Kālamāna

Kālamāna · kāla-māna, “the measure of time”

Kālamāna means “the measure of time”. It is the exact, step-by-step system of time units described in the Purāṇas.

It climbs from the nimesha (the blink of an eye), the smallest unit, through the day, the month and the year, to the time of the pitṛs and the devas, the yugas, the manvantaras and the kalpas, and up to the whole life of Brahmā.

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Maitreya Maharshi teaches Vidura that kāla, the śakti of Bhagavān Śrīhari, is itself Bhagavān Śrīhari. He counts time from the paramāṇu, the aṇu, the trasareṇu and the truṭi up to the year; names the five kinds of year, in whose form Sūrya himself is present; gives the four yugas of twelve thousand divine years, Brahmā’s day of a thousand caturyugas with its fourteen Manus, and Brahmā’s life of two parārdhas with the Brāhma, Pādma and Vārāha kalpas; and says that all this time is but one blink of Śrīhari’s eye, for kāla has no sway over Parabrahma.

Per Śiva Purāṇa

The Trimūrti are the three great forms of the Divine who create, protect and dissolve the universe: Brahmā, Vishṇu and Rudra. Chapter 10 of the Rudra Saṃhitā of the Śiva Purāṇa sets out a ladder of time scales. Each member of the Trimūrti lives within a span of time that is only a single unit on the scale of the next one above. The ladder ends with Sadāśiva, whose breath is beyond all measure.

Śiva gives this teaching directly to Vishṇu and Brahmā straight after the Liṅgodbhava, the event in which Śiva appeared as an endless pillar of light. It sets out that Sadāśiva stands above all time in the universe.

The Ladder of Time Scales

Brahmā‘s Time Scale

• 1,000 mahāyugas (a mahāyuga is one full round of the four ages) = one day (divya-dina) of Brahmā
• 1,000 mahāyugas = one night of Brahmā
• 30 such days = one month of Brahmā
• 12 months = one year of Brahmā
• 100 such years = Brahmā’s whole lifespan (āyus)

Vishṇu‘s Time Scale

• 1 year of Brahmā = 1 day of Vishṇu
• Counting in the same way (30 days = 1 month; 12 months = 1 year), 100 such years = Vishṇu’s whole lifespan

This means one day of Vishṇu matches 36,000 mahāyugas (100 mahāyugas × 360 days = a year of Brahmā; 1 year of Brahmā = 1 day of Vishṇu). So Vishṇu’s whole lifespan is unthinkably vast by human counting.

Rudra‘s Time Scale

• 1 year of Vishṇu = 1 day of Rudra
• 100 such years = Rudra’s whole lifespan in his human-like form (nara-rūpa)

Sadāśiva‘s Time Scale: Beyond Measure

• Rudra’s entire lifespan of 100 years = one ucchvāsa (a single out-breath) of Sadāśiva
• After this out-breath, Rudra stays absorbed (laya) in Sadāśiva’s śakti (power) for the length of one niḥśvāsa (in-breath)
• Sadāśiva’s breaths have no count and no measure. This is why he is called akshaya, the inexhaustible, the imperishable

The text declares:

“Sadāśiva’s niḥśvāsocchvāsas have no reckoning. Therefore he is called akshaya.”

The Breath Count of All Beings

The same chapter also sets the rate of breathing as a standard unit of time for all beings:

• 21,600 breath cycles (pairs of out-breath and in-breath) = one day. This holds for all beings alike: Brahmā, Vishṇu, Rudra, gandharvas (heavenly beings), those who live in Pātāla (the lower worlds), rākshasas, and all mortal creatures
• 6 breath cycles = one pala
• 60 palas = one ghaṭī
• 60 ghaṭīs = one day

This sets up a shared time of the living body that joins all living beings together, while the ladder of time scales above sets them apart by their place in the universe. Even the Trimūrti breathe at the same rate as ordinary mortals; it is their days that are measured against one another on the ladder.

What the Teaching Shows

This teaching on time scales has a clear purpose within the Rudra Saṃhitā:

1. Śiva stands above all. By showing that Rudra’s whole lifespan is one breath of Sadāśiva, the text shows that even the highest member of the Trimūrti lives within a span of time that is less than a moment to Sadāśiva. This is not only a statement about the universe. It is the ground of the Śaiva teaching that Śiva alone is Parabrahman, the Supreme.

2. The cycle of dissolution. After each out-breath, Rudra is absorbed into Sadāśiva’s śakti for one in-breath. This breathing of Sadāśiva is the final pralaya (dissolution) cycle, beyond all the ordinary dissolutions over which Rudra himself presides. Rudra dissolves worlds; Sadāśiva’s breath dissolves Rudra.

3. Śiva’s command to Vishṇu (Chapter 10). This teaching on the measure of time is set within Śiva’s direct instruction to Vishṇu after the Liṅgodbhava. There Śiva gives Vishṇu the task of protecting creation and taking avatāras. By first laying out this ladder of time, Śiva shows that Vishṇu’s role in the universe is given to him by a Being who stands beyond all time.

