Four Yugas in Hinduism: Cycles of Time in Hindu Mythology.

Today we will analyze the duration of the four Yugas described in Sanatan Dharma. We all know that there are four Yugas in Sanatan Dharma. Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga,Dvapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga. This is not a matter of dispute. Now the matter of dispute arises when we calculate their duration. Because today's scholars, who have taken out the time period for the astrological evidence. Regarding the condition of the planets present in Ramayana and Mahabharata are at such short intervals. The concept of millions of yugas does not fit in with them. That's why the subject has become so complicated. Today's scholars have stopped believing in it and this is not today's dispute.

Astronomers like Aryabhatta and Brahmagupta have also disputed this. In this Article, we will try to analyze this topic in a systematic way.So that some conclusion can be drawn somewhere. This Articlee is going to be in parts. In the first part, we will collect all the facts and try to find out whether we should really give up the concept of Yugas. Or there is some logic or some truth in the concept of Yugas. In the second part, we will remove those who will be miss leading from those facts. We will come out with a system based on truth based on the facts of yugas in which all the facts get in a well-organized order.

What is the truth behind the period of the four Yugas of Sanatan Dharma?

To know this, first of all, all the historical facts we have, we have to be kept them aside and have to collected them. Let me Describe you that there are three types of historical facts. First are literary facts, which are available in books. Such as those available in our religious scriptures or the historian or the philosopher who has traveled to different periods which they write in their books. Then the things we come to know from there and from which we get an idea of the period. We call them literally facts. That is one way, we can say that the facts are based on the books. Others are Archaeological facts, means which that our archeology department when digs and finds a lot of things.

Then their carbon dating is done. And from that, they estimate the period, which is called an Archaeological fact. The third is an analytical fact. This means we know about the king of any period or about the people or what things were in vogue. How was the economy? what was the language? So when we find out that period by analyzing it, then we call it analytical fact. These are three types of facts. I want to collect these three types of historical facts in a systematic manner on the subject of four Yugas. First of all, we look at the literary facts.

Indications of four Yugas in Vedas (वेदों में चार युगों के संकेत)

If we collect evidence based on books or on the scriptures. Then first of all we will have to start with the Vedas because, in Sanatan Dharma the religious scriptures started from the Vedas. And when I checked the Vedas, then from Rigveda to Atharva Veda, which are our four Vedas. In them, the word 'Yuga' occurs almost times. And almost everywhere in them, the word Yuga has been used for a long period of time.

The concept of four Yugas is not seen there. But I found two mantras in Atharva Veda and Yajur Veda, where we get a hint about four Yugas. First, if we look at the 18th mantra of the 30th chapter of Yajur Veda, it is written below

Yajur Veda:Episode-30, Mantra 18

"Akshrajay kitabadkrutayadinabadarshnnetrayae kalpinandwaparaya samasthanummurtyabe Gobyachchhamantakaya godhatdkshudhe yo Gabikruntntambhikshmanadaupatsthat Dushkrutaya Charakacharya Papamne sailagam"

Then it means the gambler who plays for his den. The butcher who kills the cow. The man who eats the cow to satisfy his hunger. The man who comes for seeking beef. The beggar who serves him, Remove for sin and transgression.For us,

The Satya Yuga means Krita Yuga, a person with the original vision, an imaginative person for thought, and a determination of Treta Yuga. And for Dvapara Yuga, with thought and impulse, give a person with both imagination and determination. Here in this mantra, we can seewords like Krita, Treta, and Dvapara have been mentioned.

21st mantra of the 2nd sukta of section 8th of Atharva Veda

Now the second mantra,which is the 21st mantra of the 2nd sukta of section 8th of Atharva Veda, given Below

" satn tedyutam Hayannadwea trini chatwari krunm

Indragni Biswe debastediynu Manyantamahuniyamana"

Here the duration of these Yugas has also been calculated. The meaning of this mantra is that man, for you, we divide 100 and 10,00o years into 2Yugas, 3Yugas, and 4Yugas. Air and fire and all those other divine substances sun and earth remain favorable in these Yugas without hesitating.We got this description in the context of Yugas in our Vedas. We have seen the Vedas. Now we will move forward, which is the most sacred book of our Sanatana Dharma the 'Bhagavad Gita'. And try to see whether there is any description of the Yugas in the Bhagavad Gita or not.

