Chapter 16

The Kali Yuga

This chapter is not of a story but of a time — and the time sounds familiar

Four ages

The Puranas divide time into four great ages: Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali.

Each is shorter than the one before it, and each is described as losing something the previous age possessed more fully.

Kali is the fourth and shortest of the four — and, by the traditional reckoning of these texts, the age in which we now live.

What goes on being lost

The Vishnu Purana does not describe it primarily through fire, flood or cosmic disaster.

Instead, it describes the erosion of ordinary life.

Wealth will be mistaken for worth. The richer person will be assumed to be right.

Display will matter more than substance.

Promises will carry little weight.

Learning and wisdom will be confused with one another.

And one more thing, less often said

But the same tradition includes another point that is often left out.

Kali Yuga is also presented as an age in which spiritual progress can come through simpler means than in earlier ages.

What once required long austerity, elaborate sacrifice and years of discipline may now be approached through something as simple as the repetition of a divine name.

So the description is not only one of decline. It also contains a remarkable consolation.

And then

At the end of the age comes the future described in the Kalki chapter: Shambhala, the horse, the sword, and the closing of the Kali Yuga. Then Satya Yuga returns and the cycle begins again.

The first chapter of this gatha dealt with renewal after a deluge. The final chapter deals with renewal after the end of an age.

The events are different. The pattern is the same.

Note: The description of the Kali Yuga is found in the Vishnu Purana (sixth amsha) and the Bhagavata Purana (twelfth skandha), and while their tone is alike the things listed are not exactly the same. What is worth noticing is that the description is not only severe — it is also said of this same age that the most can be had from the least, and this part is often dropped in the retelling. The description is very old and has felt like their own time to people in every century, which is the most important thing to hold on to while reading it.

Source: from several texts, The Kali Yuga

Now — how much stayed with you?

Fact

Into how many ages do the Puranas divide time?

Four
Two
Seven
Ten

Read the whole story — Four, and shortening

The four ages are not equal — each is said to be shorter than the one before, and in each something is further reduced.

Which is why the division is usually read as a decline, and less often as a cycle.

But the texts do call it a cycle — after the end, a beginning again, and that is what ties the first and last chapters of this gatha together.

What happened?

What does the Vishnu Purana say about the Kali Yuga?

That the earth will burn in fire then
That wealth will be taken for worth, and a given word will be worth nothing
That no text will survive
That everyone will become equal then

Read the whole story — A description of the everyday

There is no deluge in this description, no demon, no war.

What is listed is very ordinary — respect decided by money, display increasing, promises growing light.

Which is probably why this description has felt like their own time to people in every century, and it is worth remembering that it was not written for any one of them.

Why is that?

What is important to keep in mind while reading this description?

That it was written about today
That the description is in no text
That it is only a joke
That the description is very old, and has felt like their own time to people in every century

Read the whole story — An old description that sounds new

This description is hundreds of years old, and the things it lists are such that they fit almost any period.

Which is why every generation has read it and thought it was about their own.

This site's method is to set the description down as it is and say alongside it when it is from — so the reader can decide.

Fact

What part of the Kali Yuga description is most often left out?

That this age is the longest
That there will be no avatar in it
That in this very age the most can be had for the least effort
That no text will be read in it

Read the whole story — An exemption set down beside the harshness

This part runs alongside the description, and is usually dropped in the retelling.

The texts say that what came in earlier ages only through long penance and sacrifice can be had in this one for very little.

Which is to say the description is not only a complaint. The concession recorded in it is as large as the severity.

Riddle

I am the shortest of the four and the last. When I end, the counting begins again. What am I?

The Kali Yuga
The Satya Yuga
The Treta
The Dvapara

Read the whole story — Last, and shortest

Of the four ages Kali is said to be the shortest, and that detail says something on its own.

What is most broken lasts the least time.

And what comes after it ends is not an end — it is a beginning again, which is this gatha's last sentence as well.

Who am I?

I will come at the end of this age. I have no story, only a description. Who am I?

Parashurama
Buddha
Kalki
Dhruva

Read the whole story — The tenth, and this chapter

This chapter and the tenth are set facing each other.

The tenth says who will come. This one says what time he will come into.

Neither has an event in it, because both are about the future — and that is what sets them apart from the other fourteen chapters.

Put it in order

What is the correct order of the four ages?

Kali → Dvapara → Treta → Satya
Satya → Treta → Dvapara → Kali
Treta → Satya → Dvapara → Kali
Dvapara → Treta → Kali → Satya

Read the whole story — The epics, and their ages

Tradition places the Ramayana's story in the Treta Yuga, and the Mahabharata and Krishna's story at the end of the Dvapara.

The Kali Yuga is held to begin as the Dvapara ends, and tradition ties that to Krishna's departure.

Which is to say the four epics on this site are distributed across this same reckoning, and this chapter speaks of the time after all of them.

The texts disagree

Where is the description of the Kali Yuga found?

Only in the Vishnu Purana
Only in later folk tradition
In no text
In both the Vishnu Purana and the Bhagavata Purana, with differences of detail

Read the whole story — Two descriptions, one tone

The sixth amsha of the Vishnu Purana describes the Kali Yuga, and so does the twelfth skandha of the Bhagavata Purana.

Their tone is the same, but the things listed are not exactly alike — one has something the other does not.

This has shown again and again on this site: the same shape, different details — and recording both is the honest way.

Why is that?

Why does this gatha end on this chapter?

Because no story was left after it
Because it is the longest chapter
Because it is the newest chapter
Because the same shape repeats here as the one the first chapter began with

Read the whole story — Round, and back again

The first chapter is about a deluge — water, a boat, some seed, and after that a fresh beginning.

The last chapter is about an age ending, and after that Satya Yuga returns. The event is different; the shape is the same.

Which is why this gatha is built as a circle rather than a row, and its last chapter ends by pointing back at its first, without claiming they are the same event.

Why is that?

What was stated at the start as this gatha's spine?

That Vishnu keeps coming back
That Vishnu is the greatest of the gods
That every story comes from one text
That all these stories belong to one age

Read the whole story — Ten descents, six who stayed

That was the shape of this gatha, and sixteen chapters were built on it.

The first ten belong to those who came — from a fish to a white horse that has not arrived yet.

The remaining six belong to those who were already here: a child who would not move from a forest, a king who brought a river down, a man who lost to a fawn, and one who gave back his youth after a thousand years.