Summary Table

Per Vāyu Purāṇa

Chapter 57 of the Vāyu Purāṇa sets out the full Vedic system for counting time. It starts from the smallest unit a person can notice, the nimesha (the blink of an eye), and climbs all the way to great cycles of the sky, including the Saptarshi-saṃvatsara, the Krauñca-saṃvatsara and the Divya-saṃvatsara.

The chapter also explains that time runs on different scales for different beings: human time (mānusha), the time of the devas (daiva) and the time of the pitṛs, the honoured ancestors (paitṛka). It gives the exact ratios between these scales. This teaching prepares the way for the account of the four yugas (the Catur-yuga-ākhyāna) that follows in Chapter 58.

The Basic Units

The chapter lists the basic units of Vedic time, from the smallest upward:

The ahorātra is split into the day (prabodha, “waking”, the time for work) and the night (śayana, “lying down”, the time for rest). The Sun makes this division of day and night, both for humans and for the realms of the devas.

Human Time, Pitṛ Time and Deva Time

One of the most important teachings in this chapter is how human time relates to the time of the pitṛs (ancestors) and the devas.

Time of the Pitṛs

• One human month (māsa) = one pitṛ day (pitṛ-ahorātra)
• The kṛshṇa paksha (dark fortnight, when the moon wanes) = the daytime of the pitṛs
• The śukla paksha (bright fortnight, when the moon grows) = the night of the pitṛs
• Thirty human months = one pitṛ-māsa (month of the pitṛs)
• Three hundred and sixty human months = one pitṛ-saṃvatsara (year of the pitṛs)
• One hundred human years = three pitṛ months and ten days

This is the basis of pitṛ-tarpaṇa, the offering of water and food to the ancestors. Amāvāsyā (the new-moon day) is the point where the day of the pitṛs turns into their night, and it is the moment when the pitṛs can most easily be reached.

Time of the Devas

• One human year (mānusha saṃvatsara) = one deva day (daiva ahorātra)
• Uttarāyaṇa (the Sun’s northward course) = the daytime of the devas
• Dakshiṇāyana (the Sun’s southward course) = the night of the devas
• Thirty human months = three deva months and ten days
• One deva-māsa (month of the devas) = about one human year
• One deva-saṃvatsara (year of the devas) = 360 human years (365 human years in some ways of counting)

The text says: “The Sun divides time into human and divine portions; this is the sure teaching of the śāstras.”

Special Cycles of Time

Beyond these basic scales, the chapter names several larger cycles:

The Saptarshi-saṃvatsara is the time the Seven Ṛshis (the stars of the Great Bear) take to go once around the sky, measured against the nakshatras (the lunar mansions). The Purāṇas use this cycle as a reference point when counting long spans of history.

The Divya-saṃvatsara of 36,000 human years is the base unit for measuring the length of the yugas in divine years. So the Kali Yuga of 432,000 human years equals 12 divya-saṃvatsaras in some ways of counting, and the full Catur-yuga (the set of four yugas) of 4,320,000 human years equals 120 divya-saṃvatsaras.

The Human Year as the Standard

The chapter makes the mānusha-saṃvatsara (the ordinary human year) the standard by which all other time is measured:

“The year known by its worldly measure is the mānusha (human) saṃvatsara. It is by this human year that I here narrate the Catur-yuga.”

The year has two main halves:

• Uttarāyaṇa (from Makara-saṃkrānti to Karkaṭa-saṃkrānti): the six months when the Sun moves north. This half is thought auspicious and is the daytime of the devas.
• Dakshiṇāyana (from Karkaṭa-saṃkrānti to Makara-saṃkrānti): the six months when the Sun moves south. This half is the night of the devas.

This division of the year into two ayanas (courses of the Sun) lies at the root of the Vedic understanding of time.

Time and Yajña

The chapter places its teaching on time within yajña-pravartana, the setting up of yajña (sacred fire offering). Brahmā instructs Manu: “Time is the frame of everything. When the yugas pass and people become weak, the Vedas must be renewed so that yajña does not perish. Without yajña the devas cannot be sustained; without the devas sustained, the three worlds perish.” So exact knowledge of time is not only about the stars. It is directly tied to keeping up the order of yajña that holds the universe together.

Per Nārada Purāṇa

The Nārada Purāṇa sets out kālamāna in Chapter 5, when Sanaka Ṛshi explains how long Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛshi lived on through the pralaya (the dissolution of the universe). It runs from the nimesha (the blink of an eye) at the smallest end to the Brahma-kalpa, the day of Brahmā, at the largest.

The system climbs through the human units of time (nimesha, kāshṭhā, kalā, kshaṇa, ghaṭikā, muhūrta, dina, māsa, ṛtu, ayana, saṃvatsara) and then widens into divine time (deva-dina, deva-yuga, manvantara, kalpa).

Human Units of Time

Uttarāyaṇa, the northern course of the sun, when it moves from Makara (Capricorn) to Karkaṭa (Cancer), is the day of the devatās. Dakshiṇāyana, the southern course, is their night.

Divine Units of Time

One human year equals one deva-dina (day of the devatās). One human month is one day for the Pitṛ-devatās (the ancestors). The exact reckoning follows the cycles in which Sūrya (the sun) and Candra (the moon) meet.

