Mahayuga and the like

Ancient Indians in general considered a unit of time called the 'Mahayuga' which consists of 4,320,000 (4.32 million) years. A 'Mahayuga' is made up of the following four Yugas.

Yuga Name

No. of years for Devas

No. of years for Manushya

Krita yuga

4,800

1,728,000

Treta yuga

3,600

1,296,000

Dwapara yuga

2,400

864,000

Kali yuga

1,200

432,000

Statistical information based on Yugas:
  • The durations of the yugas are in the ratio 4 : 3 : 2 : 1.
    •
  • 360 Manushya years equals 1 Deva year
    •

    A 'Mahayuga' itself is a very large unit of time, as is obvious. Still larger units of time are as follows:
  • Manvantara - 71 Mahayugas (Period of Manu's (the first man) reign).
    •
  • Kalpa - 14 Manvantaras.
    •

    One Kalpa is said to be the duration of a day/night for Brahma (the creator).

    The duration of day/night for Brahma in terms of 'Mahayugas' is equal to 1000. But one Kalpa equals 71 * 14 = 994 yugas. To account for the remaining 6 yugas in a Kalpa, there will be 'Sandhyas' between Manvantaras ( just like there is a sandhya between day and night ).

    The duration of a sandhya equals the period of 'Krita yuga' = 4 / 10th of a 'Mahayuga', and there will be 15 sandhyas in 14 Manvantaras. The 15 sandhyas put together form 15 * (4 / 10) = 6 Mahayugas.

    Hence 1 Kalpa = 994 + 6 = 1000 Mahayugas.

    Present day details:

    At present we are in a Kaliyuga in 'Vaivasvata' Manvantara. This Kaliyuga began on the midnight of 17-18 February, 3102 B.C. corresponding to a fictitious place called Lanka (Not Sri Lanka) which has the same longitude as Ujjain and is on the equator. Considering the Kaliyuga beginning as the epoch, 5100 solar years were over on February 18th, 1999.

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