Four Yugas in Bhagavad Geeta. (भगवद गीता जी में चार युग)

When I checked the Bhagavad Gita, which is said to be the essence of the Vedas and Upanishads. The word Yugas has appeared twice. It has come for the first time in the 8th Shloka of the 4th chapter, and it is a very popular Shloka that

"Paritranaya Sadhunam; vinasaya ca duskrtam;

dharma-samsthapanarthaya; sambhavami yuge yuge".

So the yuge that has come here, the word yuga has come in it. But no one is talking about these Yugas in such a direct way. Here, we can make sense of 'Yuge Yuge' as that age after age. Means God is incarnated from time to time for the establishment of religion. This was the first shloka where the word Yuga is seen. The second shloka after this is the 17th shloka of the 8th chapter, Given Below

"Sahasra yaga paryantamaharyadbramhno bidu;

Ratrim yugasahasrantam Tedhoratrabido Jana"

Here in this shloka, the scholars who interpret the meaning of Yantra on Sahastra Yugas, they take Sahastra Yugas i.e. Yugas to Chatur yugas. But even here Chatur yuga has not been talked about directly.

Four Yuga Hints in Bhagavad Gita

There are no such shlokas in the Bhagavad Gita, where it has been told directly how much their duration is. We have another thing like what is the trend of purush in different Yugas or how will be purush in Kali Yuga? A lot of things and a lot of shlokas will be found on this. But no such shlokas will be found regarding the period. We have to pay attention to one more thing that Bhagavad Gita ji has come from Mahabharata and if you read Mahabharata.

Then there are two such places where Yugas have been explained in detail. First, in the 224th chapter of Shanti Parva, there has been a very detailed discussion on the Yugas between Yudhishthir ji and Bhishma ji. And secondly, if you see Van Parva, which is the third Parva, there in chapter 148th, Hanuman ji tells about Kali Yuga, Satya Yuga, and Treta Yuga to Bhim ji. This explanation has been given in the Mahabharata, and Geeta ji is also coming out from there.

The interpretation of Yugas is seen in some form.

So therefore it can be considered that which is the detailed form of the Bhagavad Gita i.e. Mahabharata. There also Chatur Yuga has been talked about. We cannot reject the notion of Yugas only by mythologizing them, because we have seen that from Vedas to epic, the interpretation of Yugas is seen in some form. We have to understand this fact more deeply. Now when we are talking about Literary Facts, which is our third-level Shaastr of Sanatana Dharma which we call Puranas. Where you will get a detailed explanation of the Yugas, let's also talk about them.

Explanation of four Yugas in Puranas (पुराणों में चार युगों की व्याख्या)

Almost in all Puranas, you get to see a good explanation of all Yugas. If you want to read, then you look at shlokas - shlokas in the 3rd chapter of the 11st section of Vishnu Purana, there has been a detailed discussion. There you will get to know that there are four Yugas. Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali, and the duration of all four yuga is divine years. 4000 divine years of Satya. Then Treta is of 3ooo divine years. Also the period of Dvapara is of 2000 divine years, and Kali Yuga is of 1000 divine years. In its further shloka, it has been told that there is also a transition period. This means what we call 'Sandhya kaal' and this Sandhya Kaal happen 800 years with Satya Yuga.

Sandhya kaal

This means 400 is at the beginning and 400 later and in between it is 4000 years of Satya Yuga of divine years. The total period of Satya is 4800 divine years. Similarly, if you look at Treta , there is Sandhya Kaal of 600 divine years, 300 comes in the beginning, 300 comes later, and this whole period becomes 3600 divine years.