After 28 manvantara periods, the three worlds are destroyed and pralaya takes place. At the end of two parārdhas (the two halves of Brahmā‘s life), the day of Bhagavān Vishṇu in the universe comes to an end.

Why the Scale Matters

The Purāṇa brings in this system of kālamāna to explain how long Mārkaṇḍeya Maharshi lived through the pralaya. The three worlds were all dissolved and the first ocean covered everything. Yet Mārkaṇḍeya floated on it like a dry leaf, meditating on Paramātmā (the Supreme Self), for the length of two parārdhas by Vishṇu‘s reckoning. So the system of kālamāna is both a teaching about the universe and a measure of the extraordinary power of tapas (tapas-śakti) that carried Mārkaṇḍeya through such vast stretches of time.

Per Kūrma Purāṇa

Kāla-saṅkhyā means “the reckoning of time”. In Chapter 5 of the Kūrma Purāṇa, Bhagavān Kūrma-Nārāyaṇa (Vishṇu in his tortoise avatāra) gives an exact and full account of time. He starts from the smallest unit and builds up to the lifespan of Brahmā, the creator.

He explains that time is the final measure of all creation, keeping and dissolution, and he declares that Kāla (Time) is itself a form of Maheśvara (Maheśvara-svarūpa). He also names the present age: the Vārāha Kalpa, the first kalpa (day of Brahmā) of the second half of Brahmā’s life.

The Small Units of Time

The reckoning begins from the basic unit:

• Nimesha (the blink of an eye): the base unit
• Kāshṭhā = 15 nimeshas
• Kalā = 30 kāshṭhās
• Muhūrta = 30 kalās
• Ahorātra (a human day and night) = 30 muhūrtas
• Māsa (month) = 30 ahorātras = 2 pakshas (fortnights)
• Ṛtu (season) = 2 māsas
• Ayana = 3 ṛtus = 6 māsas
• Saṃvatsara (a human year) = 2 ayanas, Uttarāyaṇa (the sun’s northern course) and Dakshiṇāyana (its southern course)

Note: the human Dakshiṇāyana is a single rātri (night) of the devatās, and the Uttarāyaṇa is their day. So one human year equals one deva-ahorātra, a day and night of the devas.

The Four Yugas in Divine Years

Counted in divine years (deva-māna), the four yugas (ages) are as follows. Each yuga has a saṃdhyā (dawn period) before it and a saṃdhyāṃśa (dusk period) after it:

(4,800 + 3,600 + 2,400 + 1,200 = 12,000 divine years in each mahāyuga.)

In human years: 12,000 × 360 = 4,320,000 human years in each catur-yuga (mahāyuga, the four ages together).

From Mahāyuga to Manvantara to Kalpa

• 1 Manvantara (the reign of one Manu) = 71 mahāyugas (catur-yugas)
• 1 Kalpa (= 1 Brahmā-dina, the daytime of Brahmā) = 14 manvantaras = 1,000 mahāyugas
• 1 Brahmā-rātri (night of Brahmā) = 1 kalpa (equal to his daytime)
• 1 Brahmā-saṃvatsara (year of Brahmā) = 360 kalpas
• 1 Parārdha = half of Brahmā’s whole lifespan = 50 years of Brahmā
• Brahmā’s whole lifespan = 2 Parārdhas = 100 years of Brahmā

During each kalpa, fourteen Manus rule one after another, each for about 71 catur-yugas. All seven dvīpas (continents), the mountains (parvatas) and the whole earth (pṛthivī) are filled by these Manus and their descendants.

The text notes:

“One thousand yugas constitute one parikalpa (complete kalpa). By describing one manvantara, all manvantaras are as if described.”

The Present Age: The Vārāha Kalpa

The Purāṇa places the present moment exactly within the time of the universe:

“O brāhmaṇas, Brahmā’s first Parārdha has passed. His second Parārdha is now in progress. In that second Parārdha, this is the very first Kalpa.”

“The last Kalpa to have passed before this one was called Pādma. The Kalpa currently ongoing is the Vārāha Kalpa. I shall now describe it.”

So we live in the Vārāha Kalpa, the first kalpa of Brahmā‘s second Parārdha. The name ties it directly to the Varāha (boar) avatāra of Vishṇu, who lifted up the earth at the start of this cycle.

Kāla as Parameśvara

Kāla is not treated as mere arithmetic. It shows how deep the nature of time is:

“This revered Kāla has no beginning or end. It has no old age or death. It is what contains everything, is independent, and is the ātman of all; hence it is of Maheśvara-svarūpa.”

“There are many Brahmās, many Rudras, and many Nārāyaṇas. But this Bhagavad-rūpa Kāla is only one; thus the Veda declares.”

Even Brahmā, Vishṇu and Śiva themselves go through the prākṛta-laya (the great dissolution into Prakṛti, primal nature) at the end of their cycles. All three are brought forth by Kāla and taken back by Kāla. Kāla alone stands beyond all these cycles.

This teaching fits the Purāṇa’s typical view that Śiva and Vishṇu are not different (Śiva-Vishṇu-abheda). In it, Kāla, as the second of the four vyūha forms of Vāsudeva, is at the same time identified with Śiva.

