The Four Yugas

A yuga is a great age of the world. Sanātana Dharma teaches that time moves in cycles, not in a straight line. Four yugas follow one after another: Kṛta (also called Satya), Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali. Together they make one mahāyuga (great cycle), and when one cycle ends a new one begins. In each age dharma (right living) grows weaker, life grows shorter, and the path to Paramātmā changes to suit the people of that time. We are living in the Kali Yuga now.

Many scriptures describe the yugas: the Varāha, Mārkaṇḍeya, Liṅga, Bhaviṣya, Bhāgavata, Brahmāṇḍa, Kūrma and Nārada Purāṇas, and the Anuśāsana Parva of the Mahābhārata. Here is what each of them teaches.

Names of the Four Yugas

1. Kṛta (also called Satya), the golden age
2. Tretā
3. Dvāpara
4. Kali

Viṣṇu’s Colour in Each Yuga

The Varāha Purāṇa says that Nārāyaṇa appears with a different colour of body in each yuga. The Telugu words used in the text are given in brackets.

Viṣṇu’s Main Form in Each Yuga

The Varāha Purāṇa (Chapter 10) also gives the main form Viṣṇu takes in each yuga:

The Legs of Dharma in Each Yuga

Dharma is pictured as a bull. In the Kṛta Yuga the bull stands on all four pādas (legs), and it loses one leg in each age that follows (Varāha Purāṇa, Chapter 32):

How Long the Yugas Last

The Varāha Purāṇa (Chapter 39) sums up the scales of time:

• The 4 yugas together = 4,320,000 human years (a caturyuga or mahāyuga)
• 71 mahāyugas = 1 manvantara (the reign of one Manu)
• 14 manvantaras = 1 kalpa (Brahmā’s day)
• Another kalpa = Brahmā’s night
• 30 kalpas (days and nights) = 1 month for Brahmā
• 12 months = 1 year of Brahmā
• 100 Brahmā-years = Brahmā’s full life

The Same Fruit for Less Effort

The Varāha Purāṇa suggests that as the ages decline, the same result of bhakti (loving devotion) needs a different amount of effort in each age:

“Kalau nārāyaṇo devaḥ bahu-rūpo vyajāyata” — In the Kali age, the divine Nārāyaṇa is born in many forms.

Brahmā’s Lifetime: The Dviparārdha (Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa)

Chapter 43 of the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa explains the great scale of time more fully, agreeing with and adding to the Varāha Purāṇa. One manvantara is made of 71 or more mahāyugas, about 306,720,000 human years, which is about 8,000 divine years. Fourteen manvantaras make one day of Brahmā (a kalpa), equal to 1,000 mahāyugas. A night of Brahmā is just as long.

Thirty such days and nights make one month of Brahmā, and twelve such months make one year of Brahmā. Brahmā’s full life is called the dviparārdha: one hundred Brahmā-years, made of two parārdhas (halves). This is the longest span of one cycle of creation.

At the end of the dviparārdha even Brahmā dissolves. The whole universe, everything that has taken form, dissolves back into Prakṛti (primal nature). Prakṛti itself then lies hidden within the Paramātman (the Supreme Self), with no separate existence. This deepest dissolution is the Prākṛta-pralaya. When it ends, a new Brahmā is born, a new creation unfolds, and the wheel of time turns again.

Life and Nature in Each Yuga (Liṅga Purāṇa, Chapters 39–40)

The Liṅga Purāṇa records a detailed teaching on the conditions of each yuga. Devendra (Indra) gives it in answer to Śilāda’s question about yuga-dharma (the dharma of the ages). It agrees that dharma loses one leg in each age, and adds lively descriptions of human life and of nature in each age.

