Kalki Avatāra

An avatāra is a “descent”: a form in which Bhagavān Vishṇu comes into the world to protect dharma (the right order of life). Kalki is the tenth and last avatāra of Bhagavān Vishṇu in the present cycle of ages. He will appear at the end of the Kali Yuga, the dark age in which we now live.

Chapters 73 and 74 of the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa give a detailed prophecy about him. In this account, Kalki will be born as the son of Devasena in the Pārāśarya (Vyāsa) family line. He will have Yājñavalkya as his guru, and he will destroy, one after another, the mleccha kings (foreign rulers outside the Vedic way of life) who have overrun Bhāratavarsha (India). He will set up his āśrama (hermitage) in the sacred land between the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā and restore dharma. The text also describes the lowest depths of the Kali Yuga and the sign in the sky that marks the start of the new Kṛta Yuga. Other Purāṇas, above all the Kalki Purāṇa, add many more details.

The Ten Avatāras in the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa gives its own list of ten avatāras (daśāvatāra), each tied to a particular yuga and cycle:

  1. Matsya, the fish avatāra (at the very beginning)
  2. Kūrma, the tortoise (at the samudra-manthana, the churning of the ocean)
  3. Varāha, the boar (who rescues the earth)
  4. Dattātreya, in the 10th Tretā Yuga of the current cycle of four ages (caturyuga)
  5. Māndhātā, in the 5th Tretā Yuga
  6. Paraśurāma, in the 19th Tretā Yuga (the present Vaivasvata period)
  7. Rāma, in the 24th Tretā Yuga
  8. Vyāsa, in the 28th Dvāpara Yuga
  9. Kṛshṇa, in the 28th Dvāpara Yuga
  10. Kalki, who will appear in the present Kali Yuga

Kalki’s Birth and Family in the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa records these details:

  • Name: Kalki
  • Mother: Devasena
  • Family line: the Pārāśarya vaṃśa, the family of Parāśara (Vyāsa’s father), so he is a brāhmaṇa of the Bhārgava/Pārāśarya tradition
  • Guru: Yājñavalkya, the great brahmarshi (ṛshi of the highest rank) who received the White Yajurveda (Śukla Yajurveda) directly from Sūrya and who composed the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa and the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad

Kalki’s Mission

According to the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa:

  • Kalki will appear when mleccha kings have overrun the whole Indian subcontinent
  • He will destroy all the mleccha rulers one by one, moving through every region of Bhāratavarsha
  • He will set up his āśrama in the land between the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā (the doāb), the sacred heartland between the two great rivers, as his base for restoring dharma
  • He will re-establish varṇāśrama-dharma (the order of social classes and stages of life), the Vedic yajñas (fire offerings) and the sacred order of society
  • In the end he will withdraw from the world, and with his going the Kali Yuga will fully end and the Kṛta Yuga will begin

The Kali Yuga Before Kalki

The Purāṇa describes the depths of the Kali Yuga that Kalki will face:

  • Collapse of dharma: truth, compassion, tapas (spiritual discipline) and cleanliness all shrink almost to nothing
  • Short lives: at the lowest point of Kali, people live 23 years at most
  • No varṇāśrama: the fourfold social order breaks down completely; a person’s class is decided only by wealth, not by dharma, conduct or learning
  • Social chaos: brāhmaṇas become merchants and servants; kshatriyas (warriors) and śūdras (workers) swap roles freely; the sacred is dishonoured and the unholy is raised up
  • Signs in the sky: the skies give false signs, rain cannot be predicted, and the earth yields smaller crops
  • Length of the Kali Yuga: the Purāṇa gives it as 360,000 human years

The Sign in the Sky of the New Kṛta Yuga

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa gives a clear sign in the sky for the start of the new Kṛta Yuga. When Candra (the Moon), Sūrya (the Sun), Tishya (the nakshatra, or lunar mansion, Pushya) and Bṛhaspati (Jupiter) all stand together in the same rāśi (sign of the zodiac), this meeting marks the dawn of the new Kṛta Yuga. It is the signature of the world’s renewal. The four greatest lights of Indian astronomy line up in one rāśi, showing that the great wheel of the ages has turned back to its starting point.