Per Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa

The Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa has a long teaching on how time is counted, from the smallest moment to the life of Brahmā himself. It is given by Varuṇa, the deva of the waters, to Paraśurāma while Paraśurāma stays in the city of Aśmanagara.

The teaching covers the four kinds of month, the ladder of time units from the nimesha (the blink of an eye) to the mahākalpa, the nature of each yuga (age), what happens at the end of a manvantara (the reign of a Manu) and at the end of a kalpa (a day of Brahmā), and the great dissolution when Brahmā’s own life comes to an end. It closes with the well-known Padmanābhopākhyāna, the story in which Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛshi lives through the pralaya (dissolution of the world), sees the divine child Aniruddha, enters the child’s body and sees the three worlds inside, and later learns from Brahmā that this child is Aniruddha-Padmanābha, the final ground of all that exists.

The Four Kinds of Month

Varuṇa taught Paraśurāma that kāla (time) is the body of the anādinātha, the master who has no beginning, Rudra-Saṅkarshaṇa himself. He is equal toward all bhūtas (beings) and is atisūkshma-sūkshmatara, subtler than the subtlest. Even yogīs cannot grasp this subtlety. Time is counted by following the movements of the grahas (planets).

There are nine grahas: five tārā-grahas or star-planets (Kuja, Budha, Guru, Śukra, Śani), two mahā-grahas or great grahas (Sūrya, the Sun, and Candra, the Moon), and two upa-grahas or lesser grahas (Rāhu and Ketu). Of these, the movements of Sūrya and Candra decide the measure of time.

The twenty-seven nakshatras (lunar mansions) are grouped into twelve rāśis (signs of the zodiac). There are four ways of counting a month:

In the sāvana count, the solar year ends six nights short; these are called ūnarātras (“missing nights”). After two years, eight months, sixteen days and four nāḍīs (ghaṭikās), one extra month builds up. This is the adhika-māsa (leap month) of the lunar calendar, and kāmya-karmas (rites done to gain a particular wish) are not allowed in it.

Kāla-Saṃkhyā: The Ladder of Time

The smallest unit of time is the nimesha, the time it takes to say one short syllable. The units build up like this:

One ahorātra also has thirty muhūrtas, fifteen by day and fifteen by night. As the Sun moves north, the days grow longer; as he moves south, the nights grow longer. When the Sun enters the rāśi Mesha or Tulā, day and night are equal. This is the vishuvat (equinox), a most sacred time, when even small gifts bring great puṇya (merit).

Two solar months make one ṛtu (season). Three ṛtus make one ayana (half-year), and two ayanas make one saṃvatsara (year). The six months of uttarāyaṇa (the Sun’s northward course) are the day of the devas, and the six months of dakshiṇāyana (the southward course) are their night. For the pitṛ-devatās (honoured ancestors), one lunar month is one day and night: the kṛshṇa paksha (dark fortnight) is their day and the śukla paksha (bright fortnight) is their night. On amāvāsyā (new moon) one should offer śrāddha (rites for the ancestors).

The length of the yugas in divine years:

Seventy-one caturyugas make one manvantara. One thousand caturyugas make one kalpa, which is one day of Brahmā.

The Dharma of Each Yuga

Kṛta Yuga: Dharma stands on all four pādas (legs). The whole world is brahmottara: the authority of the Veda is supreme. Vishṇu is śveta-varṇa (white). People live four thousand years, and all are equal in strength.

Tretā Yuga: Dharma stands on three pādas. Vishṇu is rakta-varṇa (red). People live a thousand years and perform yajñas that involve hiṃsā (harm to living beings). The world is kshatrottara, led by the kshatriyas.

Dvāpara Yuga: Dharma stands on two pādas. Vishṇu is pīta-varṇa (yellow). People live four hundred years and are fond of war. Śāstras multiply, and so do differences of opinion. Seeing how short life has become, Vishṇu comes down as Vyāsa and divides the single Yajurveda into four Vedas. His disciples divide it further into a thousand branches.

Kali Yuga: Dharma stands on one pāda. Deva-niścaya (firm faith in the devas) crumbles. Even babies die in the womb. Śūdra rule prevails. The pāpishṭhas (most wicked) prosper while the dharmic suffer, and the honest man does not live long. Yet in this yuga Vishṇu is quickly pleased by even a little tapas (spiritual effort). Kalki will come as Vishṇuyaśas, clear the earth of the mlecchas (those outside dharma), and bring back the Kṛta Yuga.

Vishṇu has taken countless thousands of avatāras, past and future, and their number cannot be counted. In the twenty-fourth Tretā Yuga of the present kalpa, Vishṇu himself took birth in the line of Bhṛgu as Vālmīki and composed the Rāmāyaṇa.