Kṛta Yuga

In the Kṛta Yuga all four legs of dharma are present. People are born simply by tasting sweet liquids (rasa), not through physical union. Everyone lives in contentment and joy; no one suffers hunger, thirst or disease. Everyone has equal lifespan, beauty and happiness. No rāga (attachment) or dveṣa (dislike) troubles them. People live in mountain caves, free of sorrow. Sattva guṇa (the quality of purity and calm) is strong in them; they love solitude, act without selfish desire (niṣkāma-karma), and are always content. There is no varṇa-saṅkara (mixing of the varṇas, the social orders).

Tretā Yuga

In the Tretā Yuga three legs of dharma remain. The first way of birth through rasa disappears. Rain now falls from clouds, and people drink from rivers. Trees grow on the mountains, and people live under them, eating the honey of their flowers. When the honey is no longer enough, people struggle with hunger and hardship, and in their distress they begin to practise tapas (austerity). Slowly the trees become fewer, and small homes are built on the hills. Food grows scarce, and people live on the healing plants and grains that spring from the rain-soaked earth. The kṣatriyas appear, born to protect women, children and families, and they begin to sponsor yajñas.

Dvāpara Yuga

In the Dvāpara Yuga two legs of dharma remain. Differences of opinion (buddhi-bheda) multiply among people, and physical labour becomes hard. Greed grows, and hired workers are paid by the month. Vyāsa divides the one Veda into four, and the ṛṣis who study under him create many schools of explanation: the Brāhmaṇas, the Kalpa-sūtras, Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā, Uttara-Mīmāṃsā and the divisions of the mantras.

Kali Yuga

In the Kali Yuga only one leg of dharma remains. People live short lives, have weak bodies, and are mostly of mixed qualities. Ekāgra-bhakti (single-minded devotion) to Śiva is rare, while hatred between sects and religious quarrels multiply. The teaching in Chapters 39–40 stresses that in the Kali Yuga above all, pūjā of the Śiva-liṅga, reciting the names of Śiva, and the Pāśupata vrata (vow) are the highest protection. They take the place of the long tapas of the Kṛta Yuga, the yajñas of the Tretā and the Vedic recitation of the Dvāpara.

The Four Quarters of the Kali Yuga (Bhaviṣya Purāṇa)

The Pratisarga Parva of the Bhaviṣya Purāṇa (Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 24) describes how things get steadily worse through the four pādas (quarters) of the Kali Yuga. It is the fullest account in the Purāṇas of the course of this age, from the time of Vikramāditya to the coming of Bhagavān Kalki.

First Quarter: The Age of Dharmic Kings

The first quarter of the Kali Yuga still has great dharmic kings: Vikramāditya, Śālivāhana and Bhoja Rāja. Great ācāryas (teachers) are born in this period: Śaṅkarācārya, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Jayadeva and Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Even though it is the Kali Yuga, rule by dharma is still possible in this first phase.

Second Quarter: The Kiṃnaras and the Fall of Institutions

In the second quarter, kiṃnaras (half-divine beings carrying a share of daitya nature) are born as humans. They grow only two and a half feet tall and live only forty years. They exist without real karma, driven purely by instinct, living “like birds”. By the end of this quarter, marriage has disappeared, kings no longer rule, and the ability for real effort (udyama-śīla) has gone from human life.

Third Quarter: The Bhṛṅgu-Sṛṣṭi and the Collapse of All Values

After twenty-six thousand years of the third quarter have passed, Rudra commands the ṛṣi Bhṛṅgu and his wife Surabhī to bring forth a new race of very powerful warriors, the Kailakalpas. These warriors are so fierce that the remaining kiṃnaras flee in terror to the Vāma-side realms, and are devoured wherever they are found. What remains on earth is this “Bhṛṅgu-sṛṣṭi” (creation of Bhṛṅgu): beings more terrible than mlecchas (those outside dharma), living without marriage, driven only by kāma (desire), and having huge numbers of children with no family life at all. In this phase every human value falls apart.

