The Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata, Devibhagavata, and a number of religious works give a glowing description of the numerous miseries reserved for mankind in the Kaliyuga, and the ordinary Hindu bred up from his infancy in the Puranic lore has accepted these beliefs as part and parcel of his existence, and anything going wrong in his own household or round about him is set down to the influence of the Kali age. Parasara describes the evils of Kaliyuga in detail in the Vishnu Purana. We will give some of the most prominent ones here:— The strict rules of caste, order and observances will never exist. The rights enjoined by the four Vedas will perish. The rules of conduct between the husband and wife between the preceptor and his disciple will be disregarded. Marriage rules will be set at naught. Every book wil be a sacred book. All gods wili be gods. People will turn proud at small possessions. Wives will desert their husbands when the latter become poor and take up to persons who are rich. A person possessing money will be the lord of everything, irrespective of his birth or position in life. All money will be spent on mere show. The world will become avaricious. Men will desire to acquire wealth by dishonest means. Cows will be fed only as long as they supply milk. The people will ever remain in fear of famine and scarcity. They will ever be watching the sky for a drop of rain. Severe famines will rage and people will be driven to the necessity of living upon leaves of trees. There will never be abundance or pleasure in the Kali age. Kings, instead of protecting their subjects, will plunder them under the pretence of levying taxes. Men of all degrees will believe themselves to be equal to the Brahmans. Everyone who happens to have cars, elephants or steeds will fancy himself to be a Rajah. There will be no warriors or Princes who could be called by such names on account of their birth. People will desert their houses. Children will die in great numbers. Women will bear children at the age of 5,6 or 7 and men beget them when they are 8, 9 or 10. Grey hair will appear when a person is only 12 years of age and the duration of life for men will only be 20 years. The Vedas, the gods, the Brahmans, the sacred waters, will all be dis- regarded. The parents-in-law will be respected in the place of parents and brothers-in-law (brothers of wives) will be one’s bosom friends. Sins will be committed daily and everything which brings down misery on human beings will be found to be prevailing to the greatest extent in-the Kali age.
This is but a part of the description given in one of the greatest of the Hindu Puranas on the evils of the Kali age. The railway carriage where a Brahman and a non-Brahman sit side by side in the same compartment and the schools where English is taught in the same way to a Brahman as to a non-Brahman, instead of exciting the admiration of the orthodox Hindu for the benefits they have conferred upon the public, are looked upon as the platforms where Kali plays most for levelling caste distinctions. Female education, though authorities exist in the Puranas themselves for such a course, is viewed as another turn which Kali has taken to corrupt womankind. The several Government and Municipal taxes are considered to be the miseries of the mighty reign of Kali without the least consideration that the subject is bound to pay to the State for his own protection. The Hindu mind is ever ingenious in looking upon everything from a Kali point of view. But we must, at the same time, mention here that it is only the Hindu who lives in remote villages and who has not had the advantage of a free education who thinks thus. Every educated Hindu, of course, takes the right view of the case. Thus ends our description of the Kaliyuga in general and of the evils there of as found in the Puranas and as prevailing among the people.
In addition to this belief there is yet another, and a strong one, that the year 5000 of the Kaliyuga (April 1899—April 1900) will be a year of doom and ruin. The famine that is threatening now a great portion of India, the grain riots everywhere, the failure of monsoons, the bubonic plague in Bombay, the several fires and, floods in almost all the great rivers (Mahanadis) this year, such as the Krishna. Godavari, Kaveri, Narmada and Tapti, which have caused immense loss of lives and property, are believed by the uneducated classes to be ushering us into a period of general cataclysms which is expected to take place in the last days of 1899 A.D. We will examine now the sources of the belief. Although all the Puranas are unanimous in describing the miseries of the Kali age there is fortunately only one Purana which speaks of the ruin of the world in the year 5000 of the Kali age. But this one Purana is the greatest authority to the whole of India. Its name is the Devibhagavata and it is regarded as a most sacred book. In the 6th chapter of Book IX it is related that the three goddesses Sarasvati, Ganga, and Lakshmi had a quarrel among themselves in heaven and each cursed the other. By the power of the curses they were converted into the rivers of Sarasvati, Ganga(Ganges) and Padmavati in this world and are expiating their sins here. Lakshmi in addition to her form as the river Padmavati has assumed also the shape of the shrub Tulasi (Oscymum sanctum). In the 8th chapter it is stated that these goddesses will abandon this world in the year 5000 of the Kaliyuga and with the disappearance of these noble rivers everything will disappear from the world with the exception of two places—Benares and Brindavan (Muttra). The original in Sanskrit stands thus:—
Kalau pancha-sahasram cha
Varsham sthitva cha Bharate |
Jagmus-tas-cha sarit rupam
Vihaya Sri-Hareh padam || (1)
Yani sarvani tirthani
Kasi Brindavanam vina |
Yasyanti sarvam tabhih cha.