The End of a Manvantara

At the end of each manvantara, the fourteen Manus who rule the manvantaras (Svāyambhuva, Svārocisha, Vaivasvata, Sāvarṇi, Brahmaputra, Dharmaputra, Rudraputra, Dakshaputra, Raucya, Bhautya, Viśvātman and others) go to Maharloka together with the seven ṛshis, free of all karma. The Manu, the Devendra (king of the devas) and the devas of that manvantara reach Brahmaloka. The Saptarshis of that period attain brahma-sādṛśya (likeness to Brahmā) and live there. Maheśvara, in his jala-rūpa (form as water), floods the whole surface of the earth with waves of huge force and covers everything. Four worlds (Bhūloka, Bhuvarloka, Svarloka and Maharloka) are destroyed; only Janaloka and the worlds above it remain.

The great mountains do not perish: Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, Śuktimat, Ṛkshavat, Vindhya, Pāriyātra, Mālyavat, Gandhamādana, Himavat, Hemakūṭa, Nishadha, Nīla, Śveta, Śṛṅgavat and Meru. The earth takes the form of a boat carrying all the seeds of life, and the coming Manu and the seven ṛshis stay on her. Vishṇu as Matsya (the fish avatāra) pulls this boat from place to place and finally brings it to rest on the Himālaya. Then the Matsya disappears, but all those on board remain. A span as long as the Kṛta Yuga passes, called the prākshālana (the washing clean). The waters go down, creation begins again, and the ṛshis and the new Manu together carry out all the work of the world.

Kalpānta: The End of Brahmā’s Day

At the end of Brahmā‘s day (the kalpa), seven terrible suns appear in the four directions of the sky. They drink up all the water in the universe and dry out the three worlds until the earth is like a lump of iron, and all creatures are burnt up. Those who remain only as prāṇa-mātra (bare life-breath, with no further karma) rise to Janaloka and live there in peace. The four lower worlds (Bhū, Bhuvar, Svar and Mahar) are destroyed, while Janaloka and the worlds above it endure.

Then the tejas (fiery power) of Rudra puts out the great burning suns. Mahā-raudra (fierce) clouds of many colours cover the sky, with lightning and thunder, pouring down rain in torrents that flood the whole earth. The oceans burst their shores and cover everything. Then the sāṃvartika wind (the wind of pralaya) scatters all the clouds in an instant. Brahmā draws even that wind into his own body. As the world becomes one vast ocean, all beings and things dissolve: the Moon, the Sun, the grahas, the nakshatras and the wind. Everything stops, and Brahmā sleeps. He sleeps for a thousand yugas, as long as his day, then wakes and creates the world anew, repeating this cycle without end.

The End of the Mahākalpa: Brahmā’s Own Life

When even Brahmā‘s hundred years are complete, he dissolves the whole creation and lies in the ekārṇava (the single ocean). He then gives up his body, enters yoga-samādhi (deep meditative absorption), and merges into the Purusha (Brahman). When Brahmā reaches the state of moksha (liberation), all the jīvas (souls) in Brahmaloka are liberated along with him. The brahmāṇḍa (the egg of the universe), filled with water from within, splits open. Brahmā dissolves into the all-pervading ātman.

In this great dissolution, each element merges into the one before it, in a set order:

1. Bhūmi (earth) dissolves into udaka (water).
2. Udaka dissolves into jyotis (fire).
3. Jyotis dissolves into vāyu (air).
4. Vāyu dissolves into ākāśa (space).
5. Ākāśa dissolves into manas (mind).
6. Manas dissolves into buddhi (intellect, the mahat-tattva).
7. Buddhi dissolves into the ātman.
8. The ātman dissolves into the avyakta (the unmanifest, the para-purusha).

Countless brahmāṇḍas are all drawn in together and rest within Bhagavān Vishṇu; this is his night. When the night of the mahākalpa ends, the jagat-prabhu (master of the universe) creates again from the avyakta, in the same order reversed, and himself enters the egg of the universe as Aniruddha.

Padmanābhopākhyāna: The Divine Child

Mārkaṇḍeya‘s Vision

King Vajra asked Mārkaṇḍeya about what he himself had lived through during pralaya. Mārkaṇḍeya told him:

At the end of a manvantara he had been in the great boat. At kalpānta, when the great fire came, he stayed in Janaloka. But when the waters of pralaya rose and he fell from Janaloka down to the surface of the earth, he floated in the dark, churning ocean of pralaya. He was tossed by huge waves, could see no land anywhere, and was filled with nirveda (weariness and despair) at how long this existence went on.

In the darkness of that water he suddenly saw a magnificent vaṭa-vṛksha (banyan tree) standing in the ocean. Its countless branches spread wide, and its leaves were thick and shining, like a gathered cloud. He swam to it and climbed onto a branch. There on the tree, on a splendid paryaṅka (couch), lay a shining child. His body was dark and glossy like a blue lotus in bloom. He wore pītāmbara (yellow silk). His feet were rosy like lotus petals and his hands rosy like lotus buds. He wore many ornaments, and a peacock feather added to his beauty. He blazed with the light of a koṭi (ten million) suns and yet bore the marks of śrī-kalā (gentle, auspicious beauty).

The child saw Mārkaṇḍeya and said with a gentle smile: “O knower of dharma! If you are tired, open your mouth and enter my body. Rest there for a while.” Mārkaṇḍeya felt shy, but he had no choice. He went in through the child’s open mouth.