Fourth Quarter: The Earth Becomes Like Naraka

In the fourth quarter, the human lifespan falls to twenty years. Every being who dies goes to naraka (the realm of suffering after death). Settled life has ended completely: people live in the water and the forests, eating whatever they find, like the creatures of the water and the forest. The narakas, Tāmisra and the other great narakas, fill up completely with the souls of beings from this last quarter. The earth itself becomes a mirror of naraka.

At the end of this quarter, Bhagavān Kalki comes down to earth and the Satya Yuga begins again.

The Kali Yuga and the Dharma of Each Age (Bhāgavata Purāṇa)

The 12th Skandha of the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa (Chapters 2–3) gives one of the fullest accounts of the steady decline of the Kali Yuga. It also names the one highest dharma for each yuga.

Signs of the Kali Yuga (Chapter 2)

As the Kali Yuga deepens, the earth sees signs of complete moral collapse. Sūta Maharṣi lists them for the gathering of ṛṣis at Naimiṣāraṇya:

• Rulers become no better than thieves (rāja-coravat). They tax the people without protecting them or giving justice.
• Brāhmaṇas eat anything, sell the Vedas, and are controlled by śūdras.
• Sannyāsīs (renunciants) are full of desire; householders live only for their appetites.
• Aśvins (physicians) and sellers of spirituality become everyone’s gurus.
• Śūdras argue fine points of dharma while the learned stay silent.
• Clouds rain in the wrong season; crops are poor and tasteless.
• People are always troubled by hunger, fear and disease.
• Lifespan and bodily strength keep falling.
• Relatives care for one another only while the money lasts; wives stay only with wealthy husbands.
• Boys and girls mix freely without the guidance of parents; cows are treated like goats.
• The land fills with people who have no teacher, no scripture and no dharma.

The Four Yuga-Dharmas (Chapter 3)

The 12th Skandha names the one highest dharma suited to each yuga: the spiritual practice through which a person of that age can best reach liberation.

The Bhāgavata declares that what the sādhaka (spiritual practitioner) of the Kṛta Yuga gained through years of dhyāna, the devotee of the Tretā through great yajñas, and the devotee of the Dvāpara through regular temple pūjā, the devotee of the Kali Yuga can gain simply through nāma-saṅkīrtana. This places the greatness of the divine name within the wider teaching on the dharma of the ages, showing that Bhagavān Viṣṇu has shaped the path to fit what the people of each age are able to do.

The text also contains the Pṛthivī-gītā, the lament of Bhūmi Devī (the Earth) herself. In it she describes the signs of the Kali Yuga: adharma spreading everywhere, the tearing up of dharmic institutions, and people slowly giving up the pūjā of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. It is framed as her prārthanā (prayer) to be saved.

Measuring the Yugas (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa)

The Pūrva Bhāga of the Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 29 and 31 (the Yuga-cakra-ākhyāna, “account of the wheel of the yugas”), gives one of the most orderly accounts of how time is measured, how long the yugas last, what each yuga is like, and how the Kali Yuga ends.

The Basic Units of Time

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa sets out the basic units of time, from the smallest moment upward:

The Sun divides the human day and night: the day is for work (karma) and the night is for sleep.

Three Scales of Time: Humans, Pitṛs and Devas

One hundred human years are 3 years and 10 months for the pitṛs, and 360 human years are 1 year of the devas. The kṛṣṇa pakṣa (the dark fortnight, when the moon wanes) is the daytime of the pitṛs, the time when they receive offerings, and the śukla pakṣa is their night.

The Saptarṣi Year and the Dhruva Year

Beyond the scale of the devas, the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa describes two further units:

• Saptarṣi year: 3,030 human years, one full year as lived by the seven great ṛṣis of the Saptarṣi-maṇḍala (the Great Bear)
• Dhruva year: 9,090 human years, one full year as seen from Dhruvaloka, the pole star, which neither rises nor sets

These units show how time is ordered in layers across the different levels of the universe.

