Age
Kali Yuga
Also Known As The Present Age
Position 4 in Its Cycle
Kali Yuga is the fourth and final age in the classical Hindu cycle of four world ages, the yugas, following Satya, Treta and Dvapara and traditionally held to be the present age. It is described across Hindu cosmological texts as an age of declining dharma, moral and spiritual decline relative to the ages before it, ending only when the cycle turns again toward a new Satya Yuga. This entry names its position in the cross traditional cycle of world ages this atlas already tracks; the yuga page elsewhere in this atlas carries the fuller treatment of the concept in its own right.
Facts
Dating
Proposed DatingThe tradition measures this age's length in divine years, 1,200 by Manu's reckoning, converted to human years only through the tradition's own ratio of 360 human years to one divine year; no single calendar start year commands consensus, so the atlas records none. 2 Identity
SymbolThe Puranic image of dharma as a bull that loses one leg with each declining age; by the Kali Yuga it stands on a single leg alone, the conventional emblem of the age's diminished righteousness. 1 Attributions
TraditionThe Mahabharata, Shanti Parva 3 Connections
Associated With
Kali, Deities This source names Kali directly: "Kali Yuga is the fourth and final age in the classical Hindu cycle of four world ages, the yugas, following Satya, Treta and Dvapara and traditionally held to be the present age."
Source The Mahabharata and the Yugas: India's Great Epic Poem and the Hindu System of World AgesLuis Gonzalez-Reimann
Belongs to Tradition
Related To
Successor Of
Sources
1. Vishnu Purana
2. Manusmriti (The Laws of Manu)
Anonymous
3. The Mahabharata and the Yugas: India's Great Epic Poem and the Hindu System of World Ages
Luis Gonzalez-Reimann, Peter Lang, 2002on the four yugas and their sequenceView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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