Inside he saw the whole earth: its mountains, forests, cities, oceans, seas, rivers and lakes, the villages of brāhmaṇas ringing with Vedic chanting, the whole world just as it had always been, with the varṇas and āśramas (the orders and stages of life) and the festivals of yajña, exactly as before. He was filled with wonder at the child’s playful power. He wandered inside for a thousand yugas and could find no end. At last, worn out, he surrendered to the child, and he came out through a tiny opening finer than the tip of a hair, like coming out of a lotus stalk. Outside he saw the same banyan tree and the same ocean. He bowed down at the child’s feet. Then the child and the tree vanished.

Who the Child Was: Aniruddha-Padmanābha

Vajra asked who this child was. Mārkaṇḍeya said he had seen this great being many times over many kalpas but had never understood who he was, until, after this kalpānta, Brahmā told him the truth.

Mārkaṇḍeya went to Brahmā and asked him. Brahmā said: “That child is Aniruddha, the jagad-guru (teacher of the world). Even at kalpānta you could not understand him. I too have seen him, lying on a couch of nāga (the divine serpent). I entered his belly and saw the three worlds inside, and then I could find no way out. I wandered searching and finally surrendered to him. He showed me an opening as thin as a hair. I came out through it, just as one comes out of a lotus stalk. Outside, I found his body. Knowing that he is the sarvādhāra (the support of all), I surrendered to him again.”

Brahmā went on: “From Vishṇu‘s nābhi-sarovara (the lake of his navel) a lotus arose. Its petals were lit by the gem-light of Śesha‘s hoods, which shone like suns. I was born from that navel-lotus, and so I am known as Padmaja, ‘born from the lotus’. That navel-lotus is the whole circle of the universe, and its centre is Meru. I was born from that Cakrāyudha, Aniruddha-Vishṇu, who holds the discus. He is Vishṇu, the master of all the worlds, the cause from which everything arises. He is the child you saw in pralaya, lying in mahāmāyā at kalpānta. I myself, charmed by his māyā, also dwell inside him at kalpānta.”

Where We Are in Brahmā’s Life

Mārkaṇḍeya told Vajra where the present moment stands in the vast count of time. By then, Brahmā‘s eighth year, fifth month and fourth day and night had passed. In other words, six manvantaras, seven sandhis (junctions), twenty-seven mahāyugas and three full yugas of the twenty-eighth cycle had gone by. The present Kali Yuga was ten years old. The total time passed in Brahmā’s life cannot be counted exactly, just as no one can count the grains of sand in the Gaṅgā or the drops in a rainfall.

Mārkaṇḍeya also foretold the future of Vajra‘s family line:

• Vajra would rule for five hundred years after Parīkshit‘s departure and then go to svarga.
• Janamejaya would rule at Hastināpura.
• Vajra’s son Acala would rule at Mathurā.
• His son Bhīmavikrama would rule Khāṇḍavaprastha justly.
• The Maya-sabhā (the assembly hall built by Maya) would be carried away by Maya’s own servants to Bindu Sarovara in the Himālaya.

Are All Kalpas Alike?

Vajra asked whether all kalpas are the same. Mārkaṇḍeya answered that kalpas are broadly alike but not exactly the same in the details of the jīvas, the devatās and the events. In each kalpa, one Manu in each manvantara attains moksha and does not return. The Acyuta-śakti (the power of the unfailing Vishṇu) fills the world with new jīvas to take their place. The jīvas of Brahmaloka come back after the mahākalpa, but those who reach Vishṇuloka, Rudraloka or Śvetadvīpa do not return.

As an example of how kalpas differ: in the previous kalpa, in the twenty-fourth Tretā Yuga of the seventh manvantara, Rāvaṇa was killed by Rāma and Kumbhakarṇa was also killed by Rāma. But in the present kalpa, as Vālmīki tells it, Kumbhakarṇa was killed by Lakshmaṇa. Such are the small differences between kalpas. Names such as Kārttika-kalpa, Lakshmī-kalpa and Rudra-kalpa point to particular kalpas, each with its own arrangement of devatās.

Per Agni Purāṇa

In Chapter 175 of the Agni Purāṇa, the Vrata-paribhāshā, Agni-deva teaches Vasishṭha Maharshi the rules of the vratas, kept on a tithi, a weekday, a nakshatra, a day, a month, a season, a year and at the sun’s entry into a rāśi. In the course of it he gives the four kinds of month and the rites each one is best for.

In the malamāsa, the intercalary month, these are not done: agnyādhāna (setting up the sacred fires), pratishṭhā (installation), yajña, dāna, vrata, deva-vrata, vṛshotsarga (the release of a bull), cūḍākaraṇa (the first tonsure), the tying of the mekhalā (girdle) at upanayana, vivāha and the other auspicious acts, and abhisheka (royal consecration).