Length of the Yugas in Human Years

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa gives the length of the four yugas in human years, in the ratio 4:3:2:1, including their saṃdhyā (dawn twilight before the yuga) and saṃdhyāṃśa (dusk twilight after it):

Seventy-one of these four-yuga cycles make one manvantara. One manvantara = 306,720,000 human years.

The Tretā Yuga in Detail

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa gives details of the Tretā Yuga that set it clearly apart from the later ages.

The Veda: In the Tretā Yuga there is one undivided Veda with four parts. The Ṛk, Yajus, Sāma and Atharva mantras exist together as a single saṃhitā, a dharma-setu (bridge of dharma). Only from the Dvāpara Yuga onward do the ṛṣis, by the power of their tapas, study the Vedas and divide them into separate branches. The Vedas are anādi (without beginning) and nitya (eternal). They are never made anew; they are only revealed again.

Human lifespan: In the Tretā Yuga people live for 3,000 years, living out their lives in the natural order through sons and grandsons.

Social order: All four varṇas are content, protected by dharma and prosperous. The kṣatriyas follow the guidance of the brāhmaṇas, the vaiśyas follow the kṣatriyas, and the śūdras follow the vaiśyas, all in orderly harmony. Everyone’s deeds are auspicious, and mind, speech and action are all pure.

The Cakravartīs: The cakravartīs (world-rulers) of the Tretā Yuga are born from a portion of Viṣṇu (Viṣṇu-aṃśa). They have remarkable bodily marks: tall as a marica tree, arms reaching the knees, copper-coloured hands, joints like a lion’s, a chest like the śrīvatsa, a lion’s walk, marks of the cakra (discus) and matsya (fish) on the feet, and marks of the śaṅkha (conch) and padma (lotus) on the palms. Their 14 ratnas (cakravartī-ratnas, treasures) are of two kinds:

• 7 aprāṇimat ratnas (not living): cakra (discus), ratha (chariot), maṇi (jewel), khaḍga (sword), the finest kavaca (armour), patākā (banner) and nidhi (treasury)
• 7 prāṇimat ratnas (living): bhāryā (queen), purohita (royal ritual guide), senānī (army commander), rathakṛt (charioteer), mantrī (minister), aśva (horse) and gaja (elephant)

These 14 ratnas appear by themselves for the cakravartī, who moves without hindrance through the sky, the ocean, the underworld and the mountains.

The Kali Yuga and Its End

Chapter 31 of the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa lists the steady decline of the Kali age. Varṇa-saṅkara (mixing of the varṇas) spreads, everything is done the wrong way, and dharma falls apart at every level. The signs include:

• Dharma no longer guides life; śruti (the Vedas) and smṛti (remembered tradition) come to contradict each other.
• Brāhmaṇas do not study or perform yajñas; kṣatriyas and vaiśyas decline.
• Śūdra kings arise and promote pākhaṇḍa teachings (Buddhist, Jain, Kāpālika and other movements outside the Vedic path).
• Women become unfaithful and given to surāpāna (drinking liquor) and eating meat; the custom of having one spouse breaks down.
• There is terrible drought; crops fail; disease, fear and hunger trouble people every day.
• People die at every age, in the womb, in youth and in old age; there is no fixed span of life.
• Thieves rule; kings exploit the people instead of protecting them; men sell the Vedas and women sell their bodies.
• Human height shrinks from 52 to 25 aṅgulas (finger-widths) by the end of the yuga.
• The longest lifespan falls to 100 years, and then to 16 years at the end.

Yet even in the Kali age, the dharma practised by the dvija-sattamas (the righteous few) is very powerful. What bears fruit over one year in the Tretā Yuga bears fruit in one day in the Kali Yuga.