Vaikuntham ajnaya Hareh || (2)
(1) They—the goddesses Sarasvati, Ganga and Lakshmi, after having stayed in this world for 5,000 years of the Kaliyuga in the shape of rivers, gave up their transformed shapes and went to the abode of Vishnu (heaven).
(2) All other holy things, too, with the exception of Kasi (Benares) and Brindavan (Muttra) accompanied them to the abode of Hari by the order of Hari.
The statement contained in the above two verses is believed to be the highest authority for the impending doom in the year named. Except Benares and Brindavan, everything holy will disappear from the world. The year 5000 of the Kaliyuga occurs in two other places also in the Devibhagavata, once in the middle of Chapter 7 of Book IX when Narayana pronounces the liberation of the curse to the goddesses:—
Kalau pancha sahasre cha
Gate varshe cha mokshanam |
‘When 5,000 years of the Kali age have expired you will be liberated from the curse.’ Again in Chapter 13 (1st verse) where Narada asks Narayana to relate to him what happened to the goddesses after the year 5000, he says:—
Kalau pancha-Sahasrabde
Samatite Suresvara |
Kya gata sa Mahabhaga
Tanme vyakhyatum arhasi ||
Thus from a minute examination of the Devi-bhagavata, the year 5000 1s alluded to in only three places in Chapter 8,9 and 13 of the ninth book of that work. And it is only in Chapter 8 that the disappearance of evervthing from the world in the year 5000 Kalyuga is alluded to. And the Hindu belief in the Puranas is that everything happens as predicted therein and even so the doom and ruin of the year 5000 will come to pass as foretold by the Devibhagavata.
In addition to the Puranic belief there are a few verses current among the astrologers of India which imply that the Hindu religion will perish in the year 5000 of the Kali age. They are as follows:—
Kalau pancha-sahasrante
Vishnuh tyakshyati medinim | (1)
Yada Vishnur-divam gachchhet
Tada Veda-viparyasah || (2)
Yada Veda-viparyasah
Tada jyotir-divam vrajet | (3)
Tasmat-tu pancha-sahasram
Phala-sastram Kalau yuge || (4)
They mean (1) Vishnu abandons this world at the close of the year 5000 of the Kaliyuga. (2) When Vishnu goes away, the Vedas will be burned upside down. (3) When the Vedas have suffered thus, the splendour of the planets wall vanish. (4) So, the truths of astrology will be current in this world only up to the year 5000 of the Kaliyuga. These verses, which allude to the ruin of India three years hence, are said to have been uttered by Krishnamisra, a poet who flourished in the Court of Vikramaditya at Ujjain in the 11th Century A.D. These are the only sources for the strong Hindu belief that the year 5000 will bring general ruin to the whole world. Some are charitable in stating that if the whole world is not ruined, there will be wonderful changes and utter misery and famine at least in that year. At what time of the year 5000 will this ruin overcome India will be the next question.