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175

Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Parīkshit asks Śuka Maharshi the measure of the mahākalpa and the avāntara-kalpas, the way past, present and future time is reckoned, and the lifespans of the bodies of the devas and others (Skandha 2, Chapter 8). Śuka answers that creation is the same in every mahākalpa: at its beginning all the tattvas from the mahat-tattva to pṛthivī are created from prakṛti, while in an avāntara-kalpa the tattvas remain as they are and only the moving and unmoving beings are created; the measure of time he promises to explain further on (Skandha 2, Chapter 10). The full teaching is given by Maitreya Maharshi to Vidura.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapters 8, 10

Kāla is Bhagavān Śrīhari

Maitreya begins with the paramāṇu, the subtlest part of all effects, which cannot be divided further. When some paramāṇus come together, men wrongly think there is one more thing, a whole, apart from them. Where all effects stand in their own nature without change, that whole is the parama-mahat, the very great; in it there is no difference of creation and pralaya, of new and old, of sun and moon. Just as substance has its paramāṇu and its parama-mahat, so time has its smallest and its largest part. Kāla, the śakti of Bhagavān Śrīhari, is itself Bhagavān Śrīhari; it pervades all created things and limits them. The time that pervades the subtlest paramāṇu is the smallest measure of time, and the time that pervades the world from its creation to its pralaya is the greatest.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 11

The measures from the paramāṇu to the year

Maitreya gives the measures in this order:

The nāḍikā is measured with a water-clock: a hole is made in the bottom of a copper vessel weighing six palas, with a gold wire four aṅgulas long made of four māshas of gold; the vessel is set on water, and the time it takes to fill with one prastha of water and sink is one nāḍikā.

One month of men is one day of the pitṛdevatās. The two ayanas together are one day of the devatās. The Vedas give the full life of man as a hundred years.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 11

Sūrya and the five kinds of year

Sūrya, whose form is kāla, goes round the world in the circle of the sky with the grahas beginning with Guru and the nakshatras beginning with Aśvinī, and by his circling the wheel of time from its subtlest part to the year is set going. To this kāla belong five names of the year:

1. Saṃvatsara, the time Sūrya takes to go round the circle of the rāśis (372 days);
2. Parivatsara, the time Guru takes to pass from one rāśi to the next;
3. Iḍāvatsara, 360 days, every month of thirty days;
4. Anuvatsara, twelve months by the moon’s course, each ending with amāvāsyā;
5. Vatsara, twelve months each of the 27 days in which the moon moves through the nakshatras.

Sūrya, whose form is tejas, by his śakti called kāla turns toward action the seed-power in all the causal tattvas, removes the delusion of men and moves in Dyuloka; to those who worship him through yajñas he gives svarga and other auspicious fruits. He himself is present in the form of the five kinds of year. “Offer pūjā to him,” Maitreya says (Skandha 3, Chapter 11).

In Śuka‘s account of the jyotiś-cakra, the knowers of jyotiśśāstra give the year these five names, saṃvatsara, parivatsara, iḍāvatsara, anuvatsara and vatsara, by Sūrya’s slow, fast and even motion (Skandha 5, Chapter 22). Śuka also says that when Sūrya moves through the five rāśis beginning with Vṛshabha, the day grows and the night shrinks by one ghaḍiya (24 minutes) each month, and that in fifteen ghaḍiyas Sūrya travels from Devadhānī, the city of Indra, to Saṃyamanī, the city of Yama, a distance of two crore thirty-seven lakh seventy-five thousand yojanas (Skandha 5, Chapter 21).

In the same account Śuka gives the three measures of a month, as the knowers of jyotiśśāstra teach them: by the moon, two pakshas make a month; by the pitṛs, one of their days and nights is a month; by the sun, the time Sūrya takes to pass one pāda of two nakshatras is a month. The time in which Sūrya completes one sixth of his yearly round is a ṛtu, and the time in which he passes half of it is an ayana (Skandha 5, Chapter 22).

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 11; Skandha 5, Chapters 21–22

The four yugas

Vidura asks the lifespans of the jñānīs beyond the three worlds who live longer than a kalpa, and Maitreya answers. The four yugas, Kṛta, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali, with their sandhyā (the joint at the beginning) and sandhyāṃśa (the joint at the end), make twelve thousand divine years; one divine year is 360 human years.

The knowers of the yugas call the time between the sandhyā and the sandhyāṃśa the yuga proper. Each yuga has its own dharma. In the Kṛta yuga dharma stands among men on its four feet; in the other yugas, as adharma grows by one foot at a time, dharma declines by as much (Skandha 3, Chapter 11). In Skandha 12 Śuka tells that after a thousand divine years the Kali yuga ends and the Kṛta begins, when minds become pure and the ātmā shines (Skandha 12, Chapter 2).

The Purāṇa counts the longest tapas in divine years: Brahmā performed tapas in samādhi for a thousand divine years (Skandha 2, Chapter 9); Malayadhvaja stood like a boulder in one place for a hundred divine years (Skandha 4, Chapter 28); Hiraṇyakaśipu lived a hundred divine years without even drinking water (Skandha 7, Chapter 3); and the tapas of Pṛśni and Sutapas lasted twelve thousand divine years (Skandha 10, Chapter 3).