The End of Kali: Pramati and the Kali-Śiṣṭas

At the meeting point between the closing twilight of the Kali Yuga and the coming Kṛta Yuga, a great dharmic ruler named Pramati appears. He is:

• born in the Candra-vaṃśa (the lunar dynasty)
• endowed with the Mādhavāṃśa (a portion of Mādhava, that is, Viṣṇu)
• at the age of thirty-two, he begins his conquest of the world

For twenty years he travels over the whole earth with hundreds and thousands of armed brāhmaṇas, with horsemen, chariots and elephants. He slays mlecchas in every direction: the Udīcyas (northern peoples), the Madhyadeśīyas (people of the middle lands), the mountain dwellers, the Prācyas (eastern peoples), the western peoples, the Vindhya dwellers, the Dākṣiṇātyas (southern peoples), the Draviḍas, the Siṃhalas, the Gāndhāras, the Pāradas, the Pahlavas, the Yavanas, the Śakas, the Tuṣāras, the Barbaras, the Cīnas, the Dāradas, the Khasas, the Lampākas and many Kirāta peoples.

Having cleared the earth of peoples without dharma, Pramati leaves behind the kali-śiṣṭas, the survivors of the Kali age, as bījas (seeds) of the new age. He himself goes back with his followers to his eternal abode.

“As the roots of grass survive a forest fire and give rise to new growth, so the kali-śiṣṭas become the seed of the Kṛtayuga.”

When the pure Kṛta Yuga dawns, the Saptarṣis appear among these survivors and teach them dharma, both śrauta (laid down in the Vedas) and smārta (laid down in the smṛtis), and the system of varṇa and āśrama is set up again. So the people of the new Kṛta Yuga are born from the purified remnant of the Kali age.

The Guṇa and Main Activity of Each Yuga (Chapter 7)

An earlier chapter of the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa (Chapter 7) gives a short, separate teaching on the guṇa (basic quality of nature) and the main human activity of each yuga.

Guṇa of each yuga:

Main activity of each yuga:

The Kṛta Yuga (Chapter 7): In the Kṛta Yuga all beings are born equal in beauty and lifespan; no one surpasses another in these. The dharma of varṇa and āśrama does not operate in the Kṛta Yuga; all such divisions belong to later ages. People obtain food through dhyāna (meditation) alone, with no labour or farming. Births happen through saṅkalpa (pure will), not through physical union. There are no animals, no trees, and none of the separate kinds of life known in later ages. The whole creation is filled with the first purity of sattva.

The Tretā Yuga (Chapter 7): The Tretā Yuga opens with rain falling from the clouds. Trees spring up across the earth, and people begin to live in trees; the earliest āśramas (dwellings) were under trees, not built houses. This is the first step toward the varied natural world and the more complex conditions of life in the later yugas.

Yuga Lengths with Their Twilights (Kūrma Purāṇa)

The Pūrvārdha of the Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 5 (the Kāla-saṅkhyā-vivaraṇa, “account of the counting of time”), gives exact lengths for the yugas, including the saṃdhyā (twilight before the yuga) and saṃdhyāṃśa (twilight after the yuga), all counted in divine years:

One human year is one deva-ahorātra (one day and night of the devas). The Kūrma Purāṇa explains that one human year = one day of the devas; the human dakṣiṇāyana = one divine night; and the human uttarāyaṇa = one divine day. The 12,000 divine years of a full four-yuga cycle make one mahāyuga. Seventy-one mahāyugas make one manvantara, and the fourteen manvantaras of the present day of Brahmā together equal 1,000 mahāyugas (one kalpa).

The Kūrma Purāṇa adds that the present kalpa is the Vārāha kalpa, the first kalpa of the second parārdha (second half) of Brahmā’s life, since the first parārdha has fully passed. Before this Vārāha kalpa, the Pādma kalpa was the last kalpa of the first parārdha. When a full parārdha of Brahmā ends, a Prākṛta-pralaya takes place, in which all created beings return to Prakṛti, including Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Rudra, who are all subject to kāla (time).