In the Hindu calendar every month has a Zodiac called Rasi with the position of the planets for the month indicated in it by astronomical calculations. Generally not more than a single planet will be found in each of the 12 houses, or mansions, of the Zodiac. Rarely two or three or even four will be found once in several years in one and the same mansion. But if more than four of the planets are found combined in the same house a great calamity is foreseen. The following verses of the Jyotisha Sastra may be read with interest:—
Pancha griha hanti samasta desan
Shashta griha hanti samasta bhupan |
Sapta griha hanti samasta lokan
Nirmartyam ashta griha samyutena ||
They mean that the combination of five planets in one of the mansions of the Zodiac in any month will lead to the destruction of all countries; the combination of six planets, to the destruction of all Kings; that of seven, to the destruction of all worlds, and if eight planets combine the universe will be rendered destitute of men. Bhishma the just and the greatest warrior of the world fell in the wars of the Mahabharata in the month of Magrasira (December) on the new moon day—Amavasa—when seven planets combined in a single mansion of the Zodiac of that month. But for that combination such a mighty warrior would never have fallen. This is the belief of the Hindus. The year 1896 A.D., is, as we have stated already, 4998 of the Kaliyuga corresponding to the year Durmukhi of the Brihaspati cycle of 60 years. Five thousand Kaliyuga will be 1899 A>D. and the year Vikari of the Brihaspati cycle. According to the astronomical calculations of the Hindus, eight planets meet in the mansion of Scorpio (Vrichchhika) of the Zodiac of the month of Krittika, corresponding to the last week of November, 1899, at the 23rd Ghatika i.e. 2-6 A.M. on the 13th lunar day (trayodasi) of the dark half of that month. Between that time and the succeeding new moon day, i.e., two days after that combination a great ruin will come over India. India may not be entirely depopulated or devoured by floods, but famine, pestilence, war and other miseries will reign over the whole country. This is the strong belief and November 1899 is the expected time.
What a firm hold this belief has taken possession of the Hindu mind will become plain to our readers if they refer to the Madras Mail of the 24th October last. It will be found there that an astrologer addressed the Dewan in the Mysore Representative Assembly held in October last to make provision for performing pujas (worship) to the planets and to propitiate them to avert the impending catastrophe of the year Vikari (1899 A.D.), Kaliyuga 5000. Some of the members appeared to have been seriously occupied with that matter. The Dewan promised to place the subject before the Maharajah. Eight planets, it is said, according to the astronomical calculations in this country, meet together in November 1899, in the mansion of Scorpio, and not six as the Mysore astrologer stated. Some astrologers say that the meeting of the eight planets is impossible and that only seven meet in one mansion. A Tamil Pandit and astrologer named Mr. Kandaswami Pillai, of Dindigul, in the Madura District, predicted some time ago that the year 1899—Kali 5000—will be one of terrible famine far exceeding that of 1877 in its horrors by reason of the conjunction of the Sun, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and also the Solar node (Rahu) at one and the same sign of the Zodiac Scorpio in November, 1899.
But let us all be more hopeful. The annals of India show a regular series of famines separated by intervals of not more than 3 to 8 years, sometimes 10, and lasting frequently over a year, even as long as three years. The most prolonged famine that India ever experienced was that of 1876-78. The S. W. Monsoon failed in 1875 and 1876. The N. E. Monsoon did not bring in sufficient amount of rain in these years. Between 1876-78 people died in thousands. Whatever the uneducated Hindu may say about the horrors of Kali, these famines must be attributed more to the peculiar position of the mountains in India, especially in the Deccan and Southern India. This interferes with the even distribution of rain. We are fortunately at the end of 1896 A.D. Whatever may be the popular belief about the end of the world in November, 1899, let us only suppose that if any calamity at all is ever to happen as predicted by the Puranas, that the years 1897-99 will be a period of prolonged famine as that of 1876-78. Fearing that such may be the case, apart from the puranic ideas, the Government and the charitable public, as would now and then be seen from the columns of the Madras Mail, are already adopting measures to avert its evils.
The year 5000 of Kali is the turning point of a minor cycle of 5000 years commencing from Krishna. It is believed by the Occultists that spirituality gains ascendancy after 5000 Kaliyuga. It is quite natural to expect such extraordinary events to take place during the time of the change of either major or minor cycle.
OOOO
- ↑ The Madras Mail, 19th November, 1896.