The Vishṇu Purāṇa Account

Chapter 24 of the fourth part (Caturthāṃśa) of the Vishṇu Purāṇa describes the Kalki avatāra as the final event after the long line of royal families of the Kali Yuga. It says that Kalki will be born in Śambhala as the son of Vishṇuyaśas, a brāhmaṇa. This is the same tradition as the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, which also names his father Vishṇuyaśa. The Vishṇu Purāṇa says that Kalki will destroy the mleccha kings who have overrun Bhārata and re-establish Vedic dharma. After Kalki has destroyed the rulers of adharma (wrong living), the renewal of the world begins. The Kali Yuga ends and the cycle turns again.

The Vishṇu Purāṇa places the Kalki prophecy straight after the 18 Sanskrit ślokas (verses) that describe the signs of the Kali Yuga, in the same chapter that holds the Dharaṇī Gītā (the Song of the Earth). This makes the Kalki avatāra the final answer to the long history of kings in this part of the Purāṇa. All these great kings have risen and fallen, and now, at the lowest point of dharma, Bhagavān Vishṇu himself will come down once more.

Devāpi and Maru: The Waiting Heirs

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa records that Devāpi of the Paurava line and Maru of the Ikshvāku line are kept alive in a yogic state at the village of Kalāpa in the Himālayas. At the end of the Kali Yuga, when Kalki has destroyed the mlecchas and the new cycle begins, Devāpi and Maru will come down from Kalāpa and start the great royal families again, the solar and lunar lines, for the 29th caturyuga.

The Kalki Purāṇa Account: Part One

The Kalki Purāṇa is devoted wholly to Kalki’s life and mission. It gives the most detailed account of this avatāra. In it, Kalki is born in Śambhala as the son of the brāhmaṇa Vishṇuyaśas and his wife Sumatī, on Vaiśākha Śukla Dvādaśī (the twelfth day of the bright half of the month Vaiśākha). Here Paraśurāma is the guru who gives Kalki all his knowledge.

Birth

Sumatī conceived at a time when all the planets stood in a favourable position. Kalki was born on Vaiśākha Śukla Dvādaśī. Four of the immortal cirajīvins (those who live through the ages), Paraśurāma, Kṛpācārya, Vyāsa Maharshi and Aśvatthāmā, came as wandering mendicants for the naming ceremony and named the child Kalki. Kalki had three elder brothers: Kavi, Prājña and Sumantra. His companions were Gārgya, Bhārgya and Viśāla, brāhmaṇas of pure character born into the community before him.

Education

Paraśurāma, the eternal cirajīvin who lives on Mahendra Parvata (Mount Mahendra), appeared before the young Kalki as he was setting out for a gurukula (a teacher’s school) and became his guru. Under him Kalki studied the four Vedas with their six Vedāṅgas (supporting sciences), Dhanurveda (the science of archery and warfare) and the sixty-four arts. The guru-dakshiṇā (gift to the teacher) that Paraśurāma asked for was simply to see Kalki’s divine mission.

Śiva’s Gifts

After his studies, Kalki offered pūjā to Śiva at Bilvodeśvara and composed a stotra (hymn) of seven verses. Śiva appeared with Pārvatī and gave him three gifts:

  1. A divine horse as swift as Garuḍa
  2. The divine all-knowing Śuka (parrot)
  3. A sword set with jewels, for destroying pāpa (wrongdoing)

Padmāvatī, the Divine Consort

Vishṇu himself declared that Padmā, an avatāra of Lakshmī, would be born in Siṃhala Dvīpa as the daughter of King Bṛhadratha and Queen Kaumudī. Padmāvatī received a boon from Śiva: Nārāyaṇa alone would be her husband, and any other man who looked at her with desire would at once become a woman. At her svayaṃvara (the ceremony where a princess chooses her husband), every king who had gathered was changed into a woman, which proved the boon completely true.

Devāpi and Maru

The Kalki Purāṇa says that Devāpi belongs to the Candra (lunar) dynasty and Maru to the Sūrya (solar) dynasty. After Kalki destroys Kali, these two kings will rule the earth through the new Satya Yuga before Kalki returns to Vaikuṇṭha, the eternal home of Vishṇu.

The Kalki Purāṇa, Part Two: Marriage, Śambhala and the First Campaign

The second part (Dvitīyāṃśa) of the Kalki Purāṇa continues the story. Kalki rode Śiva’s divine horse to Siṃhala Dvīpa and married Padmāvatī in the city of Kārumatī, with King Bṛhadratha performing the marriage. The kings who had been changed into women at the svayaṃvara were restored when Kalki told them to bathe in the Revā river, and they offered the Daśāvatāra stotra (hymn to the ten avatāras).