The chapter also makes a deep statement about kāla itself. Kāla is anādi (without beginning), antahīna (without end) and free from old age and death (jarā-maraṇa-rahita). It is the very form of Maheśvara, present everywhere, depending on nothing and made of itself. There are many Brahmās, many Rudras and many Nārāyaṇas, but kāla in its own form is one.

Yuga-Dharmas in the Nārada Purāṇa (Chapter 41)

Chapter 41 of the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa is called Nāma-māhātmya (the Greatness of the Name), but it opens with a full account of the dharma of the yugas, in a conversation between Nārada and Sanaka Maharṣi. This sets the scene for showing that the divine name is supreme in the Kali age.

Life and Dharma in Each Yuga

The Nārada Purāṇa’s teaching on the yugas is close to the other Purāṇic accounts.

Kṛta Yuga: All four legs of dharma are present. In this age the devas, dānavas, gandharvas, yakṣas, rākṣasas and nāgas did not yet exist as separate, hostile groups; all beings were deva-tulya (equal to devas). There was no buying and selling (kraya-vikraya), no division of the Vedas, and no mixing or breakdown of varṇa and āśrama. Brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras all followed their own svācāra (proper conduct) faithfully. All were always Nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa (wholly given to Nārāyaṇa), devoted to tapas and dhyāna, free from kāma and the other faults, full of śama (inner calm) and every good quality, truthful, without asūyā (envy) or dambha (pride), keeping the dharma of all four āśramas, accomplished in Vedic study and skilled in all the śāstras. Without even asking for the fruits of their actions, they received them naturally in time and reached the highest goal. Śrī Nārāyaṇa was śukla-varṇa (white) in the Kṛta Yuga.

Tretā Yuga: Dharma becomes pāṇḍura-varṇa (pale). Hari is rakta-varṇa (red). People face some hardships. All are devoted to kriyā-yoga (the path of sacred action) and yajña, are truthful, and are always given to dhyāna.

Dvāpara Yuga: Dharma stands on two legs. Hari is pīta-varṇa (yellow). The Veda is divided (veda-vibhāga). Some dvijas (the “twice-born”) give themselves to adharma. Desire and other faults appear in the various varṇas. Some brāhmaṇas perform yajñas to gain svarga and wealth, and some have impure minds (kalmaṣa-citta). Dharma and adharma stand in equal measure. The power of adharma makes people decline, and some come to live short lives.

Kali Yuga: Hari takes on kṛṣṇa-varṇa (a dark form). All dharmas perish. In the first quarter of Kali, people begin to insult Hari himself. By the end of Kali, not a single person will say Hari’s name. People become attached to śūdra women and widows, take to eating the food of śūdras, and brāhmaṇas abandon their dharma.

The Highest Practice for Each Yuga

The Nārada Purāṇa gives the uttama dharma (highest practice) for each yuga in this order:

The Great Power of Practice in the Kali Yuga

The Nārada Purāṇa makes a striking claim about the power of practice in the Kali age. What takes ten years of practice in the Kṛta Yuga, one year in the Tretā Yuga and one month in the Dvāpara Yuga can be achieved in a single day in the Kali Yuga. The chapter ends by pointing to the name of Hari as the means of this swift liberation.

Kṛṣṇa as the Heart of Each Yuga (Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva)

In his Viśvarūpa-stotra (hymn to the universal form) of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, spoken from the śara-talpa (the bed of arrows), Bhīṣma names Kṛṣṇa himself, rather than a colour or an avatāra, as the very substance of each yuga:

• in Kṛta, he is dharma itself, whole and undivided
• in Tretā, jñāna (knowledge) is his refuge
• in Dvāpara, he is bala (strength) itself
• in Kali, he is the coming of adharma to the earth

Sources

• Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 2, 10, 32 and 39
• Mārkaṇḍeya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 43
• Liṅga Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapters 39–40
• Bhaviṣya Mahā Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 24
• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skandha, Chapters 2–3
• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrva Bhāga, Chapters 7, 29 and 31
• Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 5
• Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 41
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 158