वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

PRIMITIVE ARYAN CULTURE AND RELIGION. 425 yuga contained no more than 1,000, or, including the Sandhyâs, 1200 ordinary years, it would have terminated about the beginning of the Christian era.* The writers of the Purâṇas, many of which appear to have been written during the first few centuries of the Christian era, were naturally unwilling to believe that the Kali yuga had passed away, and that they lived in the Kṛita yuga of a new Mahâ-yuga; for the Kṛita yuga meant according to them a golden age, while the times in which they lived showed signs of degeneration on all sides. An attempt was, therefore, made to extend the duration of the Kali yuga by converting 1000 (or 1200) ordinary human years thereof into as many divine years, a single divine year, or a year of the gods, being equal to 360 human years. A Vedic authority for such an interpretation was found in the text from the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa, which, we have quo- ted and discussed previously, viz., "That which is a year is a day of the gods." Manu and Vyâsa simply assign 1000 years to the Kali yuga. But as Manu, immediately after recording the duration of the yugas and their Sandhyâs, observes "that this period of 12,000 years is called the yuga of the gods," the device of converting the ordinary years of the different yugas into as many divine years was, thereby, at once rendered plausible; and as people were unwilling to believe that they could be in a yuga other than the Kali, this solution of the difficulty

• Compare Manu, I, 69-71. In the Mahâbhârata the subject is treated in two places, once in the Shânti-Parvan, Chap. 231, and once in the Vana-Parvan, Chap. 188, V. 21-28, (Cal. Ed.). The following verses are taken from the latter place:—आदितो मनुजव्याघ्र कृत्स्नस्य जगतः क्षये । चत्वार्याहुः सहस्राणि वर्षाणां तत्कृतं युगम् ॥ तस्य तावच्छती संध्या संध्यांशश्च तथाविधः । त्रीणि वर्षसहस्राणि त्रेतायुगमिहोच्यते ॥ तस्य तावच्छती संध्या संध्यांशश्च ततः परं । तथा वर्षसहस्रे द्वे द्वापरं परिमाणतः ॥ तस्यापि द्विशती संध्या संध्यांशश्च तथाविधः । सहस्रमेकं वर्षाणां तथा कलियुगं स्मृतं ॥ तस्य वर्षशतं संधिः संध्यांशश्च ततः परं । संधिसंध्यांशयोस्तुल्यं प्रमाणमुपधारय । क्षीणे कलियुगे चैव प्रवर्तति कृतं युगं ॥ एषा द्वादशसाहस्री युगाख्या परिकीर्तिता । एतत्सहस्रपर्यन्तमहर्ब्राह्ममुदाहृतम् ॥ The first line clearly states that the Kṛita yuga commences after the deluge. Cf. Muir O. S. T., Vol. 1, 45-48.