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 9; Skandha 3, Chapter 11; Skandha 4, Chapter 28; Skandha 7, Chapter 3; Skandha 10, Chapter 3; Skandha 12, Chapter 2

Brahmā’s day and night

Above the three worlds, from Maharloka up to Brahmaloka, one day is a thousand caturyugas of the human world, and Brahmā‘s night is as long; in it the Creator sleeps. When the night ends, the creation of the worlds begins and goes on through Brahmā’s whole day. In that day fourteen Manus pass, each holding authority for about seventy-one caturyugas. In each manvantara the Manu, the kings of his line, the maharshis, the devatās with Indra and the rest, and the gandharvas and others hold their offices together and rule the worlds. This is the creation Brahmā makes every day, and the three worlds are part of it; in it the jīvas are born by their karma as animals and birds, men, pitṛs and devatās. Bhagavān Vishṇu, resting on sattva, protects the world in the manvantaras through his forms such as Manu.

At the end of the day Brahmā takes up a trace of tamas, withdraws from creation and is still, and by the force of kāla all things merge into him. In that night the pralaya takes place: there is no sun or moon, and Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ and Suvaḥ merge in him. The śakti of Bhagavān Śrīhari comes forth as fire from the mouth of Ādiśesha, and as the three worlds burn, Bhṛgu Maharshi and the others, pained by the heat, go from Maharloka to Janaloka. Then the oceans rise, fierce winds blow, and the waves drown the three worlds in a moment. In the midst of those waters Śrīhari lies on Ādiśesha in yoganidrā, and the dwellers of Janaloka offer him stuti.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 11

Brahmā’s life and the three kalpas

Brahmā‘s life is the longest in this creation: a hundred years by the measure of Brahmaloka. Half of it is a parārdha. The first parārdha has passed, and the second is now going on.

• Brāhma kalpa: the great kalpa at the beginning of the first parārdha, so called because in it Brahmā, made of the Veda and famed as Śabda-brahma, appeared.
• Pādma kalpa: the last kalpa of the first parārdha, so called because in it the lotus that is the world rose from the lake of Śrīhari’s navel.
• Vārāha kalpa: the first kalpa of the second parārdha, the one now going on, so called because in it Śrīhari descended as Varāhamūrti.

Śuka also tells that in the past mahākalpa Nārada Maharshi was a gandharva named Upabarhaṇa, great among the gandharvas (Skandha 7, Chapter 15).

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 11; Skandha 7, Chapter 15

Śrīhari beyond kāla

Śrīhari is the cause of all causes, without beginning or end, not bound by the upādhi of effects, the very being of this world. The time of the two parārdhas is called, as a figure of speech, one blink of his eyelid; it is not a count of a lifespan for him. Kāla, spreading from its subtlest part to two parārdhas, is all-powerful, yet it has no sway over Parabrahma, who is not limited by time; it rules only the ignorant who say “this is me, this is mine” of the body and the house. The brahmāṇḍa, fifty crore yojanas across, made of sixteen vikāras and wrapped in its coverings of water, fire, air, ākāśa, ahaṅkāra, mahat-tattva and prakṛti, each ten times the one before, looks like a paramāṇu within that Parabrahma, in which there are crores of heaps of such brahmāṇḍas. This Parabrahma is the very dhāma of Bhagavān Vishṇu, the Paramātmā and the Whole (Skandha 3, Chapter 11).

Hiraṇyakaśipu, praising Brahmā, says: “You yourself, in the form of time that never blinks, wear away the lifespan of beings through the divisions of time such as lava and kshaṇa” (Skandha 7, Chapter 3).

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 11; Skandha 7, Chapter 3

Per Bhavishya Purāṇa

The measures from the blink to the year

Sumantu Muni tells King Śatānīka the reckoning of time:

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 2

The bhāga and the smallest measures

Kaśyapa Prajāpati tells Gautama that a bhāga is the time above two ghaṭikās and within four. Twenty such bhāgas, made equal to sixty ghaṭikās, make one ahorātra. Kuhūsuta, budbuda and nimesha are the smallest measures of worldly time.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 34

The four kinds of month and of day

Sūta tells the brāhmaṇas that months are of four kinds:

The days are reckoned so:

• Sāvana-dina: from one sunrise to the next.
• Cāndra-divasa: what the Moon enjoys in one tithi.
• Saura-dina: one thirtieth of a rāśi.
• Ahorātra: day and night together.

The Caitrī pūrṇimā comes with the yoga of Citrā nakshatra, and the month marked by it is called Caitra; the twelve cāndra months from Caitra take their names from the union with their nakshatras. A month with no yoga of pūrṇimā is harmful to people, cattle and the rest.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Madhyama Parva, Bhāga 2, Chapter 6

Sources

• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Sṛshṭi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 10
• Vāyu Purāṇa, Chapter 57
• Nārada Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 5
• Kūrma Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 5
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 72
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 73
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 74
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 75
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 76
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 77
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 78
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 79
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 80
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 81
• Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175
• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapters 8–10; Skandha 3, Chapter 11; Skandha 4, Chapter 28; Skandha 5, Chapters 21–22; Skandha 7, Chapters 3, 15; Skandha 10, Chapter 3; Skandha 12, Chapter 2
• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapters 2, 34; Madhyama Parva, Bhāga 2, Chapter 6