Similarly, the total duration of Dvapara is 2400 divine years and in Kali, this Sandhya Kaal is only 100-100 divine years. That's why the Kali Yuga is a period of 1200 divine years. If you do the total, then it becomes 12,000divine years. Now, what is this divine year? It has also been told further that one divine year would be equal to 360 human years. This means that in divine years we have to multiply 360 then we have the period of the 4 Yugas came, which is our human means, which is the year on our earth.

Judgment about Evidences.

If you see, then this period is going to be in lakhs because if you see, the Satya Yuga is of 4800 divine years, and multiply by360. So it will be17,28,ooo years. After that, if you see Treta Yuga 3600 and multiplied by360 then 12,96,000 years will be made. Similarly, Dvapara Yuga will come out of 8,64,000 years and Kali Yuga will come out of 4,32,000 years. These huge numbers come out. And then what happens, it creates a problem because of all the literary evidence that we have seen we find out that the duration of the Yugas is in millions and now we will see the archeological evidence, the evidence-based on astrology. And then these things will not match there. So what is the miss leading, What is wrong, What is true, What is False?

Will we see all this in part two. But now what do we do, we should complete our literary evidence.So apart from this literary evidence, we have more facts like this. One fact is that Treta Yuga came before Dvapara Yuga. It means Ramayana happened before Mahabharata. Lord Shri Ram came before Lord Shri Krishna. And apart from these facts, we find the description of the direction of different types of planets in Ramayana and Mahabharata. For example, what were the directions of the planets at the time of Shri Ram's birth? or what was the direction of the planets at that time when the Mahabharata war is taking place? These are also given to us in the form of literary evidence. So by using these we can also estimate that period.

Astrological evidence mentioned in the scriptures (ग्रन्थों में वर्णित ज्योतिषीय प्रमाण)

The directions of the planets described in Ramayana at the time of Lord Rama's birth, when inserted in the planetarium software then his birth date came out 10 January 5114 BC. This means it can be assumed that Ramayana took place about 7000 years before today, if we take BC then it happened before 5000 BC. And in this series, the direction of the planets mentioned in Mahabharata, it is believed that the war was fought for 18 days there were two eclipses during that. Now two eclipses can happen so quickly only when one is a lunar eclipse and the other is a solar eclipse. Because two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses do not occur at such a quick intervals.

So when these pairs were analyzed, this information was entered into the Planetarium software. In the last 5000 years from about 3000BC to 1500BC, these six coincidences have been made. So if you see, there is not much gap between Ramayana and Mahabharata. Only years are coming, but we also have to understand that the direction of the planets can also repeat. Because the planet itself is in cyclic motion, then all these things get repeated in years. That's why astrological evidence is not final evidence. So now we have to look at other types of evidence. Now, we will move on to the Archaeological Evidence.

Archaeological evidence of Ramayana and Mahabharata (रामायण और महाभारत के पुरातत्वीय साक्ष्य)

If we see, then the biggest archaeological evidence of the time of Ramayana that is present in today's time is that 'Ram Setu'. The carbon dating of Ram Setu that has been done, it proves that Ram Setu is at least 7000 - 8000 years old and this time means 5000-6000 BC, it is our astrological evidence, which is Ram ji's birth date, It almost matches with that too. Now, if we look at the Mahabharata, then the biggest archaeological evidence of the time of Mahabharata is the meeting of the city of Dwarka in the Bay of Khambhat in Gujarat. Even now that survey is going on, that survey is not completed yet.

Carbon dating of many more things is yet to be done, but the preliminary surveys that have been done, the early carbon dating shows that the city is at least 9000-10000 years old. Archeological evidence also proves that the gap between Ramayana and Mahabharata is not huge. It is only of few thousand years. Now, we have collected almost all types of facts, which are the main facts. Now we have to see which are true, which are miss leading, and which are false. In the next part, we will see all these things and also investigate some more scriptures. What have the foreigners said? And our scientists like Aryabhatta and Brahmagupta ji, what calculations did they do? So after seeing all this in part two, we will also evolve a system and will come up with the order of the Yugas, which we will discuss in detail.