Kalki returned to Śambhala with Padmāvatī. There Indra had ordered Viśvakarmā, the architect of the devas, to build a magnificent palace 7 yojanas across (a yojana is a measure of distance of several miles). Kalki and Padmāvatī had two sons, known as Jaya and Vijaya. When Vishṇuyaśas decided to perform the Aśvamedha yajña (horse sacrifice), Kalki marched to Kīkaṭapura and killed the Buddhist king Jina in malla-yuddha (wrestling combat). He then faced the great power Māyādevī. Because she was an aṃśa (part) of Lakshmī, she merged back into Kalki as soon as she saw him.

The Kalki Purāṇa, Part Three: Digvijaya, Bhallāṭa and the Return to Vaikuṇṭha

The third part (Tṛtīyāṃśa) of the Kalki Purāṇa has 21 chapters and 6,100 ślokas. It tells the whole story of Kalki’s digvijaya (campaign of conquest in all directions) and the founding of the Kṛta Yuga.

After the campaign at Kīkaṭapura, Kalki went to Cakratīrtha. There he fought and killed the rākshasī Kuṭhodarī, daughter of Nikumbha, who had swallowed his whole army. Her son Karaṃja was also destroyed. At Haridvāra, Kalki met the cirajīvins Maru (of the Sūrya vaṃśa) and Devāpi (of the Candra vaṃśa) and formally received them as the future rulers of the earth in the Kṛta Yuga.

During the campaign, Kali-Purusha, the ruler of the Kali Yuga, came out in person with his whole family to fight Kalki. Kalki’s companions Dharma-Purusha (Dharma in person) and Kṛtayuga (the Kṛta Yuga in person) defeated Kali in battle. Dharma then entered Kali’s capital, Viśasana Pura, and burned it to ash with a fire of arrows, destroying Kali’s whole family. Kali fled alone and unseen into exile. The twin dānavas (a class of asuras) Koka and Vikoka, who could bring each other back to life with a look, were killed by Kalki. He used a secret revealed by Brahmā: striking both with his fists at the same moment (mushṭi-ghāta).

The most important meeting of the campaign took place at Bhallāṭanagara, the kingdom of Śaśidhvaja. Śaśidhvaja was a wise warrior-king and a devotee of Vishṇu who fought Kalki because, out of devotion, he longed to die at the avatāra’s hands. Śaśidhvaja struck Kalki unconscious and carried him to his palace. There his queen Suśāntā sang the famous Suśāntā Stotra to Bhagavān Kalki as he lay resting. Kalki woke and took Śaśidhvaja’s daughter Ramā, an avatāra of Satyabhāmā, as his third wife. Then the whole earlier story came out. Śaśidhvaja had been Satrājit in the time of Kṛshṇa. His karmic tie with Kalki (who had been Kṛshṇa) was settled through this death by the Sudarśana cakra at Kokāmukha tīrtha.

At Kāñcanīpura, Kalki freed the vishakanyā (poison maiden) Sulocanā, a gandharva’s wife who had been cursed, with his amṛta-dṛshṭi (a glance that gives immortal life). He then shared out kingdoms across the restored subcontinent. His wife Ramā performed the Rukmiṇī Vrata (a vow traced back to Śarmishṭhā, Sītā and Draupadī) after being initiated by Paraśurāma, and she bore two sons, Meghamāla and Bāhuka.

After ruling for 1,000 years of the Kṛta Yuga at Śambhala, Kalki was visited by Brahmā and the devas, who came to call him back. He took on his four-armed (catur-bhuja) form and rose to Vaikuṇṭha from the banks of the Gaṅgā, blazing like 1,000 suns. Both his wives entered the sacred fire (agni). Maru and Devāpi then ruled the earth in the Kṛta Yuga.

Sources

  • Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapters 73–74
  • Vishṇu Purāṇa, Caturthāṃśa (Part 4), Chapter 24
  • Kalki Purāṇa, Prathamāṃśa (Part 1), Chapters 1–7
  • Kalki Purāṇa, Dvitīyāṃśa (Part 2), Chapters 1–7
  • Kalki Purāṇa, Tṛtīyāṃśa (Part 3), Chapters 1–21